Source: UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING submitted to
A MODULAR CURRICULUM TO TEACH CRITICAL CONCEPTS IN ORGANIC AGRICULTURE ACROSS REGIONS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1007232
Grant No.
2015-51300-24136
Project No.
WYO-00626-15
Proposal No.
2015-07411
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
113.A
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2015
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2019
Grant Year
2015
Project Director
Jabbour, R.
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING
1000 E UNIVERSITY AVE DEPARTMENT 3434
LARAMIE,WY 82071-2000
Performing Department
Plant Sciences
Non Technical Summary
Our long-term goal is to create skilled, agriculturally literate college students nationwide who apply the critical concepts of organic agriculture to their lives. We will build innovative curriculum that addresses the priorities of a team of experienced instructors, accomplishing relevance across regions while leaving flexibility for instructors to adjust modules to best fit into their program goals. Our overall objectives are: Objective 1) Characterize instructors' priorities for organic agriculture education at a diversity of institutions. Interviewing educators from around the country will ensure that our curriculum engages students with the most relevant course material. Objective 2) Develop student-centered curriculum that incorporates experiential learning approaches in the classroom, where the interest of large, diverse classes can be captured when logistically unable to visit a farm. The curriculum will merge science-based theory and real-life applications. We will film a series of 18 farmer interviews from around the country - so students can virtually "meet" real farmers and see the diversity of operations in the United States - from organic aloe vera in Texas to local bread wheat in Maine. Objective 3) Test curriculum in target classes across regions, receiving feedback from both instructors and students to yield the most effective final teaching materials to share online. The major outcomes of this project will include open-access modular curriculum designed to engage students, creation of a strong community of collaborative educators, and an immediate impact on at least 600 students in year two of the project.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
20501991070100%
Knowledge Area
205 - Plant Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
0199 - Soil and land, general;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology;
Goals / Objectives
ObjectivesCharacterize instructors' mental models for organic agriculture education.Develop introductory curriculum to address critical concepts identified by instructors.Test curriculum in target classes across regions, accounting for student perceptions.
Project Methods
Our development of a cross-regional organic agriculture curriculum will start with the development of an "Expert Model," developed by the Co-PDs, Project Advisors, and published literature. The Expert Model will establish the focused interview questions that will be used tocharacterize instructors' mental models, and to identify critical concepts that will be featured in the newly developed curriculum that, lastly, will be evaluated in classrooms at a wide range of colleges and universities across the U.S. To provide rich examples from regions throughout the United States, the teaching materials will include a compilation of farmer interviews filmed around the country.

Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Educators in a diversity of academic disciplines and institution types interested in organic agriculture teaching were reached through our mailing of curriculum modules, presentations at several conferences, and eOrganic webinar (90 registrants for webinar, 35 attended live, and 128 YouTube views in 4 months). Undergraduate and graduate students (16) interested in organic agriculture were supported in participating in a regional organic agriculture conference. Regional organic farmers learned about this project at a regional organic conference. Changes/Problems:We spent less on some components than originally budgeted, so we used these available funds to further the goals of the grant in the following ways. 1) Help support students to attend a local organic ag conference 2) Pay the fee to offer a webinar through eOrganic to further extend this project to stakeholders of interest (this was not originally included in the proposal but really broadened our reach and advertising of this work) and 3) Purchase books relevant to organic agriculture to create a loan library for educators and students alike at the University of Wyoming (in process of setting this up formally). We also had a new product from the project that was unexpected and arose from the instructor workshop held in 2018. One of the participants led us in a visioning workshop of organic agriculture teaching in 2025. He collaborated with PI Jabbour and two other workshop participants to draft a manuscript that is currently in review at an agricultural teaching journal. We supported his attendance at a national ag teaching conference as well through extra travel funds from this project. As indicated in a previous annual report, we found that it was very difficult to receive formal feedback from participants on the modules. We are happy to know they are being utilized and assume instructors are adapting them in ways that make sense for their individual classrooms. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We hosted a two-day training workshop for 18 instructors from 16 different institutions. We supported 16 university students (undergraduate and graduate) attendance and participation in a regional organic agriculture conference, the High Plains Organic Conference. We hosted a webinar through eOrganic for anyone in the academic community or public interested in learning more. We trained an MS-level research scientist and some undergraduate student workers on topics of organic agriculture and instructional design. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?PI Jabbour gave a webinar through the eOrganic extension community of practice. In addition, we hosted the workshop mentioned above, and presented at many conferences of different disciplines. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. We completed 19 interviews with college faculty from around the United States about the topics and skills they teach in their organic agriculture classes. These results were presented at multiple national conferences. A peer-reviewed publication summarizing this objective was accepted for publication at the journal Natural Sciences Education. 2. We developed educational modules on the topics of organic history, certification, seed, pest management, livestock management, marketing, and social dimensions. These are publicly available through the teaching resources on the website of the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association. Part of these teaching modules include a series of short films "Organic Producer Perspectives" linked on the same website. The films have been viewed a total of 1021 times (summed across all 8 films) since posting them 1 year ago. As part of this objective, we also hosted a training workshop for instructors of organic agriculture on student-centered and active-learning teaching strategies. Workshop participants were from 16 different institutions, including one community college, two 1890's land grant institutions, and one hispanic-serving institution. 3. All lessons were tested with students at the University of Wyoming. They were shared with the 18 participants at the workshop mentioned in #2, and packets of curricular modules were mailed to at least 50 additional educators across the United States for use in the classroom.

Publications

  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jabbour, R. eOrganic webinar: New Modules for Teaching Undergraduate Students about Organic Agriculture. April 2019.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jabbour, R. and Pellissier, ME. In press. Instructor priorities for undergraduate organic agriculture education. Natural Sciences Education.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jabbour, R., Francis, C., Barbercheck, ME, and Ullman, K. Under review. Organic agriculture teaching and learning in 2025: A futuring workshop to guide transformation of the learning landscape. North American Colleges and Teachers in Agriculture (NACTA) Journal.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jabbour, R. and Pellissier, ME. 2018. Fresh ideas for teaching pest management in the classroom! Presented at joint conference for Entomological Society of American and Entomology Society of Canada in Vancouver, BC.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jabbour, R. and Pellissier, ME. 2019. Fresh ideas for teaching weed management in the classroom! Presented at Western Society of Weed Science conference in Denver, CO.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Nobes, S., Pellissier, ME, and Jabbour R. 2019. Introductory organic agriculture curriculum for undergraduate students. Presented at American Society of Horticultural Science in Las Vegas, NV.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Nobes, S., Pellissier, ME, and Jabbour R. 2019. Introductory organic agriculture curriculum for undergraduate students. Presented at High Plains Organic Conference in Cheyenne, WY.


Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:The primary target audiences during this reporting period were 1) instructors of organic agriculture in the United States and 2) students of organic agriculture, primarily at the University of Wyoming, but also at a few other universities in the region. Changes/Problems:For Objective 3, as stated, feedback has not been received by as many instructors as we initially contacted to review the modules developed. We did not anticipate how difficult it would be for other instructors to reply to us in a timely fashion with feedback on our modules. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As mentioned earlier, we hosted a training for instructors of organic agriculture.As proposed, this workshop was facilitated with the assistance of Dr. Joseph Dauer, a science education researcher from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Workshop participants were from 16 different academic institutions in the United States, including 1 community college, 2 1890's land grant institutions, and 1 hispanic-serving institution. Participants represented 15 states, and positions ranged from instructor/lecturer through full professor.This workshop had eight evaluations with feedback about highlights, potential improvements, connections and collaborations, use of resources and techniques, as well as sharing of these resources. A highlight for all eight participants was meeting new people and networking. Participants commented on learning and sharing new ideas for their courses and programs. Two participants left comments that the workshop was "all good" and "awesome" with no recommendations for improvements. Two participants left this question blank. Comments on potential improvements did include a possible winter meeting because it's hard to take off in field season, focusing more on specifics to organic, e.g. discussing organic vs. conventional, more talk about grants and collaborations, and a summary of the organic or sustainable ag programs from each institution. All eight participants responded with a yes (one "perhaps") to making connections and reaching out for collaborations in the future. All eight participants responded with a yes to implementing resources, activities, assignments, or techniques into their own classroom or intuitions. A few of the techniques and resources mentioned included a student farm, spider plots, leadership exercises, interviewing farmers, video ideas, guided reflection, and evaluating sustainability. Seven participants answered with a yes to sharing any of the resources and techniques from the workshop with other instructors. One mentioned having a "resources space" somewhere would be helpful. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This work was shared at an agricultural teaching conference in Iowa and at the instructor training hosted by this project. It was also discussed at an invited departmental seminar at Colorado State University. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we will submit the manuscript for publication from Objective 1, further publicize the outputs from Objective 2 to the instructor audience, and present our work at a national society conference.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: We continued to make progress on characterizing instructor mental models for organic agriculture education. Our analysis is complete and we have a manuscript draft that we will be submitting for publication in a peer-reviewed journalin 2018. Objective 2: We completed curriculum development for critical needed concept areas. Our final modules will be shared publicly at the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association website, which features an establishedcurriculum library for sharing. These modules include lesson plans and activities on the following topics, all specific to certified organic production: organic history, organic certification, marketing, livestock, pest management, seed, and social dimensions. Some of these modules include lesson plans linked to original short films of organic producer interviews, available publicly on Youtube (http://bit.ly/orgproducer).In addition, our work in this objective included hosting a training for instructors of organic agriculture on student-centered and active-learning teaching strategies. See more details under the question here regarding training and professional development. Objective 3: All lessons developed have been tested with undergraduate students at the University of Wyoming. Selected lesson plans were sent to instructors at 8institutions for them to test and provide feedback. Feedback was provided by 2 instructors to date, including an email dialogue with PI Jabbour about their needs and concerns about covering the material at hand. We are awaiting feedback from additional instructors at this time.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Jabbour, R. and Pellissier, M.E. Introductory organic agriculture curriculum for undergraduate students. Conference abstract from 2018 North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) conference in Ames, IA.


Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience during this reporting period has been agricultural faculty around the United States. We made an oral presentation on the project at the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Annual Conference in June 2017, and PI Jabbour gave invited seminars at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (November 2016) and at her home institution of University of Wyoming (March 2017) that included presentation of this project. The audience at all of these events were mostly agriculture instructors and faculty. In addition, we have tested our class activities on students at the University of Wyoming over the past year, impacting ~80 students. Changes/Problems:Given the slow start to the project due to hiring challenges, we requested a no-cost extension which has been granted, thus changing the end date for the project from August 2017 to August 2018. In addition, it has been very difficult to coordinate with faculty to interview local farmers (part of Objective 2), so we have fewer farmer interviews than expected. However, with the ones we have, we still are capable of utilizing them to their fullest to support curriculum development. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Makenzie Pellissier, the research associate on this project, attended a series of on-campus trainings to support this project. These events included a 3-day workshop about communicating about science through film, which included technical training on use of video editing software. This is helping support the video component of this project. She also attended a workshop on making web materials accessible to students with disabilities, which will improve the reach and utility of our web-based resources. Makenzie also has been receiving training from the on-campus teaching and learning center on backwards design and online instruction, which is highly relevant to this project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Thus far, results have been disseminated through our presentation at the NACTA conference and a seminar at the University of Wyoming. We have tested our class activities with students at the University of Wyoming. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the next time period, and the final year of this project, we will submit a manuscript summarizing the data collected in Objective 1. We will continue to develop modules for use in the classroom, including editing farmer interview video footage from producers around the United States (Objective 2). As part of Objective 2, we will also host a participant workshop for faculty from around the US on the topic of teaching organic agriculture, held in conjunction with an agriculture education conference. We will distribute lessons to faculty members around the country willing to test them in Spring & Summer 2018, collecting data on student perceptions both before and following the lessons (Objective 3).

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Characterize instructors' mental models for organic agriculture education. We continued progress with this objective as planned, analyzing the data from the interviews and surveys and organizing them into a manuscript draft, to be submitted in this next year. We completed 19 interviews with college faculty from around the United States about the topics and skills that they teach in their organic agriculture classes, or in a few instances sustainable agriculture classes that include organic. Our main findings are as follows: the critical concepts most frequently mentioned by instructors fell within the categories of soil quality and fertility, ecological principles, and National Organic Program certification and standards. The topics that instructors least frequently cover or only address "a little bit" included social justice, climate change, and livestock production. The most challenging topics and skills for students to learn related to systems thinking, nutrient management, and performing nutrient or fertilizer calculations. We are using these findings to inform the modules in development for objective 2. 2. Develop introductory curriculum to address critical concepts identified by instructors. We have developed educational modules on the topics of livestock production and climate change. We are in the early phases of development of modules on the topics of social justice and certification. These modules will incorporate video footage from farmer interviews, and will be tested in the classroom (objective 3) in the next year. In addition to these multi-part modules, we have developed activities and reading lists for many other topics. These materials will be organized and made available by request and publicly on the sharing workspace of the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association. 3. Test curriculum in target classes across regions, accounting for student perceptions. This is in progress and will largely be completed this coming year. We have developed a survey tool to use for students to gauge their incoming perceptions.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Pellissier, M. and Jabbour, R. Characterizing instructor priorities for organic agriculture. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Annual Conference, West Lafayette, Indiana, June 2017.


Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16

Outputs
Target Audience:In this first phase of the project, we have communicated with other faculty members in the United States who teach about organic agriculture. This has mainly been through recruitment for the interview portion of our project in Objective 1. We have conducted 9 interviews thus far. Changes/Problems:It was very challenging to recruit a post-doc for this project due to challenges with timing and recruiting candidates to Laramie, Wyoming. We had three qualified candidates, all of whom rejected the position in turn. I asked the OREI program officer if I could instead hire a MS-level research scientist. He approved and I have been successful in recruiting and hiring a qualified candidate who began August 1 and is making excellent progress on helping support this project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Through this project, we have hired 1 full-time MS level scientist who is being trained in the areas of qualitative research and curriculum development. We have hired 1 part-time technician to aid with transcribing faculty interviews, who also received training in qualitative research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we will accomplish the following: Objective 1. Complete faculty interviews, analyze data, and prepare a manuscript to submit for publication. Objective 2. Complete farmer interviews, hold in-person training workshop for faculty, continue development of modules to be shared through Sustainable Ag Education Association library. Objective 3. Test modules here at University of Wyoming and at affiliate universities.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1. As of September 2016 nine interviews of university faculty have been conducted. The majority of interviewees have been either assistant or associate professors. The Universities where interviewees teach represent all four U.S. regions, and include land grant universities, other public 4-year universities, and one private 4-year university. In general, the average teaching appointment was 56%, but teaching appointments ranged from 40-80%. Other appointment categories included research (10-60%), service (0-30%), and advising (10-50%). The average number of years of experience teaching at the college level was 6.8 years, and the average number of years teaching about organic agriculture specifically was 8.3 years. The top three types of courses taught were sustainable agriculture/food systems, agroecology, and organic agriculture. The top four critical topics taught in courses were ecological principles, soil management/fertility, organic certification, and systems. Skills gained by students included understanding organic certification/regulations, analyzing soil data and interpreting for management decisions, critical thinking, and communication. Of the respondents thus far, only one teaches a course online, all respondents use greenhouses or farms in their courses, and half of respondents use service learning. Objective 2. We have developed protocol and tested technology for the farmer interviews to be conducted in the next year of the project. We have compiled resources to use in development of modules focused on organic soil management, organic seed production and plant breeding, organic certification, and social justice and labor issues in organic agriculture. We have begun planning for the training workshop that will occur in the next year. Objective 3. We have not begun curriculum testing yet. This will be conducted in the next year.

Publications