As coastal populations grow, so does the exposure to natural hazards such as hurricanes and flooding, creating the potential for increased social and economic disasters. The literature indicates coastal residents remain complacent when planning before, during, and after an event. There is a growing successful use of serious games in natural…

This article provides an overview of Extension's Military Families Learning Network. The network is an example of Extension's commitment to building virtual learning networks in the support of targeted professional and lay audiences. The network uses well-established and emergent pedagogical approaches focusing on adult-centered learning while…

The combination of large volumes of woody fuel needing disposal after forestry activities and evolving regulatory restrictions makes traditional methods of pile burning increasingly difficult. Alternatively, using small kilns to pyrolyze these fuels on-site yields a potentially valuable product: biochar. In this article, we describe an educational…

An important pre-condition to diversifying the workforce of land-grant extension services is access to qualified ethnic minority individuals with an awareness and interest in pursuing extension careers. This paper highlights an example of collaboration between the K-State Research and Extension office and an educational research program at Kansas…

The Full Value Commitment is an essential tool for facilitators that defines how members of a group of adults or youths operate while moving toward the group's goals. This article outlines what goes into establishing a Full Value Commitment and provides an overview of samples that are easily replicated. Through establishing group members' verbal…

Action learning is a practical and high-impact way to enhance staff development within an organization. With action learning, participants are invited to own their learning experience by weaving personal experience, individual professional needs, and developmental training into a concentrated focus. In Extension, it is vital to offer tangible…

Extension is positioned to develop and implement high-quality, high-impact internship experiences for college students in local communities. The creation of the Rising Star Internship program arose from interest in providing experiential work opportunities for Iowa State University students coupled with the organizational goals of promoting…

A diagnostic walkabout (DW) is an in-field diagnostic training program for professionals in the green industry (greenhouse, landscape, nursery, and turf businesses). DWs have been scheduled annually since 2002 and are easily replicable, fee-based programs that provide cost recovery. DWs also serve as a mentoring program for new Extension…

Understanding how farmers prefer to learn is critical for the development and delivery of successful extension programming. Therefore, Michigan State University Extension specialists conducted an interactive hands-on demonstration workshop (Potato University) addressing pressing issues to Michigan potato production at the Michigan Winter Potato…

This article discusses best practices learned from a corporate partnership between Bayer, 4-H county programs in Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; and National 4-H Council. This corporate partnership has blossomed into a multi-level engagement that is offering unique opportunities for both Bayer and 4-H programs at the local and state level.…

Extension agents obtain professional development (PD) through a variety of means, some of which have been critiqued as lacking in creativity or involvement of experiential learning approaches. As Extension engages in reinvention and reimaging in response to competition in the information marketplace, direct and candid connections with a changing…

As traditional face-to-face Extension office interactions are supplanted by online education options, the makerspace offers a venue for authentic engagement between Extension and the community. In makerspaces, learners make and learn from one another in a cooperative learning environment. Through involvement in the maker movement, Extension has an…

Using a learning management system (LMS), such as Canvas, to provide 4-H programming can support program growth. With the onset in 2020 of the COVID-19 pandemic, 4-H professionals have been forced to move face-to-face activities online and challenged to work differently and in innovative ways to continue offering youth development opportunities.…

Teaching record keeping for breeding projects in a way that keeps youths engaged is a difficult task. The activity discussed in this article was used to teach 4-H participants the importance of record keeping by implementing the experiential learning model and without lecturing. A description of the activity, instructions and materials for the…

Providing experiential learning opportunities within Extension for college students generates benefits for multiple parties. As two campus-based faculty and two Extension county-based faculty who have collaborated to increase public health student engagement through endeavors within Extension, we have gained perspective on this topic. We describe…