2/10/16
What is a 4-H “STEM” Project?
Nancy Schaff, State 4-H STEM Program Specialist
nschaff@cornell.edu
I appreciated the messages that Steve Hamilton sent to all of us leading up to the
transition to the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, and so decided I
would also send a series of messages about 4-H STEM programming that I hope you
will find useful.
I started as the new State 4-H STEM Specialist at the end of August 2011 and have
since been getting out to talk to Educators, attending conferences, planning events,
and doing a lot of learning and catching up. For those of you who don’t know me, I
was a 4-H Educator in St. Lawrence County from 1992-1998, a State 4-H Program
Specialist 1999-2003, Coordinator of NY Agriculture in the Classroom 2003-2006,
and then coordinated education and public outreach in the Department of
Astronomy before I returned to 4-H. I am happy to be back and will appreciate you
sharing your thoughts, ideas, challenges, and successes with STEM programs.
In Steve’s first message he sent out as the new Faculty Director of 4-H, he reminded
us that our three Mission Mandates are grounded in various sciences. And we all
know that 4-H strives to prepare young people for STEM careers and increase
scientific literacy. Steve went on to state, “I believe the signature 4-H programs, the
ones that make 4-H distinctive, should be related to science, and specifically to
engagement with the practice of science.”
We’ve done science projects in 4-H for over a hundred years. What’s changed with
the recent national emphasis on “STEM” projects?
Let’s start with the name. “STEM” is now a common acronym for Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, which can be a bit of a mouthful to keep
repeating in full. But, we need to be mindful of how we refer to these projects with
different audiences. “STEM” may not have much meaning to some people outside of
certain education, policy, and professional circles, although our volunteers will pick
up on it (and hopefully aren’t being scared by it…). “STEM” is the accepted
terminology to the broader education, policy, research, funding, and outreach world.
Although we do not generally offer 4-H Math projects, applied mathematics are a
part of most projects we do (think about cooking, nutrition, sewing, animal
husbandry, gardening, etc.). To muddy the waters, at the national level “4-H
Science” is now being used rather than “SET” or “STEM” because of the controversy
over SET vs. STEM. What is important is that we build a reputation for 4-H STEM
projects being of high quality and preparing youth for a complex and changing
world. Let’s work together to make 4-H STEM projects widely recognized in New
York and beyond as a significant public value.
I think a good starting point is to think about what any high quality 4-H project
would look like in an ideal world. A 4-H project:
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Connects to Cornell – the research base and/or researchers
Includes essential elements of positive youth development
Guides youth through an experiential cycle of learning
Uses quality educational materials
Develops life skills
Connects youth to their community – provides opportunities to share what
they have learned and/or for civic engagement
Provides opportunities for Youth/Adult Partnerships and youth voice
Creates a public value
What do we need to add to this (as if that wasn’t challenging enough) to create a
high quality “STEM” project?
I think of the 4-H Science Checklist as the ‘rosetta stone’ for this puzzle. You can find
the Science Checklist and other useful resources, including the National 4-H Science
Logic Model, on the PWT page of the 4-H Staff site. The 4-H Science Checklist
defines what makes a “Science Ready” project.
http://nys4h.cce.cornell.edu/staff/program/Pages/PWTsProgramCommittees.aspx
There are seven criteria included on the 4-H Science Checklist:
1. Providing STEM programs “based on” (or aligned with) National Science
Education Standards (NSES). This provides a quality standard for what
young people should know and be able to do. The standards include both
content and process standards. 4-H programs can provide opportunities to
develop process/practice skills in a more conducive setting than school, in
the context of science content. The foundation of the NSES is inquiry-based
learning – learning science the way it is practiced by scientists.
2. Youth have opportunities to improve Science Abilities. The STEM
Abilities are those process/practice skills mentioned above. You will find a
list of STEM Abilities in a training guide on the PWT webpage (URL above).
“SET Abilities” link.
3. Providing opportunities to experience and improve in the Essential
Elements of Positive Youth Development. We covered this in the first list
on any 4-H project.
4. Trained, caring adult staff and volunteers acting as mentors, coaches,
facilitators, and co-learners lead learning experiences and operate from a
perspective that youth are partners and resources in their own
development. This should be true of any 4-H project, but the role the adult
plays is especially important in inquiry-based projects.
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5. Activities are led with an experiential approach to learning. This is also
covered in the general list, so not unique to STEM projects.
6. Activities use INQUIRY to foster the natural creativity and curiosity of
youth. This is absolutely fundamental and may be the area we need to be
most intentional about helping our volunteers with. This is what makes
science ‘science’.
7. The project targets one or more outcomes on the 4-H Science Logic Model
and takes into consideration the frequency and duration necessary for
youth to accomplish those outcomes (6+ hours). Be sure to check out the
outcomes on the national Science Logic Model if you haven’t already. You
will find them to be general and able to be achieved through a wide variety of
projects.
*Please reflect on these criteria when making decisions about ‘Science Ready’
projects at the county level.
Another point to keep in mind is that these STEM criteria can be applied across
almost any project area and across mission mandates in many cases. The mission
mandates are not silos – many projects will address more than one.
In future messages I plan to discuss other areas in more detail, such as:
 Public Value of STEM programs
 NRC “Learning Science in Informal Environments” report
 Inquiry-based learning
 Resources for STEM projects
 Connections to Cornell
 Updates to the State STEM Plan
 Science projects for Cloverbuds – what does the research tell us?
I look forward to feedback and suggestions for future musings (what are you most
anxious for me to muse about next?) – and to seeing your success stories.
NOTE - This article was revised to reflect the name change of the New York mission mandate
to STEM (changed from SET to STEM in early 2012).
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