Source: UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA - ANCHORAGE submitted to NRP
ALASKA K-12 NATURAL RESOURCE AND AGRICULTURE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1030569
Grant No.
2023-67037-39953
Cumulative Award Amt.
$500,000.00
Proposal No.
2022-08871
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jun 1, 2023
Project End Date
May 31, 2027
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[A7501]- Professional Development for Agricultural Literacy
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA - ANCHORAGE
3211 PROVIDENCE DRIVE
ANCHORAGE,AK 99508
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
While Alaska is the largest state geographically in the United States, it also has the fewest miles of paved road. 86% of Alaska's communities and about 30% of the state's population are connected to other communities in the state through a network of rivers, coastline, and airports As the roads go, so also goes access to telecommunications, access to the Internet, and the ability to provide live training locally. Lack of access to infrastructure in rural communities place Alaskan educators at an extreme disadvantage due to a variety of travel, communication, and logistical challenges. Many people who live in Alaska villages will likely use traditional food gathering (subsistence) as their main economic activity. In general, rural Alaskan schools have higher dropout rates, lower graduation rates, and perform at a lower level of standardized test scores compared to urban Alaskans.The structure of small and rural schools means that many educators must teach outside of their area of content preparation. Over 48% percent of Alaska's 487 public schools have fewer than 50 students. Certified teachers working in Alaska's rural and remote schools typically teach to multiple grade levels at the same time and teach in multiple disciplines each day, meaning that many teachers in rural Alaska routinely teach in fields that they are not academically prepared to teach per Every Student Succeeds Act standards. Many of the rural school districts in Alaska cover a geographical area similar in size to a medium-sized state such as Pennsylvania or Oregon. School district central offices are located in larger rural communities that have populations between 2,200 to 6,300 and high school enrollments between 140 to 500 students. Rural school districts also support schools in several villages that have populations from 100 to 500 people with K-12 enrollments as low as 10 students. The school is usually the largest building in remote villages and it houses the entire K-12 operation; the modern equivalent to the one-room schoolhouse.Rural Alaska's teachers and school districts need high quality professional development and curricular resources to strengthen place-based teaching not only in the sense of a fitting curriculum but also a pedagogy . This PD should provide teachers with both classroom and outdoor learning materials and activities centering the value and relationship with local places and communities. Rural Alaskan teachers, especially those who teach outside of their content areas, can benefit from exciting and energetic PDs where they collaboratively develop ideas and designs for how to incorporate place-based teaching and how to honor Indigenous knowledge throughout their STEM instruction. In addition, the economy in Alaska is predominantly involved with natural resources either through mining, oil production, fisheries, or natural resource-based tourism. Currently, most of the jobs in resource production and management bypass the local economyand education opportunities in natural resources taught at the community high school are not aimed at preparing high school students to fill local employment needs that will help fill this rural Alaska skills gap.The Alaska K-12 Natural resource and Agriculture Professional Development project seeks to increase inclusion of place-based Agri-science lessons in Alaska schools by helping certified teachers, many of whom are teaching outside of their qualified discipline, to be better prepared as both practitioners and teachers of natural resource and agriculture content areas. This will be done through the development and delivery of week-long immersive professional development training for Alaska K-12 teachers. These courses will introduce subject specific content in several agricultural and natural resource areas including ethnobotany, marine ecology, natural resources, environmental science, and resilient food systems. Teachers will spend a week immersed in place-based education and develop techniques to deliver culturally-relevant lessons in the Agri-sciences.The ultimate goal of this project is for teachers to return to their classroom with knowledge of Agri-science content and careers and that they incorporate this into their classroom teaching. In this way, the professional development indirectly will touch many K-12 students throughout the state of Alaska and will provide potential opportunities for these K-12 students to pursue education and careers in the Agri-sciences.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
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
9030850107020%
9030320107020%
9030899107020%
9030699107020%
9035010101020%
Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
0850 - Wildlife habitats; 0320 - Watersheds; 0899 - Wildlife and natural fisheries, general/other; 0699 - Trees, forests, and forest products, general; 5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology; 1010 - Nutrition and metabolism;
Goals / Objectives
Project Goal Statement:This four-year project will provide direct, immersive professional development to approximately 120 certified K-12 school teachers living and teaching in predominantly rural Alaska.AK12PD will introduce rural and remote Alaskan teachers to natural resource and agriculture content by providing them with direct experience in the fields of Natural Resources and Agriculture; subjects that are not traditionally taught in elementary and secondary schools. In addition, the project will introduce methods to incorporate culturally relevant place-based teaching into instruction, and leverage methods that honor local Indigenous Knowledge (IK) into the teaching of natural resource and agriculture content. AK12PD courses use a one-week culturally-rich content immersion as the main instructional activity, aiming to support teachers' place-based, culturally relevant knowledge, awareness, and practical skills in order to develop lesson plans for their classes the subsequent year.Objectives:1. Develop three new courses and revise three existing courses to create a total of 6 professional development courses that align natural resources and agriculture content with culturally relevant place-based education principles2. Recruit, train, and support 120 teachers in designing and implementing place-based and culturally relevant natural resource and agriculture units3. Increaseteacher awareness of Agri-science careers through increased exposure to natural resource and agricutlure professionals during 1-week professional development courses.4. Develop a professional mentor network of educators and natural resource managers to support teachers with implementation of culturally relevant place-based natural resource and agriculture education
Project Methods
Each for Teachers course will include six full days of instruction and have a class size of ten. The courses are scheduled to occur in May and June. The courses will take place throughout southcentral Alaska, including, but not limited to, Valdez, Cordova, and McCarthy, Alaska. The for Teachers model of professional development emphasizes place-based, culturally relevant learning and models this through outdoor classrooms, experiences, and networking with content experts working in the field. Locations will be selected based on the theme of the course and the resources, both natural and professional, that an area offers.Each course will use a collection of experts who use a balanced approach of individual and group instruction to deliver content-rich, standards-based instruction that infuses culturally relevant, place-based natural resource and agriculture education into the subject that they are teaching. The course work in the for Teachers model occurs during the immersive summer course. However, teachers are encouraged to participate in a follow-up activity in the fall that documents implementation of the material taught during the professional development. Teachers completing a for Teachers course will receive three credits of 500-level professional development credit plus an additional one credit for the Fall practicum, which they can use to meet their 6-credit re-certification requirement.The schedule of activities will vary from course to course, but the general plan calls for a morning discussion that is split between place-based teaching pedagogy and Agri-science content knowledge. The remainder of the day will be spent modeling place-based teaching; moving the classroom outside. Field-based activities will be organized around that week's subject area and will re-enforce content skills and knowledge as well as demonstrate lessons that might be used in the classroom. Many of these field activities will be led by partner organizations providing a direct link for teachers to professionals working in the natural resource or agriculture industry. In addition, there will be several less formal evening presentations that may involve local content experts.A continuous improvement model will be used for course evaluation during the week of course delivery. Daily formative assessment in the form of "Exit Tickets," will be used and summative assessment will occur in the form of written lesson plans and a slide presentation.The courses will be assessed at the completion of each week using classroom assessment techniques in accordance with the University of Alaska Anchorage's curriculum assessment guidelines. IDEA surveys will be used for course evaluation and will provide anonymous quantitative data in the form of numeric scores for questions and qualitative data in the form of student comments to specialized questions. Instructors will collect and use assessment data to support curriculum modifications, and data will be shared with the AK12PD advisory board to support program modifications in a continuous quality improvement model.Educator outcomes will be measured through pre and post course surveys. The pre-course survey will measure prior knowledge in the course content, PBE, and inclusion of IK in lessons. A post-course survey at the end of the school year will measure inclusion of Agri-science course content, PBE, and IK in the classroom with feedback on success or challenges. Participating teachers will be encouraged to survey student's knowledge and interest in Agri-science fields pre and post teaching of their lesson/unit to see if the students are more likely to pursue education and/or a career in a related field.

Progress 06/01/24 to 05/31/25

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project period were Alaska K-12 educators from rural/remote Alaska. Alaska has 53 school districts with five districts considered large or more urban. These include the largest, Anchorage School District, with 42, 573 students enrolled PK-12, Mat-Su School District, Fairbanks-North Star, Kenai, and Juneau school districts. The remainder of the school districts in the state are classified as rural/ remote with fewer than 4000 students. The smallest district is Pelican School District with 12 students. Smaller districts were the main target audience because they often have teachers covering several grade spans who do not have a science background. Changes/Problems:During summer 2024 we did not meet our target of 30 teachers participating in professional development courses. This was due to last-minute cancellations caused by family emergencies and travel (air) disruption. When a cancellation happens, every effort is made to try to fill that seat in a course. However, often teachers already have summer plans and are not able to take advantage of the last-minute opportunity. In addition, we would have liked to have seen greater participation from teachers in rural/remote communities. Often there is a barrier to participation due to the high cost of transportation in Alaska from remote villages. While we do provide a travel stipend, this usually does notcover all the costs incurred for travel. Many school districts will cover this difference but teachers need to know to request these professional development funds. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three unique, week-long professional development courses were offered during the summer of 2024. A total of 27 teachers participated from twelve different school districts. Nine of these school districts were rural/remote districts and three were urban. Eighteen of the teachers were from a district classified as rural/remote. The courses provide a week of content-rich days immersed in classroom and field exercises to help deepen pedagogy. Teachers walk away with lesson plans, resources, tools to fit the curriculum into a classroom, and examples of place-based lesson planning. These collaborative courses allow teachers to meet and network with other educators. They are also introduced to resources within the state that can provide partnerships to support the classroom and career connections that teachers can develop with their students. Teachers also earned three, 500-level credits for the course. 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?Develop and market three unique, week-long professional development courses to be delivered summer 2025. Course subject areas will include Marine Ecology and Mariculture, Coastal Ecology, and Ecology of Galcier Bay. These courses will be marketed to Alaska K-12 teachers with preference to teachers from rural and remote school districts. In an attempt to increase particpation from rural/remote school districts, lists that have contact information will be updated to include the best person to contact in a district regarding professional development opportunitiesand direct outreach will be done through targeted emails.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? AK12PD seeks to increase inclusion of place-based agriculture and natural resource related lessons in Alaska schools by helping certified teachers, many of whom are teaching outside of their qualified discipline, to be better prepared as both practitioners and teachers of natural resource and agriculture content areas. During summer 2024, three week-long teacher professional development courses were developed and delivered. These courses were Environmental Science: Changing Ecological Systems, Boreal Ecology, and Resilient Food Systems. Each course includes place-based teaching pedagogy as well as science content area focused around the week's theme. The Environmental Science: Changing Ecological Systems course was based in Cordova, Alaska. Ten teachers participated in the course: seven from small districts and three from large districts. None of the teachers would be considered a science specialist. They all taught multiple disciplines and/or multiple grades. For example, one teacher was a secondary generalist teaching grades 7-12 science, math, and technology. Another teacher taught 6-12 English Language Arts, Social Studies and Science. The course models place-based education pedagogy through introduction of a daily science content topic and then experience through hands-on activities. Daily topics included Microplastics, Marine Debris, Changing Climate, Nutrient Cycling, and Ethnobotany. Place-based activities that supported these topics included a boat trip on Prince William Sound where students collected water samples that were analyzed for microplastics, took environmental water quality data, and collected plankton that were observed under a microscope. When discussing changing climate, students kayaked on a glacial lake and observed a glacier that has been rapidly receding. They were also introduced to primary and secondary succession and were able to see this in progress. An anonymous post-course survey was conducted, and the course was overall rated a 10 out of 10 (10=Amazing, 1=Terrible.) All students indicated they had learned new content and felt the course was relevant. On a Likert scale of 1-5 the statement, "The course improved my ability to utilize place-based teaching methods" scored a 4.9 (1=Strongly Disagree, 5=Strongly Agree.) When asked how the course will impact your teaching responses included, "More awareness of science content and I can look for interdisciplinary connections with more confidence now," and "This course will make me a more placed based teacher. It gave me a better understanding of how to incorporate local culture in my classroom." The Resilient Food Systems, a newly designed course, was also based in Cordova, Alaska. Nine teachers participated in the course: eight from small districts and one from a large district. All were generalist teachers that covered multiple grades and/or multiple disciplines. For example, one was a home school support teacher that taught K-12. Another taught grades 3-8 Language Arts, Math, and Science. The course models place-based education pedagogy through introduction of a daily science content topic and then experience through hands-on activities. Daily topics included Mariculture, Native Plant Gardening, Hydroponics, Responsible Foraging, and Composting/Mushroom Farming. Place-based activities that supported these topics included a boat trip to an oyster farm in Prince William Sound where the farmer discussed the process of farming oysters. For the topic of hydroponics, the teachers learned several methods for hydroponics that were low cost and could be implemented in a village. They built a small passive system using the Kratky Method and also built a system using "junk" recycled from the community. An anonymous post-course survey was conducted, and the course was overall rated a 9.8 out of 10 (10=Amazing, 1=Terrible.) All students indicated the course benefitted them as an instructor. On a Likert scale of 1-5 the statement, "The course improved my ability to utilize place-based teaching methods" scored a 4.6 (1=Strongly Disagree, 5=Strongly Agree.) When asked how the course will impact your teaching responses included, "I now have the knowledge to go back and help my students and their parents Learn about and utilize various methods of gardening and foraging for food security," and "I'll hopefully start a hydroponics growing for plants as soon as I can." The Boreal Ecology was also a newly designed course and was based in Fairbanks, Alaska. Eight teachers participated in the course: 3 from small districts and five from large school districts. Most were generalist teachers with one being a science teacher who taught all science subjects for the high school where she works. The course models place-based education pedagogy through introduction of a daily science content topic and then experience through hands-on activities. Daily topics included Green Energy, Boreal Fire Ecology, Stream Ecology/Salmon, Permafrost, and Adaptations. Place-based activities that supported these topics included a hike through the boreal forest with an educator from Project Learning Tree to discuss fire ecology and participate in activities from the PLT curriculum. For the permafrost topic the class participated in a tour of the Department of Defense permafrost tunnel learning about permafrost and current research. The class also visited the University of Alaska Large Animal Research Facility to learn about adaptations of animals found in the boreal forest. The class also participated in a behind-the-scenes tour at the Museum of the North where they learned about the ongoing research projects and were introduced to educational opportunities available to classroom teachers. An anonymous post-course survey was conducted, and the course was overall rated a 9.9 out of 10 (10=Amazing, 1=Terrible.) All students indicated the course benefitted them as an instructor and that material was relevant. On a Likert scale of 1-5 the statement, "The course improved my ability to utilize place-based teaching methods" scored a 5 (1=Strongly Disagree, 5=Strongly Agree.) When asked how the course will impact your teaching responses included, "Will hugely impact my Place Based education for the village and community with my kids!," and "This class sharpened and clarified my use of vocabulary, vastly increased the connections in my knowledge of place based learning, created indelible bonds with a geographically spread out pool of teachers which is crucial for networking, and taught me new software for presenting to students." In summary, the three, week-long professional development courses were a success and delivered relevant place-based teaching pedagogy as well as science content. The impact of the courses is more far reaching than just the 27 teachers that participated in the course. If each teacher transfers something that they learned during the week to just ten students, during the next school year a minimum of 270 students will have been impacted. In addition, the model of immersive, place-based professional development continues to provide deeper connections between not only the material but also between participants. As one teacher stated, "The non-traditional, more hands-on application of learning was much appreciated. Most PD opportunities are conglomerations of sterile, bureaucratic presentations which often desensitize the teacher from authentic learning in exchange for a better understanding of how to meet bureaucratic standards. The PWSC course refreshes the teachers sense and love of learning and intrigue. In many ways they model effective teaching/learning."

Publications


    Progress 06/01/23 to 05/31/24

    Outputs
    Target Audience:The target audience for this project period were Alaska K-12 educators from rural/remote Alaska. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three unique, week-long professional development courses were offered during the summer of 2023. A total of 30 teachers participated from fourteen different school districts. Eleven of these school districts were rural/remote districts and three were urban. Twenty of the teachers were from a district classified as rural/remote. The courses provide a week of content-rich days immersed in classroom and field exercises to help deepen pedagogy. Teachers walk away with lesson plans, resources, tools to fit the curriculum into a classroom, and examples of place-based lesson planning. These collaborative courses allow teachers to meet and network with other educators. They are also introduced to resources within the state that can provide partnerships to support the classroom and career connections that teachers can develop with their students. Teachers also earned three, 500-level credits for the course. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The "for Teachers" professional development model was presented at the Alaska Association of School Boards conference on Nov 10, 2023. The project was presented in a "snapshot presentation" format that provided the opportunity to discuss the professional development courses with school board members from around the state during four 15-minute windows. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Develop and market three unique, week-long professional development courses to be delivered summer 2024. Course subject areas will include Environmental Science: Changing Ecological Systems, Boreal Ecology, and Resilient Food Systems. These courses will be marketed to Alaska K-12 teachers with preference to teachers from rural and remote school districts.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? AK12PD seeks to increase inclusion of place-based agriculture and natural resource related lessons in Alaska schools by helping certified teachers, many of whom are teaching outside of their qualified discipline, to be better prepared as both practitioners and teachers of natural resource and agriculture content areas. For the summer of 2023, three, week-long teacher professional development courses were developed and delivered: Phenomena-based Environmental Science, Marine Ecology, and Coastal Ecology.

    Publications