Utah 4-H Leading the Way at National Youth Maker Summit

Utah State University Extension 4-H members from Cache, Wasatch, Washington and Utah counties recently attended the National Youth Maker Summit in Maryland, where they used their resourcefulness and creativity to build, invent and experiment.

The summit is part of a larger “maker movement” that is gaining support across the country and emphasizes the making and doing aspects of life in an attempt to bring back the individual creative skills that often get lost with large-scale production and manufacturing.

According to Paul Hill, USU Extension 4-H agent from Washington County, the maker movement educates and engages youth.

“This is a great way for youth to really sink their teeth in and help in a meaningful way,” Hill said. “It’s a global movement that shows them the big picture and prepares them to attack problems on a local level.”

Hill said the members of Utah 4-H are leaders in incorporating the maker movement with 4-H and are showing other states how to include more aspects of “making” into their programs.

McCade Larsen, science vice president for the Utah 4-H state officer program, and his father Curtis Larsen, gave a presentation on video game creation at the summit.

“Video games capture the excitement of programming,” Curtis said. “The future relies on us being able to produce and create, and video games are a great example of using creativity to produce good software.”

To learn more about youth programs offered by USU Extension 4-H, visit http://utah4-h.org/.

 

Writer: Shelby Ruud, shelby.ruud@usu.edu

Contact: Paul Hill, paul.hill@usu.edu