 A participant in the 2008 National Youth Science Day learns about water conservation as she completes the Helpful Hydrogels national experiment with friends. |
State Program ContactBradley (Brad) Barker |
4-H National Youth Science Day
The 4-H National Youth Science Day (NYSD) is the premiere national rallying event for year-round 4-H Science programming, bringing together youth, volunteers, and educators from the nation’s 109 land-grant colleges and universities and the Cooperative Extension System, to simultaneously complete the national science experiment.
For more than 100 years, 4-H has been at the forefront of teaching youth about science, engineering and technology. 4-H National Youth Science Day is an important annual part of 4-H’s bold goal of attracting one million new youth to science, engineering and technology programs by the year 2013. 4-H National Youth Science Day seeks to spark an early youth interest and leadership in science. Currently, more than five million young people across the nation participate in 4 H science, engineering and technology programming in topics as varied as robotics, rocketry, wind power, GPS mapping, agricultural science, water quality and biofuels.
Each year, a new national science experiment is announced by National 4-H Council. Experiments from previous years have included topics such as water quality and climate change, alternative energy sources, and water conservation. All youth in Nebraska are encouraged to join millions of young people across the nation as they complete the national science experiment on National Youth Science Day. The national science experiment may be completed anywhere -- individually or within a school classroom, a 4-H or non-4-H club, an afterschool setting, or any other type of group.
On Wednesday, October 10, 2012, millions of young people across the nation will become scientists for the day during the fifth annual 4-H National Youth Science Day (NYSD)! The fifth annual 4-H National Youth Science Day will focus on the 4-H Eco-Bot Challenge.
In this year's experiment, the 4-H Eco-Bot Challenge, youth will enhance their engineering skills by learning to think like a robotics engineer, assembling their own robots, also known as Eco-bots, and control surfaces in order to manage an environmental clean-up. Youth will then test the interaction between the Eco-Bot’s environmental engineering design features and various control surface configurations to determine the most effective environmental clean-up solution for a simulated toxic spill.
NYSD Makes a Difference
Research shows that participation in 4-H makes a positive difference in the lives of young people. Youth development scholar Dr. Richard Lerner worked with researchers at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University to conduct the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. The longitudinal study has found that, compared to their peers, young people involved in 4-H are:
- Nearly two times more likely to get better grades in school
- Nearly two times more likely to plan to go to college
- Nearly three times more likely to participate in science, engineering, or computer technology programs.
By connecting important scientific lessons to civic engagement, 4-H youth become a living, breathing, culture-changing movement for doing the right thing, breaking through obstacles and pushing the country forward to successfully face the challenges of the future.
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