[ Search PSU ]   

January 2003 Meeting Notes

4-H Curriculum Management Team
Meeting Notes
January 29, 2003

Present: Christy Bartley, Blannie Bowen, Phil Clauer, Marilyn Corbin, Patti Fantaske, Phil Hoy, Patreese Ingram, Bob Lewis, Eston Martz, Claudia Mincemoyer, Jan Scholl, Sandy Smith, and Nicole Webster.

1. Status of 2002/2003 Projects:

a.) Embryology in the Classroom Leader’s Manual (4-HCCS) – purchased and in the mailroom.

b.) Embryology Members Books, I, II – Book I is going to ICT for edits, Book II will follow (have draft).

c.) Getting Started in Poultry – Committee decided to use 4-HCCS Member’s Guide instead of this publication.

d.) Poultry 4-HCCS Series (3 Member and Leader Guides) – Available.

e.) Preparing for Poultry BBQ – In process. Final draft will be on the web as a PDF.

f.) 4-H National Poultry Judging Manual – Purchased and distributed by Phil Clauer.

g.) 4-H Horesmanship Skills – In publication (looking for clipart).

h.) 4-H Clothing Projects/Cloverbud Inserts – Supplemental activities only. Working with students to edit (are currently in printed format). May need to be reformatted.

i.) Foods and Nutrition (Purdue Series) – Agents and leaders did not want to purchase the revised Purdue materials. A limited number of copies of the revised Purdue series were purchased while waiting for approval for purchase of Ohio State projects.

j.) Intergenerational Sourcebook – Available on the web.

k.) Visits to Remember – Not a 4-H publication.

l.) Building Web Pages – In process. Taking a new direction.

m.) Herb Gardening – No status report available at the meeting. Follow-up indicates order is in process.

n.) Insectaganza – Purchased and available.

o.) Pest Patrol – Purchased and available.

p.) The Water Quality 4-H Project – In final draft. Being revised by committee. Artist is working on artwork. Should be completed in February.

q.) Inter and Intra-State/International Youth Exchange – Draft went to committee. Project piloted by one agent. Gone to ICT for editing and will be on the web.

r.) Building Bridges: Reaching People Through Communication - Purchased two electronic public speaking manuals from Wisconsin to adapt for Pennsylvania (with state-specific information inserted). The companion piece video is in editing (depicting demonstrations) for March in-service.

s.) Teens and Teambuilding (with Shaver’s Creek) – Completed. One copy and one CD sent to counties, also on the web. Distributed by Claudia Mincemoyer.

2. Revenue Generation and 4-H Curriculum:

Marilyn Corbin reported on the status of the 4-H Revenue Generation Task Force recommendations. Recommendations have been shared with faculty, staff, and administrators and are undergoing final revisions.

3. Curriculum Proposals for 2003/2004:

a.) Poultry Record Book – for all members, beginner to advanced, will be printed. PDF project-specific record sheets will be available on the web. The record book can be used if not able to show at the fair in order to complete the project. The suggestion arose to convert all animal sciences record books to an electronic version, or make them web- based and charge a fee.

b.) Dairy Beef Reference Guide – The Ohio State materials were discontinued, creating the need for this guide.

c.) Dairy Ethics Video – The video is already produced. The proposal is for money to copy and provide one copy for each county and one for each dairy club. The cost is $10 per video, which would save counties $40 per copy if purchased individually from the vendor. Want to get the information out there as these are salient issues. The possibility of producing DVD copies was also discussed.

d.) Foods and Nutrition Projects – Five new projects from Ohio State are proposed for purchase. These projects are in place of the Purdue projects proposed last year. The proposal represents a request to supplement projects purchased in 2002.

e.) Aerospace – 4-HCCS developed a new Aerospace Curriculum that is much more comprehensive than the current Rocketry materials available in the state (Rockets Away). Proposed to use up Rockets Away and then go to Aerospace. The CD was not recommended by the Engineering Science curriculum committee.

f.) GIS and GPS for 4-H – Rick Day has received grant money to produce two basic projects for youth to learn GIS and GPS. A very similar project is under consideration for NSF grant to be developed specifically for 4-H. Both projects appear to have similar content. Marilyn Corbin agreed to convene a meeting of the authors to avoid duplication.

g.) Trees+Me=Forestry – Revision of outdated material to bring up to current knowledge. Expected to take 18 months and will include more artwork and career information.

4. Curriculum Innovation Fund:

Two projects have requested to be considered for the Curriculum Innovation funds: A revision to the 4-H foods video and new artwork for Trees+Me=Forestry.

5. Project Enrollment:

A brief discussion on possible procedures or thresholds for project enrollment and continuation ensued. A difficulty with determining enrollment is that the 4-H Facts do not reflect the projects that the committees have approved. Some counties offer outdated, county-developed, or non-approved projects that are then reported on the A100. The suggestion was made to count the member, but not the project when this occurs. Phil will send committee chairs a copy of the Fat Pack to let them know what projects are being presented to the agents as the approved curriculum.

6. Donor Support for Projects:

Several other states do a good job of getting corporate support for 4-H projects. We need to be thinking of how we can follow their lead. In order to start, we must develop a case statement and work with Rob Butler. In some example projects (4-HCCS), the donors are listed in the front of the project book, simply stating it was “sponsored by…”. A suggestion was made to develop a brochure to provide an overview of the call to sponsor a 4-H project by topical areas. A meeting was proposed with Rob Butler and Janet Doyle to discuss this issue.

7. Teacher Curriculum Training:

A proposal was made to Outreach Partnership Fund by Claudia Mincemoyer and Annette Fetteroff, Continuing and Distance Education, to provide general sessions with teachers to bring them up-to-date on 4-H projects. The session could break into groups around topics of interest. To date, no funding or outline are available.

8. Misc. Issues Raised:

- Nicole Webster is proposing a resource guide to supplement existing programs that takes leaders through the process of taking a project and developing it into a service learning project (Resource or Toolkit). The information could be put on the web. She eventually wants to make it interactive on the web. Each committee will be charged to review projects to evaluate what could be turned into a service learning project.

- Materials were distributed on the National Criteria for inclusion in the National 4-H Curriculum Collection (a juried collection of curriculum for 4-H).

- In the Forest/Natural Resources Curriculum Subcommittee, two sequels have come out. Water Conservation, Unit 2, Incredible Water (Water Lion), and The Wildlife Manager (Intermediate).

- Jan Scholl asked for revisions to the Farm Show book ASAP, especially for new projects. She also announced an April deadline for new contests.

- Phil Clauer suggested that we provide training on how to use PowerPoint for presentations. This training is available to youth attending the Ambassador Conference.