Game-based learning is becoming an increasingly popular pedagogical technique for providing engaging learning experiences for youth. The Breakout EDU platform provides an opportunity to bring game-based learning into formal and non-formal learning environments using an escape-room-like approach while teaching specific subject areas and building life skills. There are more than 1,500 ready-made games for teaching a variety of topic areas, from science and math to team building, in any learning context. It also provides resources and tools to support youth development professionals in creating their own games. This review provides an overview of Breakout EDU and its kit and digital platform components and offers considerations for youth development professionals.

Conducting needs assessments serves as a valuable way for Extension educators to ensure that they are designing programs that meet community needs. We developed a needs assessment tool kit that educators across urban, suburban, and rural communities can use to answer the question "What are the youth development needs in my county?" Additionally, the tool kit's components can be easily adapted for use in all Extension program areas and thus serve as a resource for educators in various contexts desiring to gather stakeholder input needed to strengthen their programming.

Given growing environmental concerns such as climate change, identifying high-quality environmental education materials that can be used by youth development professionals to meet their educational goals is critical. The Project Learning Tree (PLT) PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide is designed for individuals to develop the knowledge and skills needed to make informed decisions and take action on environmental issues. The curriculum has activities that youth development professionals can use to teach a wide variety of environmental topics ranging from air quality to food chains, habitats, recycling, and watersheds, to name a few. In addition, as a high-quality environmental education curriculum, the guide assists those who desire to develop skills in youth such as critical thinking, communication, and civic engagement. This review of the PLT PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide provides an overview of the curriculum and how the activities are structured and outlines considerations for its use by youth development professionals.

Kids Growing with Grains is a school-based agricultural education program that improves youths’ conceptual understanding of how agriculture is linked to nutrition, the environment, and human health. University of Maryland Extension Educators developed the program’s hands-on activities, which focus on grain science, grains and the environment, grains and animals, and grain nutrition. The program is traditionally implemented through a station-based field trip experience lasting 4 hours in length. The program has been evaluated using a mixed-methods approach that includes qualitative and quantitative data collected from both teachers and students. Evaluation results from the past 2 years indicate the program is achieving its learning objectives. The program is designed to be easily replicated by other Extension programs throughout the country in a variety of formal or non-formal settings.

To determine how Extension educators can use environmental education materials to develop life skills in youths, we correlated a national environmental education curriculum developed by Project Learning Tree (PLT) to the 4-H Life Skills Wheel. Youth development professionals can use the resulting correlations to determine which life skills the various PLT activities help develop. The correlation results also provide insights regarding how PLT activities help develop head, heart, and hands skills.