Pictures of chickens, flowers, wheat, a boy looking through a magnifying glass, irrigation pipe, soybean pods, and fruits and vegetables.

Cooperative Extension Service

Search | Publications | Jobs | Personnel Directory | Links
County Offices | Departments

About Us

Find Us

For the Media

Agriculture

Business & Communities

Families & Consumers

Health & Nutrition

Home & Garden

Natural Resources

4-H Youth Development

4-H Programs
4-H State Policy Handbook
Kids Go-4-It
Youth Education
Volunteer Organizations
C. A. Vines 4-H Center

Life Skills Evaluation
Links
Newsletters

Public Policy Center

For Faculty & Staff

Giving

Dale Bumpers College
of Agricultural, Food &
Life Sciences

Division Home

Agricultural Experiment
      Station Home

Cooperative Extension
      Service Home

2001 Volunteer Leader Training Guide
Pillars of Character – Citizenship

Printer Friendly Version (PDF)

Introduction

Good citizenship is understanding and doing things that make life better for you and other people. True citizenship means participation, involvement and contribution. No one can make a difference without being involved. Good citizenship is not just doing the thing that "looks good."

Good citizenship means helping others. A citizen is a member of a family, a community, a nation and a world. Being a good citizen means more than knowing how government works. It means working to make our community, country and world a better place to live.

People working together build all communities. The well being of every citizen depends on everyone in the community. Community members organize to improve living for everyone. A good citizen:

• Obeys just laws.

• Helps others/volunteers.

• Protects the environment by conserving resources, reducing pollution and cleaning up after yourself.

• Participates in making things better by voicing opinion, voting, serving on committees, reporting wrongdoing and paying taxes.

• Plays by the rules.

• Respects authority.

• Honors and respects principles of democracy. Respects the flag and other national symbols.

(Adapted from Show-Me Character, University of Missouri, and CHARACTER COUNTS! – The Six Pillars of Character, Josephson Institute of Ethics.)

Target Audience

This guide provides 4-H leaders, EHC leaders and teens with information and an activity to teach lessons on character to youth 9 to 12 years old.

Objective

Participants will reinforce concepts of citizenship by participating in an experiential process of learning.

Teaching Recommendation

Experiential learning takes place when a person is involved in an activity, looks back at it critically, determines what was useful or important to remember and uses this information to perform another activity. In the past few years, research in the area of experiential learning has strengthened this approach by adding several key processing steps beyond simply doing the activity or experience. These steps include:

• having the participant(s) experience the activity – perform or do it;

• having the participant(s) share the experience by describing what happened;

• asking participant(s) to process the experience to identify common themes;

• having participant(s) generalize from the experience to form principles or guidelines that can be used in real-life situations, e.g., life skills;

• asking participant(s) to apply what was learned to another situation.

Providing an experience alone does not create "experiential learning." The activity comes first. The learning comes from the thoughts and ideas as a result of the experience. This is a "learn by doing" or experiential process (Do–Reflect–Apply). Addressing each step in the process assures a purposeful plan to obtain a specific goal.

Activity

Each team of 3 to 5 people will represent a community. Each community will be given goods and services (tape and straws) with which to build a support system for a member of their community (raw egg). Each team will have 10 minutes to create a device that will keep their member (egg) safe when dropped 8 feet. The team may only use the goods and services (30 inches of masking tape and 20 straws) in the community (on their table).

Each team must prepare a 30-second presentation and select a spokesperson to deliver it telling the name and situation of the person in their community for whom they have built their support system. The team should decide what the straws and tape represent in their community and explain how this will protect their egg.

After the end of the time, each team will make their presentation and and perform their Egg Drop onto the plastic garbage bag. (Hint: You might consider selecting one person to make all the drops from the same height and location to eliminate any unfair advantage.)

Discussion Questions:

• How were you able to keep your egg safe? If you didn’t keep your egg safe, what might you try next time?

• What challenges did you face in keeping your egg safe?

• What challenges do communities face in providing support or services to all of their citizens?

• Do you have a responsibility to others in your community? Why or why not?

• What can you do to make your community a better place for all citizens?

(Adapted from Adventures in Peacemaking by Beverly Hines, 4-H Specialist/Section Leader - 4-H Program.)

Additional Resources

• "Exercising Character" curriculum available through the county Extension office has activity-based lesson plans to help teens and other teachers work with kids on issues of developing and strengthening personal character.
   

• "Building Assets Together: 135 Group Activities for Helping Youth Succeed" is a collection of group activities and worksheets that help young people explore assets that strengthen their lives, sources of support and areas for growth. Available through the county Extension office or from the Search Institute (800-888-7828).
   

• Character Education Websites:

Character Counts!

Character Education/Utah State Office of Education

Beverly Hines, 4-H Specialist/Section Leader - 4-H Program, and
Mike Klumpp, Youth Development Specialist

Back to 2001 Leader Training Guide