Success StoryNorth American 4-H Dairy Educational Experience



North American 4-H Dairy Educational Experience

Author: Donna Amaral-Phillips

Planning Unit: Animal and Food Sciences

Major Program: Dairy

Outcome: Intermediate Outcome

Multi-State Program:  In 2020 in response to travel restrictions for 4-H teams associated with COVID-19, a new national-type, youth program, the North American Dairy Educational Experience (NADEE), was developed and implemented to replace the educational experience associated with the 2020 North American 4-H Dairy Quiz Bowl.  This educational experience is different from a “Quiz Bowl” contest as it does not involve fact recital, but rather asks youth to integrate concepts and apply them to a practical situation.  For this event, teams of 3 to 6 4-H youth evaluated 5 separate fictitious, farm scenarios over a 3-month time frame.  Each scenario covered a different area of emphasis (housing, youngstock management, nutrition, health, and reproduction/genetics) of dairy cattle management. For each scenario, they were asked to evaluation the scenario and compose a letter to the scenario’s dairy farm family outlining their identified strengths and opportunities for improvement. They were asked to explain the scientific concepts behind each opportunity and provided practical ways for the farm family to change management practices to correct the identified shortcoming.  We had 19 teams from 15 states participate (82 total youth). As designed, coaches appreciated seeing their youth teams apply concepts learned through other 4-H activities, develop practical solutions that could be implemented on the hypothetical farm, and see how different aspects of management and finance are interrelated.  Youth of all backgrounds and knowledge bases could participate and learn from this event.   My guess is the coaches learned as much, if not more than their youth. In 2021, we are looking at the possibility of integrating a practical scenario related to one area of emphasis into the Dairy Quiz Bowl Competition.

 






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