Market animal curriculum available

To prepare Michigan’s youth for the future, a new curriculum is available to provide hands-on learning for their market animal project.

A new curriculum, “Youth Business Guide to Success: Make the Most of Your 4-H Market Animal Project,” is now available for adult and teen volunteers to become trained and be ready to teach youth on becoming successful with their 4-H market animal project. This curriculum from Michigan State University Extension makes the most of your 4-H market animal project. It was developed to give youth a better understanding of what types of life skills they are learning as part of the livestock project. It can also be used in non-4-H settings to teach youth about life skills needed in any type of a market project.

Market animal projects have the potential to teach youth valuable life skills such as responsibility, decision-making , record keeping and marketable skills, just to name a few. Life skills are emphasized throughout the curriculum. There are six main units covering Goal Setting, Record Keeping, Budgeting, Communication, Marketing, and Teen Leadership. Within these units, 14 lessons cover hands-on educational activities, and using the experiential learning process, youth reflect on what they have learned and how they can apply that in real life situations.

This curriculum is very applicable to 4-H and non-4-H audiences working with animals. The activities can be taught all together or in different stages. One example of a lesson is “Setting Your Product Apart.” Youth will learn of marketing strategies and customer service skills, how to increase sales and give examples of the six marketing strategies using different candy bars as the teaching piece.

Volunteer leader trainings will be held so adults and teens can learn the activities and teach youth in a club or school setting. For more information about the curriculum and upcoming training dates, visit the Youth Business Guide to Success website.

MSU Extension and the Michigan 4-H Youth Development program help to prepare young people for successful futures. As a result of career exploration and workforce preparation activities, thousands of Michigan youth are better equipped to make important decisions about their professional future, ready to contribute to the workforce and able to take fiscal responsibility in their personal lives. To learn about the positive impact of Michigan 4-H youth career preparation, money management and entrepreneurship programs, read the 2015 Impact Report: “Preparing Michigan Youth for Future Careers and Employment.”

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