WATERTOWN, N.Y. — The Jefferson County 4-H Virtual Academy goes live with educational programs. Stephanie Graf, Youth and Family Program Leader shares, “As a 4-H team we put our heads together to take our 4-H programming to a virtual platform. It’s our mission to provide education and educational supports to youth and families.” In a very short amount of time the Jefferson County 4-H Youth Development program has launched 11 programming areas, packed full of exciting, fun ways for youth to learn. There is no cost to participate. All participating youth must be enrolled in the Jefferson County 4-H program. If a youth is not enrolled at this time, we will send an enrollment form to be completed. It is very simple and easy to do.
The eleven programming areas are – Animal Science, Environmental Science, Makerspace, Minecraft, DimensionU, Tabletop Character Building, Nutrition and Mindfulness, Book Club, Chess Club, Coding Club and Tutoring. The programs vary by ages. The programs are running at different times, but primarily they are being offered Monday – Fridays, 9am – 5pm. All programs are led by a 4-H Educator. Programming will allow youth to interact with each other and the 4-H Educator in real time.
To provide a few examples of what the virtual programming offers we would like to share two of the programs. The Makerspace program provides an opportunity to continue hands-on learning from home. Students will have the opportunity to learn 3-D design through online tutorials using TinkerCAD. Registering and participating in the TinkerCAD virtual classroom will result in students receiving a 3-D printed flashlight mailed home. As students’ complete projects provided by their 4-H TinkerCAD instructors they will also receive their projects 3-D printed and sent home by mail. 4-H MakerSpace will also provide a plethora of other interactive kits. Kit examples may include a laser engraved puzzle to paint, a seed starter kit to grow a plant at home, a sewing kit, a build-your-own flashlight, and a junk-drawer robotics kit. There will be regularly scheduled times for students to connect virtually with 4-H Educators to receive assistance on any of these projects as well as pre-recorded tutorials by the Educators.
An example of another one of the programs is the Chess Club. The 4-H Virtual Chess Club is an opportunity for students, grades 3 and up, to learn about the game of chess, and practice the skills they are learning in friendly competition with other 4-H students. The program offers something for everyone, including introductory lessons for beginners, and engaging strategy based instruction for experienced chess players. Students will have the opportunity to participate in online group discussions with peers in their age group about the content of daily lessons. These discussions will be led and actively monitored by our staff. Students will then have the chance to put their new skill set to the test in a grand tournament of all of the students in their club! Instruction will take place Monday – Friday, from 3 – 5pm.
The 4-H team is ready to assist if families are experiencing technical difficulties in participating. We will do our best to ensure there are ways to connect to the programming as much as we are able to do so. Mitch McCormick, 4-H Afterschool Director shares, “Normally we work with the schools to provide afterschool programming that aligns with the school day. Now instead we are delivering the programming virtually instead of in person.” New programming options will be added once the current offerings are up and running smoothly.
If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Lisa Vaughn at lvg6@cornell.edu or go to ccejefferson.org to learn more.
–Cornell Cooperative Extension Jefferson County