In 1902, the USDA launched agricultural clubs to teach children modern farming techniques, hoping their success would help overcome resistance from farmers who were reluctant to adopt new technologies. This youth-led approach worked, and 4-H was born! The same idea drives our work with Google: as AI reshapes every industry, young people need to learn how to understand and operate it responsibly.
With Google’s support, we’re advancing 4-H’s Beyond Ready initiative, which strives to prepare youth to thrive by equipping them with real-world skills, including in emerging areas like AI. The goals of our partnership were specific, ambitious, and measurable: reach 161,500 young people and 22,200 educators and volunteers in less than two years with AI education, with a particular emphasis on communities where access to emerging technologies and opportunities to learn how to use them are limited.
We set out to build both reach and staying power by pairing hands-on learning with scalable digital access. Locally, our land-grant university educators are delivering engaging programming that makes AI relevant to real life. Nationally, we offer “anytime, anywhere” learning through self-paced tools, with a foundational set of six asynchronous modules that connect youth and adults to AI learning through our online e-learning platform, CLOVER by 4-H, and in-person events.
At its core, our goal was simple: make AI less intimidating and more empowering, so that young people everywhere can develop AI literacy, critical thinking skills, and responsible habits.
The partnership began in fall 2024, at a time when AI education was still in its infancy. According to a National 4-H Council survey from that year, while 66% of young people had a basic understanding of generative AI and its applications, an overwhelming 72% were eager for adult guidance to help them navigate these tools more effectively and confidently.
With support from Google, land-grant university educators from 10 priority states came together to form an AI working group — an exceptional cohort that wrote, tested, and refined an AI curriculum in real time as the technology itself was rapidly evolving. Within this framework, each state selected and implemented programming that best aligned with their local needs and audiences. This truly was flying the plane while it was being invented!
Using these resources, the group began introducing AI concepts into their in-person lessons while simultaneously developing six activities for CLOVER by 4-H, our asynchronous learning platform. These included: What Can AI Do in Agriculture; How Does AI Learn and Improve; AI Farm Tool Challenge; Crop Monitoring and Harvesting; and an AI Drone Lab.
A highlight of the program was the “Banana Bot” lesson, which utilized Google’s Teachable Machine. This free, browser-based tool lets users train simple machine learning models with images, sounds, or poses — no coding experience is required. In this lesson, students trained an AI model to detect and classify banana ripeness using photos.
One 5th grade student stood out: he repeatedly retrained his model using a wide variety of examples, achieved 100% accuracy across three ripeness categories, and independently created a fourth — “half-ripe” — to better reflect real-world conditions. His STEM teacher noted that this student, who had previously shown limited interest in STEM, was highly focused, confident, and eager to explain how farmers could use the technology in real-world decision-making.
In another lesson, students explored ethics through “AI Image Generators: Bias In, Bias Out.” Youth created drawings of ketchup, compared their images to identify patterns, and discussed how brand recognition influenced their datasets. They also analyzed a Heinz commercial featuring AI-generated images as a case study, examining how training data and cultural familiarity can introduce bias into AI outputs.
All participants received a completion certificate, reinforcing their sense of accomplishment. An elementary school teacher in South Carolina also received training and is independently delivering lessons, strengthening long-term educator capacity. Overall, the program is sparking curiosity, building critical thinking skills, and deepening ethical awareness.
The biggest challenge was initial hesitation — not only from students, but also from parents and educators. Through these accessible, hands-on lessons, however, participants began to understand how AI works and how it can be used as a practical tool — much like a hammer — to complete tasks more effectively and efficiently.
The partnership exceeded its objective of expanding access to high-quality, future-ready learning experiences. Together, we generated more than $27 million for local 4-H programs, supporting 165,697 youth and 25,214 educators, surpassing our original goals of reaching 161,500 youth and 22,000 educators. With each educator reaching an average of 915 young people annually, the initiative will continue to expand access to future-ready learning and opportunity.
Beyond these participation metrics, the initiative achieved meaningful progress in building young people’s confidence and readiness to engage with emerging technologies. Feedback from educators and youth, along with stories such as the Banana Bot lesson, demonstrated a significant shift in how participants view artificial intelligence. Rather than seeing AI as intimidating or inaccessible, young people increasingly recognize it as a practical tool that can help them learn, solve problems, and achieve their goals responsibly.
The initiative also created lasting capacity within the 4-H system. Participating land-grant university educators are now integrating AI concepts into broader 4-H programming, ensuring that learning continues beyond the grant period and reflects the growing role of AI in everyday life. With educators reaching an average of 915 young people annually, the program’s impact will continue to expand, extending access to technical, leadership, and problem-solving skill development in rural and underserved communities.
We consider this effort a success because not only did it exceed our reach goals, but it also helped equip young people and educators with the confidence, knowledge, and tools needed to thrive in a rapidly-changing world.
