Natural Resources Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes

May 10, 2004

Members Present: Andy Curtis, Debbie Beisel, Chad Barclay, Margaret Brittingham, Susan Taylor, Kathy Sacco, Nicole Foremski, Sanford Smith (chair)

The 4H Natural Resources Curriculum Committee met via a telephone conference call to discuss the DRAFT version of Pennsylvania Youth Sportfishing Guide Series produced for us by the Fish and Boat Commission. Overall, we liked the content and design of the book, and we are happy that it is being designed for many PA youth groups to use. It is clearly going to be a quality publication, however we could NOT approve it as a 4-H book for these two main reasons:

- The current length of 173 pages is about 3x longer than most of our 4H publications. It covers too much material and would not be practical for distribution to youth ages 8-12 years old. Many kids start out in a 4-H or scouting project and then drop it or only want to do part of it. Giving out such a large book right in the beginning would be a waste of precious funds (not to mention paper) and it would probably scare kids away too. We suggested that it be broken into a minimum of three publications onto something like this: PA Aquatics and Fisheries (Chapters 1&2), Beginning Fishing (Chapters 3 & part of 4), and Intermediate Fishing Skills (Part of Chapter 4 & Chapter5). The committee felt very strongly about this for many reasons, one is that many 4-H groups want to get right to fishing, and then learn aquatic/water science along the way. This three (or more) publication approach would allow this to happen more easily. We do currently have three other water science/quality books being used in 4-H as well.

- There were many specific concerns about the activities and the graphics used, and these will be supplied to the Fish and Boat Commission on a marked up version of the book. We would also like to see more racial diversity in the books and care given not to stereotype females through the graphics. We want equal attention to the Delaware river/watershed. We would also like to see some process and apply questions used at the end of the chapters, and a group of required "Journal Jotting" entries that would assure that the youth participants are all learning the key points and lessons. This would give a leader or teacher a similar set of things to look for and evaluate. If redesign and formatting into smaller publications is carried out, our committee WOULD need to see it again for another review. But, this should not take more than a month, maybe less.