Progress 05/15/23 to 05/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The first year of the project focused on developing the educational modules and the project application and evaluation materials. This year the project also emphasized on teacher recruitment strategies and participant selection for the program. Science and Math teachers for grades K-8 were the main target audience. Recruitment efforts included the use of social media, school visits, and a press release. These efforts were fructiferous and attracted a large number of applications (953 applications were received for 25 spaces). Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The first year of the project was dedicated to the development of training resources and teacher recruitment. There were two rounds of evaluations for the selection process. Training and professional development will be accessible for the second and third year of the project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The need assessment, promotion materials and program application were shared through teacher group chats, school visits, social media and a press release from the Universuity of Puerto Rico at Utuado. Applicants were contacted through the email addresses they shared in their application. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For the next reporting period, a week-long experiential learning activity will be offered at the University of Puerto Rico at Utuado during the month of June. Also, the online educational modules for the SMART certificate will be available in July. Participating teachers will have the opportunity to complete them during the first semester of the academic year 2024-25. Project directors will visit each of the participant schools to assess specific needs for the development of their school garden. These visits will start during the month of September. Materials and supplies will be ordered and delivered for the schools to start with their gardens in January of 2025.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Activities addressing the project's three main objectives supportedthe goal of increasing Puerto Rico's K-8 math and science teachers' expertise in Sustainable Agriculture and its integration in their courses. For objective 1 (development of the SMART certificate), twelve educational modules were developed. Module topics range from school garden development, soil and water conservation to addressing students' socio-emotional needs in the garden. These will be uploaded to the University of Puerto Rico at Utuado (UPRU) online platform and be accessible to teachers in July, 2024. Teachers will also participate in hands-on learning activitiesduringthe second week of June at UPRU. A need assessment and a recruitment plan was developed to engage educators and begin to accomplish objective 2 (train K-8 educators on the development and integration of a school garden to apply and integrate real world uses of Math, Science and Agricultural concepts). The need assessment was completed by 44 educators, who reported their topics of interest and areas of need in regards to school garden development. Seventy one percent were interested in starting a garden and incorporating it into their courses, while 25% already had one and were interested in maintaining and expanding it. The two teachers that responded that they were not sure, explained it was mainly because they did not feel they would have the time or space. Information about educators topics of interest was used for the selection and development of the educational modules for the SMART certificate. The recruitment process included the development of an application and the promotion among teachers. The process started with teacher group chats and through UPRU's and Puerto Rico Agriculture in the classroom social media pages. These attracted a good amount of applicants, but the main boost was given by a press release. A major newspaper published the information and the applications doubled. At the end, 953 applications were received for the 25 spaces the project had. Selection was made based on responses to the questions and school commitment to maintaining the garden, while ensuring there were participants from Puerto Rico's seveneducational regions and from both, elementary and middle schools. After a first round of evaluations, 175 finalists were selected and asked to provide additional information. From this second round, 33 educators from 25 schools were selected. The higher number of educators is due to teachers in six of the schools wanting to work together and sharing the stipend and materials. The objective 3, to promote the use of available teaching resources from the National Agriculture in the Classroom Curriculum Matrix among educators, was addressed by developing an educational module that will be part of the SMART certificate. A workshop was also developed for educators to participate in, when they visit UPRU during the second week of June.

Publications