Stacey Terrill- Totally Tech 4-H camp

Bourdeau, V.D., Taylor,E.(2007). Creating a 4-H Technology Camp for Middle School Youth. Journal of Extension(Online). 45:5 5IAW4 Available from http://www.joe.org/joe/2007october/iw4.php

This article reviewed the outcomes of a “Totally Technology” camp that offered 4-H members the opportunity to explore technology and science at the same time and think of future career opportunities. The conclusions the researchers found were interesting. After attending the camp, most participants when surveyed indicated they would seek to learn more on the technology topics offered and would likely attend another technology camp. The article discussed the opportunities and advantages this learning environment has. The class sizes were small, and the volunteers and “teachers” were numerous. One conclusion the authors drew from the results of the surveys administered to the 4-H members was that these types of camps could be used to fill community and school gaps in technology education. My only concern about this is that the number of youth exposed would be limited.

I do think that youth should be engaged in learning new technology. For my thesis, I would like to use the 4-H members to create the digital stories and online media sources. This way they will learn about IPM and technology simultaneously. 4-H has a traveling lab available for clubs to use that has a laptops and the needed software to work with various types of media. I will be working with the Gallatin County Horticulture project members and potentially the videography project members.