USDA, 4H and NASA Launching Skills Program

NASA is partnering up with USDA and the National 4H program to teach young people life skills through a program called ‘Expeditionary Skills for Life.’

Amy McCune with the National 4H Program said they want to help with developing STEM skills, but when they worked with NASA to develop this program, they found there are other important skills.

“They discovered that even their astronauts needed more of the soft skills. They needed more experience in understanding how to work with people of different cultures and how to communicate and how to build people as both leaders and followers.”

If astronauts were going to be in a confined space for several months at a time, these skills would be critical for a successful mission.

McCune said the curriculum was developed by 4H and tested with young people across the country and focuses on specific skills for a given lesson through seeing NASA scientists and astronauts use them in a series of videos.

“Youth will get a chance to actually see very technical STEM careers and be introduced to a variety of different careers that take place at NASA but also get to hear about the importance of some of those soft skills and how these people use those soft skills every day.”

The program, which blasts off in 2017, will feature 4H alumni and current astronaut Peggy Whitson.