About 4-H Earth Connections

About 4-H Earth Connections
Creating Sustainable Communities for the 21st Century

4-H earth connections logo. 4-H Earth Connections began in Maine in the mid-1980’s out of a deep and growing concern among ordinary people about the environment and our ability to adopt sustainable living practices. Rather than using the conventional youth environmental education model of teaching about nature, 4-H Earth Connections teaches that humans are part of nature; part of the interconnected web of all life.

The overarching goal of 4-H Earth Connections is to educate and mobilize youth, adults and families so that they recognize themselves as part of an interconnected world and become committed to sustainable living.

The University of Maine Cooperative Extension “Connections to our Earth” Leaders Guide and accompanying 42 activity cards were first printed in the late 1980’s and served as a main tool for teaching outdoors. The Leaders Guide describes the “laws of ecology” and provides teachers with tips for teaching outdoors. The activity cards are a compilation of fun, outdoor, experiential learning activities.

4-H Earth Connections: Creating Sustainable Communities for the 21st Century is a holistic experiential education model designed to help reverse the continued degradation of the Earth’s environment by teaching basic ecology and sustainable living practices that fit the specific needs of participating communities. This multidimensional model draws upon the extensive research based resources of 4-H, Cooperative Extension and the Land Grant College system.

The program has been conducted with summer camps, schools, home schools, 4-H clubs, and other youth groups. Over the past twenty years communication skills, cultural awareness, building self-esteem and creating a peaceful living environment have all become essential ingredients of this holistic approach.

The Challenge
What would it look like if we were living a model of sustainability, if we were living today so as not to diminish the quality of planet Earth for future generations? These are the questions that we must address in the 21^st century. These are the questions that 4-H Earth Connections seeks to address.

More About Earth Connections
The Earth is our home. Our economy and our lifestyles are placing increasing pressure on the Earth’s ecosystems and are causing major environmental disruptions. Shrinking forests, collapsing fisheries, global climate change, increasing dependence on fossil fuels, falling water tables, loss of biological diversity, rising cancer rates and other health conditions, sprawl development and the loss of a sense of place, and many other threats are a direct result of human actions. Our current lifestyles are depleting the Earth’s resources and degrading environmental quality. It is increasingly clear that the mainstream culture is not sustainable.

The term “sustainability” gained worldwide attention in 1987 when the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, in its final document “Our Common Future” called for sustainable living as a planetary goal. A sustainability society is one “that meets the needs of the present without endangering the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Creating sustainable communities is not just about the integrity of the earth’s ecological systems. It is also about how we as humans treat each other. It requires that attention be paid to gender equity, social and economic justice, nonviolence, peace and respect and care for the community of all life. Creating a sustainable society requires that we humans change the way we see each other and ourselves in relation to nature. It also will require a shift in attitudes and values. The solutions to our present crisis cannot be found in the same mentality that created it. Solutions will require creativity and different ways of doing and being.

Educational Approach
The 4-H Earth Connections approach is a multidimensional program. The framework of the educational process arises from a five part educational model supported by six core concepts to help the learner make sense of the complexity of the environment. The educational process itself maps the four dimensions recognized in the Heart, Head, Hands, and Health of 4-H. The core concepts and four dimensions serve as benchmarks in the educational process and help to determine when and how we are making a difference.

Educational Model
The five part educational model provides a theoretical framework for the program.

The approach begins with experiential activities designed to stimulate sensitivity. Participants use their outer senses of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling and inner senses of intuition and feeling to discover the environment and their interconnections with nature.
Using the senses leads to an awareness of beauty, wonder, complexity, and interdependence. The word aware comes from the Old English root meaning to be watchful or on the alert. Awareness arouses curiosity and raises many questions.
The questions create a desire in the learner for understanding. Understanding usually comes about through further study.
Understanding how the earth works and why things are the way they are leads to appreciation. As we learn more about our environment our appreciation deepens.
An appreciation of the life in a forest, the value of community, friendship, etc. leads to commitment. We become committed to care for that which we appreciate. Commitment means taking actions to promote and protect that which is appreciated.

Hands on outdoor experiences provide the foundation for the 4-H Earth Connections experience and place the learner on a path leading to greater understanding and appreciation. This path is more meaningful than studying nature in plastic cup, science lab or on a TV screen. It is also more effective than lecturing about the need to conserve our environment. Commitment evolves naturally out of the educational experience.

Core Concepts
Six core concepts, sometimes known as the “laws of ecology”, are integrated throughout the educational experience.
These simple statements are:

Everything is connected to everything else.

Everything has to go somewhere or There is no such place as away.

Everything is always changing.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Everything has limits.

Diversity tends toward stability.

These core concepts help us to understand the complexity of nature and serve as guideposts to a sustainable future. Since we are part of nature, these core concepts can provide guidance for our own lives as well as for the care and management of ecosystems.

Four Dimensions
The four dimensions provide structure for each 4-H Earth Connections experience. This applies whether the experience is part of a yearlong school or club project, a weeklong summer camp or a single day experience. The longer the experience the greater the potential impact on the learner. While the dimensions are presented as separate entities, and may sometime be presented as such, they are really part of a whole and are usually integrated with one another. The dimensions are matched with the 4-H’s Head, Heart, Hands and Health.

Ecosystem (HEALTH) - Our educational system is squeezed indoors with few opportunities for youth to learn about the environment in which they live. Spending time exploring nature outdoors near our homes and schools provides a chance to discover our non-human neighbors and the systems and cycles of nature. Time outdoors helps us to know where we live and develops a sense of place. Learning modules are used for different environments such as forests, backyards, ponds, streams, seashore, etc. Exotic places are not necessary. Any outdoor environment will do. This is the HEALTH dimension since the health of the ecosystem has a direct connection to human health.
Social/cultural (HEAD) - Trust is essential for people to work together effectively. Trust comes from getting to know each other and working and playing together in a culture of tolerance, nonviolence and peace. The power of nonviolence and peace shines through as we support mutual understanding and cooperation. There is no space for putdowns, gender stereotyping and bullying. In this part of the program participants become aware of their own culture, how it compares with other cultures, including Native American. Cultures are examined with a focus on sustainable and unsustainable characteristics. Cultural diversity is recognized as a precious heritage and each culture needs to find its own sustainable pathways. The role that art and music play in sustainable communities can also be explored as part of this dimension. This is the HEAD dimension, as it will take clear thinking to create a vision for the future and to understand the changes that need to be made.
Inner/spiritual (HEART) - In this dimension program participants have the opportunity to focus in on the inner part of themselves that is the source of all love, joy, inner peace and beauty. It is that inner spirit which connects us with everything in the universe. It may be called inner voice, spirit, being, etc. It is that part of us that is within and yet beyond our physical being. A quiet place in nature is a place where we can to tune in to our senses and feelings. This is the HEART dimension because as the Little Prince reminds us, “ It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye”.
Action/commitment (HANDS) - This dimension provides opportunities for participants to integrate what they have learned into their lives; to begin to manifest the vision each person has for themselves, their family or the larger community. This may involve making individual lifestyle changes, as well as family, school or community actions. Even individual action often requires group support. Where group action is required, participants may need to acquire skills in making democracy work: leadership, communication, teamwork, group decision-making and understanding government. This is the HANDS dimension because it will take many hands working together to build a sustainable society.

The Magic of Earth Connections
While the concepts described above provide the essential foundations of the program, 4-H Earth Connections is an experience that is more than the sum of these parts. When young people explore the natural environment with caring, knowledgeable adults who have respect and a sense of wonder about the Earth, magical transformations can occur. In the process, participants become an excited community of explorers, learning to know and care for one another and their environment. They discover ways they can help create and sustain a healthy world. They come to experience their environment with new eyes and ears, and all their senses. They begin or strengthen a relationship with the Earth as an endlessly fascinating, and finite, home for all living things. Participants also learn much about themselves and grow in their appreciation and caring for all life. For many, the transformation is deeply meaningful and long lasting.