Tinkering with technology: A library workshop to support 4-H youth development

Abstract

When University of Idaho (UI) Extension brought the Idaho 4-H Teen Conference to UI's main campus, the conference organizers collaborated with UI librarians to organize a workshop in the library's newly established makerspace, the Making, Innovating, and Learning Laboratory (MILL). In the MILL, the students used cutting-edge technology to foster new or existing interests in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This article describes how Extension and 4-H youth development professionals can team with librarians to use library makerspaces to introduce 4-H high school students to STEM technologies and digital literacies that will be necessary for jobs of the future.