4-H Discovery - School Enrichment

The 4-H Discovery delivery engages youth in exploration and discovery learning as an enhancement of formal educational environments and to help youth explore their own interests:

• Youth can attend 4-H Discovery in the school setting regularly or selectively.
• Youth in 4-H Discovery are 4-H program participants but may aslo be members.
• As a 4-H member, youth have opportunity to select additional opportunities outside the school setting; community club, special project club, after-school club, field trips, day camps, extended camps, individual or self-directed learning, etc.

Facilitation of the 4-H Discovery program is done through the County Extension Office and a local Extension Youth Agent. The Youth Agent works with a local advisory team, schools, youth, parents, and volunteers in determining the focus of 4-H Discovery topics and the logistics of conducting sessions. Actual 4-H Discovery session facilitators include teachers, local resource people, volunteers, parents, older teens either in the teams or on an individual basis.

The in-school setting is a place for 4-H to provide enhancing and enriching types of learning experiances that address the needs of formal education as well as the interests of youth. Participants in 4-H Discovery may be enrolled as members of 4-H or counted as participants in a school enrichment or chort-term program in a group. Members may also elect to persue individual learning through 4-H project materials and other activities after school or in other community based clubs.

Curricula is provided for use in 4-H Discovery from the Cooperative Extension System and other sources as determined appropriate by the local advisory group. Teachers, resource people, volunteers, parents, and olders teens are trained in facilitating curricula in 4-H Discovery settings by Extension Youth Agents and others. Discovery sessions my be presented during in-school hours and after-school settings.

Four-H Member opportunities in organized 4-H Clubs are predominately established in out-of-school settings to meet after school, in the evenings, weekends and at other times as determined by the individual clubs and its volunteer leaders. Formal clubs in Alabama 4-H include community clubs, special interest clubs, neighborhood clubs and others determined as appropriate by local leadership. The Extension Youth Agent works with volunteers who in turn provide leadership to club activities.

The 4-H Discovery delivery mode enables the Alabama 4-H Program to address its mission of:

"helping youth to explore their interests and expand their awareness of our world..."