University of Wisconsin - Extension

There are several ways to teach children how to choose and purchase nutritious food on a budget.

You could sit them down and explain it to them.

You could give them some books about food budgeting and healthy eating to study.

Or you could take them to the grocery store and give them $20, a calculator, a copy of the food-guide pyramid and 15 minutes to select and purchase food for dinner for a family of four.

More educators are coming to appreciate the effectiveness of the last alternative, a technique called "experiential learning." Proponents of experiential learning say the best way to learn something and remember it is to learn it through your own experience. 4-H Youth Development programs have used this technique successfully for many years.

"Experiential learning actively engages youth in the learning process," said Kathi Vos, curriculum specialist with 4-H Youth Development at the University of Wisconsin-Extension.

In an experiential learning environment, youth use multiple senses to discover knowledge and solutions, she explained. Because the experience is a more creative and open-ended process, it helps build competence and confidence.

"It is also more fun and gets youth more involved in the learning process," Vos said. Lessons learned through experience translate easily into other real life situations and the technique builds skills like decision-making, communication and teamwork that can be used over and over again.

In an experiential learning session, the facilitator doesn't explain much about the lesson although he or she does explain how the activity is going to work. Everything else is up to the learner.

In the grocery story experience, for example, the adult facilitators explain only that the kids should work as a team to make decisions on what to buy, that they cannot go over their budget, and they must be finished in 15 minutes. However, guiding kids through an experiential learning experiences is more than just setting kids loose to figure something out, according to a new set of materials for training 4-H leaders and facilitators. It is a structured process that encourages youth to do the learning experience, reflect on what they learned and apply this new learning to other situations.

After the children finished grocery shopping, for example, the facilitator might ask: Did you like doing it? What was hard or easy? What did you learn? How else could you use what you learned from this?

The new training package is called "Heads-On, Hands-On: The Power of Experiential Learning." It includes a facilitator's guide, a video/DVD and a website at www.n4hccs.org. The materials illustrate how hands-on learning takes place with real volunteers, children and youth.

Contact the 4-H Youth Development agent at your local county Extension Office to see if they have a copy of this material and can provide you with some training and support. You can order the materials online at www.n4hccs.org or call the 4-H Cooperative Curriculum System at 1-800-876-8636. The cost for a single copy is $30 and includes both the 52-page facilitator's guide and either the DVD or video.