Young Adult
You Try-It! Kits
This website provides the content checklists, links for expanding learning, booklists, handouts, and helpful hints for this brand-new programming resource for the libraries in Kansas. You Try-It! Kits are available for checkout by school and public libraries for a period of 30 days, with an option to renew, provided they are not on hold for another library. There is no charge for use of the You Try-It! Kits, but return of damaged items or return of kits with lost or stolen items may require assessment of replacement fees.
Our goal is to provide libraries and their patrons with opportunities for creating safe, fun, and educational entertainment programming for the young adults of our region. Our pilot program will serve to address the needs of this young, important population, as a model on the local level that larger libraries will be able to imitate and that larger entities may be able to expand in the future. We seek to cultivate the next generation of lifelong library partners and users, providing them with self-directed games and play–along with ways to connect with each other, their educations, their communities, and the world at large.
It’s time that YOU TRY-IT!
You Try-It! Kits are available to librarians for 30-day checkouts with the following themes:
We are in the process of revamping these kits! If you have any suggestions or recommendations, please let us know by filling out the form below!
We’ve created interactive lists of resources and ideas to help you expand the use of the YT!Kit you’ve checked out.
Under each YT!Kit Title, you’ll find a set of booklists (fiction and nonfiction), tips for using the kits as they are, and ideas for expanding your learning and play. Be sure to follow us on Pinterest for more ideas that we’ve collected from around the Web!
We want to see your unique ideas, your work, and all your stories as well! Like us on Facebook and share with us how you’ve used the YT!Kits in your library. (And hey–don’t be afraid to tell us we messed up. If you have ideas on how to make YT!Kits better, we want to hear that, too.)
Use the YT!Kits in combination! Check out the Legos™ Challenge YT!Kit and make a stop-motion film — maybe you need the Explor-ience YT!Kit for some special effects — and then become aScreenMaster and host a movie night to showcase your work!
Use your time with the Advanced Lego™ Challenge YT!Kit to iron out some engineering details before you write a video game, get the Learn-to-Draw Kit for the graphics, and host a Wii U for UTournament!
There is an almost infinite number of combinations–You Try-It! Kits are made for you to PLAY without borders!
REMEMBER! These are only ideas, jumping off points for you. You’re only limited by your own imaginations. You’ll never know if you like something, or you’re good at something, or something is so much fun you can’t hardly stand it– until
YOU TRY-IT!
Funding for You Try-It! Kits was provided by The LSTA Grant 2014, the Kansas State Library, and by the NorthWest Kansas Library System whose mission is to provide services to member libraries and those areas that are not served by a local library with a vision of leading the quest for information sharing through innovative services and technology for member libraries.
You Try-It! Kits are provided to libraries in Kansas by the NorthWest Kansas Library System in an effort to engage the young adult population in libraries. YT! Kits are varied in theme, requiring extensive technological savvy or none. The target population can learn by doing, by teaching, or by watching. We seek for YT! Kits to help engage young adults in creating their own programming and developing peer-to-peer relationships as well as strong bonds with their librarians and their communities.
The primary goal of You Try-It! is to give young people and their libraries the opportunity to grow together while they (you guessed it!) TRY SOMETHING NEW.
Breakout EDU Kits
Breakout EDU is all about engaging students to learn better through immersion, collaboration, and problem-solving. It does this by using puzzle-based learning much like that used in escape rooms.
Escape rooms have become very popular as a place teams can go to work out how to get free from the room in which they are “trapped.” It’s like a real world version of a computer game that makes you work together to solve puzzles to escape from somewhere.
Breakout EDU helps to bring that experience to educators so as to better engage students and help them learn while having fun.
Each Kit will come with an inventory page so that you are aware of all the items it will contain so you can make sure they are all there before and after using!
The Kits also contain instructions for use and many game options for you to utilize with your young adults along with stories to keep the game engaged. There are games for all age levels: Elementary, Middle, and High School in each kit so this item can be used for them all!
How to Get One and Procedures
To check out a Kit, . Kansas libraries should go to ILL. Kits will remain checked out for 30 days with an option to renew one time, so long as no one has the particular kit on hold. Reserve Kits in advance so that you may plan events in your library. On occasion, we may ask for you to return kits early (once your event is completed) so that others may use them as well.
The contents of each kit are posted here, and we ask that you check the Kit boxes when you receive them and prior to their return. Some items will need to be replenished (batteries, science kit supplies, pencils, etc.), and it would be helpful if you would make note of those consumable materials needing attention. There may be fees assessed for lost or stolen items, but not for those consumables.
Contact Us!
MLS
Children’s Services Consultant
tbook@nwkls.org
NorthWest Kansas Library System
#2 Washington Square
Norton, KS 67654
(785) 877-5148