Many apologies to everyone for the difficult reading. This is Kia submitting for the group of Kari, Joyce and Kia, and I am struggling with formats from pegasus to Word to class submission. If you want to see the real layout which is very nice, please contact me! A couple of these graphs are hard to read when they blend together in this message. Sorry!

THE MAKING OF A CAMP COUNSELOR THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING DO/EXPERIENCE REFLECT (SHARE/PROCESS) APPLY (GENERALIZE) Attend 4-H Day Camp as a 1st and 2nd year member. ( Participant Share with family and friends what they learned, friends they made, and the fun, etc. they experienced. Wear sunscreen after learning about being safe in the sun. Confidence to make new friends in new groups - attend another day camp even when they didn't know anyone. Attend overnight 4-H Junior Camp as a 2nd and 3rd year member. ( Participant Share with their family and friends their joys of experiencing an overnight away from family, what they learned, fun times, fears, etc. Gain confidence to stay away from home - know they can do it for a couple of nights - now they attend a week long camp. Attend overnight 4-H Teen Leadership Camp as 4th and 5th year member. ( Participant ( Assist counselors Share with their friends and family what they learned helping out the camp counselors with flag raising, campfire, leading songs and games, etc. Gain confidence that they can contribute to a group. Lead a song and a game with other campers at their next 4-H club meeting. Attend Teen Leadership Is Fun Camp as a 6th and 7th year member. ( Work with small groups to plan/carry out certain parts of camp. Share with friends what foods they cooked, games they led, etc. Discussed with the rest of campers how the camp went, what they would do differently next time, etc. Gain confidence in their own leadership skills. Realize they have the skills to work with younger members. Sign up to serve as a Cloverbud Youth Leader and organize hour-long meetings for the members with songs, games and learning sessions. Serve as a Day Camp Counselor as a 7th and 8th year member. ( Work with committee to plan, organize, promote, carryout, and evaluate a day-long camp. Evaluate with the committee how things went, what should be changed next time around, what worked well, what could be added, etc. Recognize their skills, volunteer for leadership roles in organizing events, serve in leadership positions for other organizations they are part of, etc. Attend Camp Counselor Training and serve as a Camp Counselor for overnight camps as a 9th and 10th year member. ( Work with large and small committees to plan, organize, promote, carryout and evaluate 2 three-day long camps. Evaluate with committee and counselor coordinator how camp is going on a daily basis and make changes as needed. At end of camps evaluate entire process from planning camp to the actual camp to the reaction of campers. Make recommendations for changes for following year. Serve as a returning counselor to mentor new counselors and serve in leadership positions on planning committees. Serve as a camp counselor for other organizations to use the skills gained over the years - from being a camper to becoming a counselor!

THE MAKING OF A PROJECT LEADER THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

DO/EXPERIENCE REFLECT (SHARE/PROCESS) APPLY (GENERALIZE) Make a project (product) to exhibit at County Fair ( Participant Initial sharing done with family on how the project went together. The processing happens at county fair when the member goes through the interview judging process and shares with the judge what they learned, the problems that were encountered, what was the most fun, most difficult, easiest, etc. During the judging process, a good judge will help the member apply what they have learned by asking the member why what they learned is important, what they would do differently in the future, how can the learning relate to other projects they might do in the future, etc. Attend a project workshop ( Participant Generally, during the workshops, members will be engaged in "doing" and they will process the learnings at the workshop. Members share what they have learned and often bring in other experiences that relate. A good workshop presenter will guide the members through this process as well. Normally the presenter does an evaluation to find out if he/she has accomplished their objectives - but at the same time, it helps members recognize the information they have learned. Workshops generally include "hands-on" learning, so the connection is also made as they apply the new information immediately. Help a younger member with their project. ( Assist in someone else's learning process Now comes the time for the member to share the knowledge they have gained over the years by helping someone else. Then instead of reflecting on the process of learning information, they process how they did helping someone else, so the focus changes as they reflect on their ability to teach and share what they know with others. If the experience went well, the member realizes that he/she has the skills and abilities to share with others. They believe that they become the teacher instead of the learner - but their learning continues as they learn teaching skills, leadership skills as well as gaining a fuller understanding of their own knowledge. Conduct a project meeting ( Plan, organize, promote, conduct and evaluate the project meeting or workshop. Reflecting or evaluating centers both around what the student accomplished as well as what the presenter learned in the process of planning, organizing and presenting a project meeting.

The presenter recognizes their skills and can see the changes that need to occur. They realize what it is that they can accomplish and make the realization that they can be the "teacher" in other areas of their life as well. Many go on to be teachers or adult volunteer leaders.

Experiential Learning FamL 5665 M.Ed. Cohort

Joyce Jacobs Extension Educator

It has been said many times that developing life skills through experiential learning is the cornerstone of the 4-H Youth Development Program. Experiential methods of learning are most commonly associated with youth development programs that take place in nonformal settings, like the 4-H program. These programs emphasize exploration and critical thinking and focus on learners not only doing work, but also on sharing, processing, analyzing and applying the understandings or skills gained to their future experiences. This is a powerful approach for learning life skills! John Dewey, a noted learning theorist and strong proponent of experiential learning opportunities describes experiential learning as learning that takes place when a person involved in an activity, looks back and evaluates it, determines what was useful or important to remember and uses this information to perform another activity. Jennings, Germaine and Begay, in their book Joining Hands, list three principles for experiential learning. First, the material must be meaningful to the student with the content or skill learned being of interest and/or importance to the student. The student must be able to see the usefulness/value of the material to be learned. Secondly, the learning situation must cause a strong positive emotion within the student to create a deep impression on the brain. Third, the student must use or practice the new learning in some way that it "connects" for the student. It is through this application that the brain links the new learnings to what is known and how it relates to reality in order to use it in the future. The experiential learning model is widely used in Extension and in 4-H Youth Development programming, so there are many models available in Extension publications. Most of the models list either three or five steps/practices as part of experiential learning. The model that I like uses three steps and is shown in a circular fashion with arrows connecting each of the steps indicating that the process is a continuing or never ending process of learning. The steps identified are "do" that moves onto "reflect" and then moves onto "apply" and then goes back to "do" with the process continuing. The models that show five steps, break down the reflect step into "share and process" and the apply step into "generalize and apply". I like the simpler model when working with a youth audience. When analyzing experiential learning within the 4-H program, I decided to evaluate the Nobles County 4-H Ambassadors, specifically focusing on two of the responsibilities they carry out. The ambassadors are a group of older 4-H members (ages 14-19) whose main goal is to promote the 4-H program and the projects and activities that it has to offer to youth, while developing personal leadership skills of the individual ambassador. I chose this group because if experiential learning is "circular" or never ending, I wanted to evaluate the on-going experiential learning of a group that has been part of several experiential learning experiences offered over a number of years through the 4-H program. The ambassadors have taken part in several learning activities, looked back/ evaluated them, and determined what was useful or important to remember and used that information to perform another activity. The ambassadors take on several leadership roles, but the two that I would like to focus on are the roles of Project Leader and Camp Counselor. In the following diagrams, you will see how the experiential learning model has been used over the 4-H member's career to help prepare them for these leadership roles. My role has been to facilitate the learning activities, help the members evaluate/reflect on what they have learned, and guide them as needed to apply the learnings to future situations or experiences. C:Masters.Experiential Learning FamL 5665

RESEARCHING OTHER YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS

In looking at what other youth organizations have to offer young people, I selected to look at the missions of the Boy Scouts of America and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, Inc. (FCCLA). Even though they are both youth serving organizations, they have many differences. It was interesting to read the information on the Boy Scouts organization that was available on their website (www.bsa.scouting.org). Even though the title of the organization implies that the organization is for males, it never stated if females were or were not allowed. It did refer to its members as "scouts", and stated that the purpose of the organization was to "provide an educational program for boys and young adults to build character, to train in the responsibilities of participating citizenship, and to develop personal fitness." It was apparent that the focus of the programming centered around camping and outdoor activities that would develop character and responsibility. On the other hand, Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, Inc. (FCCLA) was once an organization primarily for females as it was originally known as Future Homemakers of America. After the organization going through a period of change, and a push from its membership to update its image, the name was changed to Future Leaders of America. This name was short lived as it still was not a true representation of its membership which now included young men, so the name was once again changed to the current name, FCCLA. The purpose of the organization is: 1) to provide opportunities for personal development and preparation for adult life, 2) to strengthen the function of the family as a unity of society and 3) to encourage democracy. It still boasts of being the only in-school student organization with the family as its central focus. As a youth worker, I think it is important to realize the uniqueness of each organization, but it is easy to see the similarities - even when the purposes of the organizations seem to be quite different. In reality, good youth development organizations are all about the same thing -- developing capable, caring and competent young people -- we all just go about it a little differently. I think it would be easy to point out each of our strengths and hard to see our shortcomings. It is clear that all youth organizations depend on strong relationships with adults, but who those adults are does vary. It is also clear that support from family has a major impact on the success of a member. Each organization works in a different way to involve the family. It is also clear that regardless of the setting -- in or out of school -- youth organizations work!

Sources: www.fhahero.org www.bsa.scouting.org www.fourhcouncil.org

-- Anonymous, March 03, 2000