Section 1
Project Record

  Form   Examples

Over half of your 4-H career is spent working on projects, and fittingly, over half of your record book is spent commemorating those projects. Section 1 provides a framework for planning, completing, and analysing each of your 4-H projects. How? Let's go through it step-by-step.

Requirements

Overview

Please just fill this box out. It's really not that hard, and I'd rather not waste the space (or the bandwidth) to explain in detail. If you really have questions, contact the Extension Office.

Goals

If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time Zig Ziglar

Goals provide direction for your 4-H project. If you've ever gone to any motivational leadership conference, you've heard about goals far more than you could ever care to, but the facts show the people with goals acomplish more. Great, you say, how do you make goals? I'm glad you asked.

A goal is an objective or thing desired to happen with SMARTY attributes:

	S	Specific A goal should only cover one area Bad Example To walk my dog two miles every day this summer and teach her to fetch Good Example To walk my dog two miles every day To teach my dog how to fetch This goal needed to be split into two goals. Having more goals is great: just make sure that each goal stands alone.
	M	Measurable Someone else should be able to objectively tell if you've met the goal or not. Bad Example To shoot really well this year in .22 Good Example To shoot an average of over 250 points over all my .22 practice shoots this year Measurable usually involves numbers or binary (true/false) statements. Notice how this example added a way of measuring (average) and a quantitative target (over 250 points). That is characteristic of measureable goals. What about To do better than last year? Invariably, record books are turned in each year with the goal "to do better than last year." Sometimes this is measurable, mostly it is not. It would be far better to identify exactly what you want to improve and find a way to measure that. If you do resort to this goal, you MUST keep your record book maticulously organised so that the judges can find how you did last year.
	A	Achievable/Attainable You must be directly in charge of acomplishing the goal: it cannot depend partially on parents, animals, acts of nature, etc. Bad Example To finish my market hog at a weight between 245 and 280 lbs. Good Example To learn how protein percentage in feed affects rate of gain in hogs This does not mean that you cannot ask for help acomplishing your goals, but you do need to be in charge and take initiative for your goals. No human being can directly control an animal's behavior or weight, another persons opinions, or the weather. Make sure that your goals do not try to alter these things.
	R	Realistic Make sure your goals are actually something that can be attained in real life.
T	Time-bound Goals should always have a time by which they should be achieved. (Hint: in terms of record books, the end of the 4-H year is always a good time limit!)
Y	Why Goals should always be motivated by a good reason or higher purpose. Sometimes, you will need goals just for the sake of completing your record book, but try to keep those to a minimum. (Remember the goal exercise!)

Project Description

If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself. Albert Einstein

Use the project description to explain what you did in the past year to someone who doesn't know anything about that subject. A good project description should read almost like a newspaper brief about your project. Like a good reporter, include information on the

• Who (parents, siblings, project leaders)
• What (leathercraft halter, market steer show, cooking recipe)
• When (at fair, at the spring judging contest, at home all year)
• and
• Where (at Hansen arena, at home, at SAREC)

of your project.

Size & Scope

There's always a four-point-five percent margin of error, plus or minus. The Accountant in The Accountant (Short film)

The label "Size & Scope" has caused confusion for several generations of 4-Hers. Let's define these words to clear that up.

Size

is numbers, i.e. the number of hours spent, dollars invested, contest points earned, pounds of feed, etc.

Scope

indicates the varieties, different types, recipes, plants or animal breeds with which you worked.

In short, Size & Scope is a quantitative analysis of everything you used to complete your project. Good Size & Scope sections vary widely depending on the project, but all of them record the items (physical or intellectual) used in the project, and the time and money spent on the project. Take a look at the examples for ideas to get you started.

Knowledge & Skills Acquired

Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. Proverbs 8:10 KJV

Knowledge & Skills Acquired serves two purposes. First, it allows you to address whether or not you met your goals. Second, it tells readers what you actually learned this year in your project.

To complete Knowledge & Skills, create a heading for each goal you wrote. Write a paragraph (at least three sentences) explaining if you met the goal, how you met the goal (or why you did not meet the goal), and what you learned from the goal. After each goal is addressed, include paragraphs explaining anything else you learned about your project area. Remember that your readers might not know anything about your project area, so be sure to explain it in a way that a layperson can understand.

Exhibition Summary