How Each Lesson is Organized
To make learn-by-doing easy and fun for the youth participants as well as the group leader, lessons are organized by the following categories:

What Youth Will Learn
These are the outcomes that should result from the lesson/activity:

• Subject Matter Objectives
  This is the subject matter knowledge or skills that should result from the lesson/activity.

• Life Skills Taught
  The list of life skills to be learned by youth participating in this program.

Audience
The grades of youth to whom the lesson/activity is most relevant. Sometimes the intended audience is different for different activities.

Time Needed
Each activity has an estimate for the time needed so that individual activities can be selected. Teacher preparation time is sometimes included as applicable.

Materials Needed
This is the master list of all the materials needed to conduct the activities in the lesson. It may be handy to gather all of these materials into a durable container so lessons are more readily available for teaching. Each activity includes an individual list of materials needed.

Activity Background/Did You Know?
This provides background information for the group leader to help with understanding the lesson and accompanying activities. This also provides a basis for "answers" to many of the questions the youth participants might have resulting from being involved in the activities. Sometimes, youth questions form the basis for further study or self-directed learning. Background information is also sometimes included with each activity.

Lesson Outline/What to Do
This provides detailed instructions for leading the activities. It also includes time needed, intended audience, and materials needed for each lesson/activity. This is where the steps of the experiential learning model are employed.

1. Experience (Doing)
2. Share (What happened?
3. Process (What's important?)
4. Generalize (So what?)
5. Apply (Now what?)

Optional Activities
These activities allow the group or individuals to go beyond the basic content contained in the lesson. Usually, these activities help reinforce what has been learned and allow youth to demonstrate what they have learned, apply it to new surroundings, and exhibit enthusiasm for learning through individual study. Optional activities might be classified as Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced and may be integrated into the outline for each of the main activities or listed under a separate heading.

References & Resources
Besides a citation of references used, this contains sources of information if youth or the group leader are interested in learning more about a topic. Also, see the section entitled, "Keep Discovering," for a helpful reference guide for finding additional information from credible sources.

Glossary
Definitions for key words or phrases are listed here, if they are not already included in "Activity Background" or within the lesson outline.

Evaluation
The "N.J. 4-H Science Discovery Series Evaluation" is used to help determine the value of each unit and its activities, and for reporting purposes. It is very brief and simple and intended to be completed each time a unit was taught. To complete an evaluation online, click here.

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