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The Y4Y Insider - November 2021

New Content on Y4Y

Introduction to the Nita M. Lowey 21st CCLC Grant Program A helpful update of a classic Y4Y course   Digital Literacy Click & Go A mini-lesson, podcasts and tools your program can use to help students navigate the information age   Topical Toolkits: Capturing Student Voice and Activity Design Downloadable toolkits (below) that bundle selected Y4Y content on topics you care about. Watch for a new toolkit each month in the newsletter!

Scratch That Surface!

Snap judgments are human nature. Neuroscientists say they might have once been key to our survival. But progress depends on scratching the surface to discover more about an opportunity or person in our lives before dismissing or embracing what’s before us. We’ve all got to start at square one to get the basics. Y4Y’s updated introduction to the Nita M. Lowey 21st CCLC grant program gives you the footing you need to go deeper. With Y4Y’s new Click & Go microlearning opportunity on digital literacy, you can exercise your responsible sleuthing skills by scratching the surface of Thanksgiving! Lessons in judging a book by its cover extend to fancy embossed leather; exploring Y4Y’s course on career pathways might reveal that an expensive college education isn’t the only volume written for success. The truth is, learning to trust your gut is an important skill too, and Y4Y tools can help. So can our Voices From the Field podcast guests from Florida, who share about the value of entrepreneurial education in grades K-12.

Gathering STEAM Powering Your STEM/STEAM Initiatives

Calling All Cosmic Artists! Take part in the James Webb Space Telescope #UnfoldTheUniverse Art Challenge NASA’s biggest and most powerful space telescope ever is launching soon! The James Webb Space Telescope, or Webb, will travel a million miles away to reveal the universe as never seen before. What do you think they’ll discover when they #UnfoldTheUniverse? Show NASA what you believe the Webb telescope will reveal by creating art. You can draw, paint, sing, write, dance — the universe is the limit. Share a picture or video of you and your creation with the hashtag #UnfoldTheUniverse for a chance to be featured on NASA’s website, social media channels, and the Webb telescope’s historic launch broadcast. The deadline for submissions is Dec. 18, 2021. Get important information about entering the challenge here.   Million Girls Moonshot The Million Girls Moonshot seeks to reimagine who can engineer, build and make by inspiring and preparing the next generation of innovators through afterschool and summer programs over the next five years. Join a free webinar to explore the IF/THEN® digital library on STEM careers on Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. ET. Check out the IF/THEN® website to research STEM professions for women.   Broadening Perspectives on Broadening Participation in STEM Toolkit Check out the Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education’s (CAISE’s) newly developed toolkit and related materials to make STEM education more accessible.   NASA and LEGO Build to Launch Scroll to “videos” on the Build to Launch landing page to catch up on the latest installations of this exploration of the technology, STEAM concepts and careers behind the Artemis I mission to the Moon.   Check out free STEM professional development webinars offered by NASA, including these: NASA’s BEST (Beginning Engineering, Science and Technology): Engineering Design Process: Nov. 29, 6-7 p.m. ET NASA’s BEST: Programming Activities: Dec. 1, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. ET   What’s an Exoplanet?! Astronomers have found evidence for a possible planet candidate in the M51 “Whirlpool” galaxy, potentially representing what would be the first planet detected outside of the Milky Way. Bring this teachable moment to your students with exoplanet basics, videos, sonifications, a downloadable poster, and hands-on activities from the Chandra X-ray Observatory team.   Celebrate Computer Science Education Week With NASA Coding Projects From Tynker Start your Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 6-10) celebration early by engaging in coding and STEM projects designed by Tynker in collaboration with NASA. Prepare your K-12 students by joining interactive webinars with NASA guests. Have a NASA Hour of Code with Tynker, where beginner students will engage in block coding projects like ”Design a Mission Patch” and advanced coding students can build a ”Martian Weather Station” with Python. Plus, mark your calendar for Tynker’s live web show, CodeLab, featuring NASA engineers and designers.

Tech Tip Y4Y wants to provide you with everything you need and MORE. The Learn More Library offers links to external resources to accompany every Y4Y course. The best digital literacy skills were applied in curating these sources!

State Coordinators Corner Post of the Month Are you looking to share new Y4Y content with your state’s grantees? Feel free to share the following Post of the Month on your social media accounts:   New to 21st CCLCs? You for Youth’s updated Introduction to the Nita M. Lowey 21st CCLC Grant Program course is for you and your staff! Dive into a little history, a little legislation and a lot of guidance with this engaging course.   Digital Literacy Among Grantees The release of Y4Y’s new Click & Go on digital literacy is an opportunity to start a conversation with grantees about the integrity of information in their programs. This pertains to many realms of 21st CCLCs:   Do practices and procedures align with state and federal legislation and guidelines, including legislation around students with disabilities? Are the data collected in-program and from local education agency partners captured with consistency and fidelity? Are the data handled with appropriate privacy practices? When seeking guidance, advice or models, do grantees turn to appropriate sources?   Here are a few suggestions for ensuring digital literacy among your grantees by providing credible resources: Direct programs to the Y4Y Learn More Library for the revamped Introduction to 21st CCLC course for verified online websites relevant to them. Y4Y is piloting a recorded Training to Go that provides a broad overview of legislation specific to 21st CCLC programs. Try it, and let us know what you think! Federal legislation on supporting students with disabilities and a tool for understanding related state laws is available on Y4Y. Consider downloading the Y4Y Federal State Law Fillable Document, providing responses and links relevant to your state, and sharing this document on your website to save grantees from having to search out the correct information. Identify strong programs in your state that have “gotten it right” and use them as a resource to collaborate on A published lists of “do’s and don’ts” around navigating the internet for 21st CCLC resources. Developing a director mentorship and resource-sharing program like the state of Idaho’s (featured in the September Y4Y Insider State Coordinators Corner). A program case study (or studies) to use as a model for publication on your website. This can be valuable for many aspects of programming, such as community partnerships, successful academic enrichment outcomes or overcoming staffing challenges. Don’t forget to highlight effective and digitally literate practices for program implementation.   Looking for More Resources? Y4Y sends out a big thanks to Shawanda Beale from the New Jersey SEA, for sharing these additional resources to ensure digital literacy among grantees. Resources for Digital Literacy and Citizenship iKeepSafe and Google’s Digital Literacy Citizenship Curriculum National Afterschool Association (NAA) School Tech Toolkit 5 Fun Ways to Upgrade Your Tech Toolbox Frameworks for Digital Literacy from Learning for Justice 14 Digital Literacy Resources to Bookmark from the University of Southern California Why Digital Literacy Is Important for Kids   Digital Citizenship Be Internet Awesome: Helping Kids be Safe, Confident Explorers of the Online World Everything You Need to Teach Digital Citizenship from Common Sense Education Start Teaching Practical Digital Skills. Creative Video-Based Lessons

Voices From the Field The Entrepreneur Education Highway This month, Y4Y had the pleasure of speaking with a team of entrepreneurship education gurus in sunny Florida. Vanessa Spero is a regional specialized 4-H youth development extension agent and serves as a faculty member with the University of Florida and program co-lead for the Gator Pit entrepreneurship education program for 14- to 18-year-olds in her state. She was joined by her colleague and co-lead in the Gator Pit, Brent Broaddus (regional specialized 4-H youth development extension agent), and their partner at the Florida Afterschool Network (herself a nonprofit entrepreneur), Jennifer Smith, who’s the network’s youth entrepreneurship specialist. Read more here, or listen to the podcast.

Vanessa Spero has been with UF/IFAS Extension 4-H Youth Development since 2007. Her current interests are healthy living and career workforce development programs for youth, as well as school-based programming and inclusion, diversity, accessibility and equity initiatives.

Jennifer Smith is a former Duval County (Florida) educator, a social entrepreneur, business owner, and mother to two beautiful daughters. She is a visionary who took her passion, creativity and leadership skills to start a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, The Giving Closet Project, which provides clothing, hygiene items, and other essentials to homeless and low-income youth in need. She joined the Florida Afterschool Network earlier this year as their youth entrepreneurship specialist to help expand their entrepreneurial mindset for youth throughout Florida.

Brent Broaddus has been with UF/IFAS Extension 4-H Youth Development since 2001. His programmatic focus includes STEM career awareness, workforce preparedness, entrepreneurship and youth mental health. Mr. Broaddus’s research interests are in the areas of group mentor-mentee relationship quality and delinquency pathway indicators, and using action research theory to invoke organizational change.

Creative Program Ideas

Dec. 2 is National Mutt Day. Just as the U.S. is a testament to the strength of people coming together from around the world, dogs of mixed breed can be the healthiest, sweetest and smartest dogs. Bring your mutt photos to the program!

Dec. 3 is International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Discuss the word “dignity” with students, and how everyone deserves to be treated with dignity.

Dec. 10 marks 125 years since the passing of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist, engineer and inventor who made a fortune, largely from the invention of dynamite. His legacy of granting prizes for achievement has made a different kind of “bang.” What a perfect opportunity to talk about the direct and indirect impact one person can make on the world.

Dec. 11 is International Mountain Day. While the world celebrates sustainable mountain tourism, you might share the true story of a small English village that was so distressed to learn their favorite local mountain was only tall enough to be designated a hill that they turned it into a mountain. What a great lesson in teamwork!

Dec. 20, 1606 (415 years ago) was the day the first actual British American colonists left London courtesy of the Virginia Company expedition, consisting of 105 men and boys on three small ships: Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery. The Jamestown (Virginia) settlement resulted. So why does the honor often go to the pilgrims at Plymouth (Massachusetts)? Compare the two colonies and read about this mock trial before you and your students decide where America’s birthplace is.

Feel-Good Forum Reflections on what lies beneath the surface of the children you serve:   “Many times when we help we do not really serve.... Serving is also different from fixing. One of the pioneers of the Human Potential Movement, Abraham Maslow, said, ‘If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ Seeing yourself as a fixer may cause you to see brokenness everywhere, to sit in judgment of life itself. When we fix others, we may not see their hidden wholeness or trust the integrity of the life in them. Fixers trust their own expertise. When we serve, we see the unborn wholeness in others; we collaborate with it and strengthen it. Others may then be able to see their wholeness for themselves for the first time.” — Rachel Naomi Remen Email today with your Feel-Good anecdotes or inspiring quote!

Topical Toolkit Topical toolkits cut across Y4Y courses to provide carefully selected tools on a given topic. This month’s curated toolkits will help your 21st CCLC program (1) capture student voice and (2) plan quality activities for the new year.

Capture Student Voice Toolkit (Download Zip folder) Student Interest Survey (elementary and secondary) Focus Group Format Student Survey – How Do I Learn Best? College and Career Pathways Questionnaire for Students and Families Youth Recruitment Planner for Career Pathways Capturing Social and Emotional Learning Program Needs Assessment Activity Design Toolkit (Download Zip folder) Intentional Activity Design Planner Career Pathways Activity Design Guidebook STEAM Activity Center Planner Expanding Activities Including Students with Disabilities Activity Planner EL (English Learner) Example Activities Supporting English Learners Intentional Activity Design Planner Building School-Day Civics Into Out-of-School Time Projects More Literacy Activities Social Emotional Learning Activity Intentional Design Planner Y4Y Example Activity Schedule

Featured Download Introducing Y4Y’s first recorded Training to Go: An Introduction to 21st Century Community Learning Centers. Use it to provide direction to staff, and download accompanying tools today!

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