4-H Ambassadors Digital Sharing Resources

Can’t meet with people in-person for a while? Don’t worry, your Georgia 4-H Ambassador activities don’t have to stop. Now is the time to get creative and explore some other ways to share your knowledge and skills with your club, your community, your county, and your world!

Ideas for Completing Sharing Activities

Before you try out any of these ideas, get in touch with your 4-H leader to plan these sharing opportunities. They will be happy to brainstorm ideas with you! Federal law prohibits anyone under 13 years old from creating online accounts, so be sure you are following all the rules, terms, and policies of any social media/sharing platform(s) you are use. Platforms can include, but are not limited to, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, WordPress, Blogger, etc.

Lights, Camera, Action!

You don’t have to be an award winning film maker to make videos documenting activities similar to those you would do in person! Use your phone to film short educational videos, including how-to videos for STEM and Healthy Living Activities. Ask your 4-H leader if there is anything they need help with! You could collaborate with your 4-H leader to help create content for digital lessons, post your videos on social media, or even go live on Facebook or Instagram! You may also consider creating a YouTube Channel. This personal channel would be a place for you to upload and share any videos you create.

Wow Them with Words

Ask your 4-H leader if you can write a column for your county’s 4-H newsletter. You would want to keep the column short – perhaps share an interesting fact or two, why the information is important and relevant to readers, and a credible source where people can find more information. Also, if the paper allows you to include a photo, please do so! Photos draw readers in – just make sure you provide a nice, clear photo of people in action.

You may want to consider starting your own 4-H ambassador blog! A blog (short for web log) is a journal where you share text, photos, and/or video clips. WordPress and Blogger are two common blogging platforms. Many times, blogs teach people how to do something or document an experience. Some professional bloggers choose to share recipes, the steps involved in making/doing something, etc.

Be a Positive “Influencer”

Use your social media channels to post positive, credible information about your ambassador content area. Graphic design programs (such as Canva) allow you to create posts that are specifically formatted/sized for different social media platforms. This could be a way to share fun/interesting facts in a quick way. If you aren’t sure where to find credible information, refer back to your ambassador book, check out some of the sources below, or check with your 4-H leader. If in doubt, do not post information from questionable sources!

Exhibits

Many fairs, festivals, and even some 4-H events allow people to share exhibits. Consider working on your exhibit(s) now – grab some poster boards, construction paper, glue sticks, and get to work! Consider posting a photo of your exhibit online (maybe social media or your blog) to share with people instantly!

Fun with Family!

You may be spending a lot of time with your family – why not share what you know with them? They may have just become your best in-person audience, and they may even be able to help you with your video, written, or social media ideas! Practice on your family before you livestream a presentation.

Learning and Activity Resources:

STEM Resources

National 4-H Council – STEM Lab: National 4-H Council’s STEM lab offers over 20 free STEM-inspired activities for families. Each activity requires minimal supplies (most items are common, household goods), have easy-to-follow instructions, and can be completed in less than an hour!

National 4-H Council – National Youth Science Day: Since 2008, National 4-H Council encourages youth to complete the National Youth Science Day challenge each fall. Past challenges including supply lists,
instructions, and youth and facilitator guides are available for download. Depending on the challenge, some supplies are easy to obtain, while others may be more difficult.

NASA – GLOBE Observer: NASA’s Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Observer program allows participants to contribute data to civic science projects about clouds, mosquito habitats, land cover, and trees. After downloading the free app, participants observe natural settings and share their findings with NASA scientists.

Scientific American – Bring Science Home: Scientific American is the oldest continually published magazine in the US. In addition to videos, podcasts, and blogs, the “Bring Science Home” online section contains science activities for youth ages 6-12 that require few supplies and be completed in 30 minutes.

Extreme Event: Extreme Event is a role-playing game that teaches about community resilience during natural disasters (flood, hurricane, or earthquake). The kits were developed by the National Academy of Sciences’ Koshland Science Museum (now called LabX).

Design Squad: Design Squad Global by PBS Kids is an online program for middle school students to solve problems by using the engineering design process. Each week, the website is updated with challenges, videos, and activities.

Healthy Living Resources

National 4-H Council- 4-H Healthy Living Activity Guide: Download the 4-H Healthy Living Activity Guide for 30 hands-on, educational activities to help your child live a happy, healthy life.

MyPlate: Your go-to source for info about MyPlate, food groups, and dietary recommendations.

MyPlate Kid’s Place: MyPlate Kid’s Place includes games, videos, songs, and activity sheets to help kids learn about food, nutrition, and physical activity.

Food Science Activities For Kids: Penn State University offers a list of easy, hands-on activities to help kids learn about Food Science.

UGA Extension’s FoodTalk.org: Food-talk includes simple recipes, as well as many quick and easy instructional videos. Get the whole family involved in cooking with foodtalk.org.

FoodHero: FoodHero, from Oregon State University, offers kid-approved recipes, cooking videos, activity sheets and coloring pages.

Fight BAC: The Partnership for Food Safety Education’s Fight BAC!® for Kids section includes ideas and fun activities for kids that teach them about the basics of safe food handling.

Information Resources

Data and/or statistics can be used to demonstrate the importance of your Ambassador work. Here are some excellent resources for collecting data about your community and state:

American Fact Finder – Factfinder for the Nation or https://data.census.gov/

GeorgiaDATA, Georgia’s Central Data Repository – https://georgiadata.org

National Center for Education Statistics-https://nces.ed.gov/datalab/index.aspx

Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Data Center – http://datacenter.kidscount.org/

Southern Rural Development Center Data – Home | Southern Rural Development Center

Also, we want to make sure that you utilize credible sources of information to educate yourself and others about any topic. When we say “credible,” what we mean is that the information comes from sources that are high quality and trustworthy. When you use credible sources, you demonstrate and build trust with your audience, which greatly enhances the effectiveness of your message. The highest quality research is always built on another high-quality research. To that end, please check out the following sites which have additional info, videos, etc., to help you better understand how to evaluate a source’s credibility:

University of Georgia – “Finding Reliable Sources”

University of Kansas Libraries – “Evaluating Sources for Credibility”

University of Idaho “Engl102 Library Research Unit Guide for Students”