Benton County 4-H Wildlife Stewards Program

Real World Learning Outside the Classroom Door

The 4-H Wildlife Stewards Program engages youth in outdoor learning and connects them to the natural world. It increases environmental science literacy and stewardship through engagement in research using a sustainable outdoor habitat education sites on or near school grounds.

4-H Wildlife Steward Training:

Professional development opportunities for teachers and volunteers is hands-on, interactive, and provides curriculum and information on a variety of topics from native plants and animals, habitat design, working with youth, science teaching skills, and educational resources.

Trained 4-H Wildlife Stewards volunteers must complete an OSU application, references and a background check to work with classrooms.

4-H Wildlife Stewards Summit

The 4-H Wildlife Stewards Summit is a annual, one day youth conference held each spring to showcase student research projects.

Each year over 200 students in grades 1-5 work in small teams to research a local ecology topic and present both an oral and written project to a judge. Students then rotate through natural science experiential learning stations provided by our local natural resource partners.

The event is staffed by youth in grades 4 and 5 from the host school, who acted as emcees, greeters, ambassadors and provide tours of the schoolyard habitat to visiting students and community members. Over 50 adult volunteers support the event.

Youth that participate in this project report gaining skills in teamwork, research skills, science literacy & public speaking. Teachers report that this 4-H program helps students meet their writing/research/science standards.