The 4-H School Enrichment projects are designed to enhance classroom education with experience-based learning—the hallmark of the 4-H youth development program for decades. Classroom-ready projects teach life skills as well as specific subject matter.
4-H Embryology Project (Grades 2-8)
The 4-H Embryology Project is an interactive life science activity that uses avian eggs to demonstrate the stages of embryonic development. Students:
- Learn about the life cycles through the observation of chicken embryo development.
- Learn about the needs of living things and discover how the incubator and parts of the egg provide for the developing chicken embryo.
- Develop responsibility through the management and care of the classroom incubator.
- Develop science inquiry skills of observation, comparison, measuring and data recording.
- Learn about the food and fiber system specific to the poultry industry.
4-H Health Rocks!TM (Beginner Level Grades 3-6; Intermediate Level Grades 7-10)
4-H Health Rocks! is an engaging curriculum through which youth develop life skills, including decision making skills that lead to healthy lifestyle choices, with special emphasis on youth smoking and tobacco use prevention. The program instills in youth the confidence and communications skills necessary to develop the internal strength to resist risky behaviors. Activity topics include building healthy relationships, dealing with stress, and understanding the effects of peer pressure and media messages. Students learn about the behavioral effects and health consequences of tobacco, e-cigarette/vaping, alcohol, and drug use.
4-H Rain to Drain: Slow the Flow (Grades 4-8)
4-H Rain to Drain is a multi-dimensional journey following the movement of stormwater on Earth. Youth apply the physics of forces such as movement, gravity, and friction to our understanding of how water moves and to identify which forces are in effect in the Water Cycle. Using a tabletop simulated community, youth conduct experimental trials to measure where the rainwater goes in their communities. Students assemble and test a variety of community types (natural, developed, green, and their own configurations). This curriculum is inquiry-based, follows the scientific method, and encourages further career exploration related to developing green technology.
4-H Stop the Invasion: Unwanted Plants, Bugs, and Other Pests (Grades 6-9*) *Lessons are adaptable to youth in lower or higher grades.
4-H Stop the Invasion is a hands-on interactive curriculum through which youth develop an understanding of invasive species, their effect on ecological and economic systems, and the role youth can play in surveillance, management and eradication. The 6 chapters in the curriculum address the following topics through creative arts, simulation and role play, games, scientific observation and research:
- What is an Invasive Species?
- The Impact of Invasive Species on Ecosystems
- The Impact of Invasive Species on Our Lives
- How Do Invasive Species Spread?
- How Do We Prevent the Spread of Invasive Species?
- Invasive Species Case Study
The curriculum includes Case Studies of invasive species of concern in Pennsylvania, which provide an example for the culminating case study project.
