Progress 05/15/24 to 05/14/25

Outputs
Target Audience:ACRE 2.0, Cohort 1, reported on in the prior progress report, began in person in June 2023 with 28 teachers and extended through the spring follow-up day, March 1, 2024, with 28 teachers attending at MSU. The 28 ACRE 2.0 cohort 1 participants reflected teachers five from elementary levels, eight from middle school levels, and 15 from high school levels. ACRE 2.0, Cohort 2 began in-person in July 2024 with 26 participants and held a fall follow-up day on September 23, 2024, with 26 teachers attending. Cohort two contained four elementary teachers, five middle school teachers, and 16 high school teachers and one library/media specialist. All of the 26 teachers who attended the fall follow-up day. For the spring follow up day, Feb. 10, 2025, twenty five teachers attended. Changes/Problems:Based on data from the participants' ACRE 2.0 cohort 2 post-institute interviews, there are no plans currently to change the program. For the enumeration of program benefits for teachers and students, please see the section above, What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? On the fall 2024 follow-up day survey, 100% of participating teachers reported finding the ACRE 2.0 institute valuable, their knowledge has increased, and they have shared ACRE 2.0 content with colleagues. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided numerous training and professional development opportunities in the form of guest lecturers, field excursions, and materials/activities for classroom use, all of which provide authentic experiences. Additionally, participants met university faculty from various disciplines and departments which afforded numerous opportunities for mentorships. During this reporting period, the ACRE 2.0 project has included: Speakers Topics presented by various university faculty included: cheesemaking; sensory evaluation of foods; dairy processing; flavor and health, Mississippi commodities; embryo development and growth; farm to fork; food preservation/processing/chemistry; food safety/contamination; principles of handwashing; What's in a Label?; Navigating Food Claims; osmosis; egg quality testing; and, poultry business. Faculty included: Dr. Crist, Dr., White, Dr. Conrad, Jessica Wells, Kelley Wamsley, Stephanie Lemley, and Carley Morrison. MSU faculty make themselves available to the ACRE 2.0 teachers in numerous ways as exemplified by this comment by Mandy Conrad, PhD, RDN, LD, on March 1, 2024. "If one of your students is interested in diet and nutrition, send them my way." Participating teachers are able to build lasting partnerships with the MSU faculty members. Literacy strategies (e.g., systems thinking and mapping, Think-Pair-Share, Meaning Predictions chart, Nearpod, Knowledge Ladders, RAFT strategies, story impressions, written conversation, admit/exit slips, student friendly vocabulary explanation, "What do you see?", write about, Found Poem, LINK, Hero Scientist Trading Cards,) are integrated with Ag science content throughout the institute. From the post-interview, when asked, "what literacy strategy from ACRE 2.0 do you plan to teach your students to access text and written passages?", one teacher responded, "Probably using more graphic organizers. I mean, I've used them in the past, but probably utilizing them more. I like the RAFT but I cannot remember what they stand for at this point in time but I did write up one of my lesson plans using that and I am going to actually implement. Like reading the book, I plan on doing that one as well and the think pair share. And there's that one about the vocabulary. I always use vocabulary that I plan on extending my vocabulary just because of time. I already give them the definition but I may have them draw or as we discuss, they can tell me how it utilized it." (414) Training and Professional Development Materials include: Texts: How Did That Get Into My Lunchbox?; Maddi's Fridge; Free Lunch; Chicks and Chickens; The Vocabulary Playbook: Learning Words that Matter; Visible Learning for Science, Grades K-12; 50 Instructional Routines for Developing Content Area Literacy; Jose Feeds the World, How a Famous Chef Feeds Millions; and Chickenology. Non-books: Ag Mags (Food Waste, Snacks, Sheep, Pork, Beef, Aquaculture, Poultry, Pizza, Dairy); bird rinse; 6-quart pot; induction cooktop; chicken life cycle exploration set; measuring set; play money set; goody bags; lemon juice; egg candles; silicone spatulas; vitamin C; Glo-Germ kit; beginning poultry kit; incubators for hatching eggs SEL resources: books (Free Lunch; How'd That Get into my Lunchbox?; Maddi's Fridge; Saturday at the Food Pantry; Lulu and the Hunger Monster; Food for Hope); videos (The Hungriest State; The Pillars of Agricultural Literacy) Training and Professional Development Field excursions include: Garrison Sensory Evaluation Lab; MSU Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion; Food Science Dairy Plant; and the Poultry Unit on MSU South Farm. Formative assessment data of the project's processes were collected routinely through end-of-day reflections, institute mid-point, and end checks, and informal conversations with participants throughout. Project leaders are responsive to the needs and inquiries of the participants. End of institute ideas and requests for continuing learning were also collected to inform the agendas/content of the two academic follow-up days. Request for topics of interest for the fall 2024 follow-up day was made in July 2024. Request for topics of interest for the spring 2025 follow-up day was made in September 2024. Teachers were able to explore career pathways in food, poultry, and Ag science during all ACRE days. Further, the field trips also allowed the teachers to learn more about career pathways in agriculture and food science. One of the benefits that teachers found after their year in ACRE 2.0 was that their students who were involved in classroom activities supported by the project learned about the opportunities available in the Ag industries. From the March 1, 2024, delayed post survey, one teacher wrote, "I love that my kids can start to see what kind of opportunities there are in the world. Not everyone is going to be a policeman, firefighter, or a doctor. I was amazed at how many other professions that can come out of Ag science. It's truly an eye opener". Below are included responses from the ACRE 2.0 cohort 2 post-institute interviews, to the question, "do you think ACRE 2.0 has benefited you? And if so, how?" "I think the students especially my students that like hands on activities. They will probably understand better by being hands on and being able to relate to real world experiences like using chicken eggs. It had the hands-on experience and then you see how it's actually brought to your table to eat because a lot of kids eat chicken, but they don't know how the chicken got to be the chicken in the store. Activities in relating to real world experience would be a good thing for them to do." (408) "ACRE has allowed me to reflect on my teaching practices and approach and has also motivated me to want to expose my students to different career paths that I didn't even know existed." (413) "Yes, so, a ton of ways, I kind of mentioned before, but you know one of the big things is aside from the actual instructional standpoint, but anytime you get to meet and network with people that are doing the in the same occupation, doing the same thing that you do on a day-to-day basis, that time that you get to spend together talking, it's invaluable. You're just able to add more tools to your tool bag and just become a better well-rounded educator..." (418) "Yeah, it definitely has. It's, give me that that desire to look into agriculture and I've always loved a lot of things about agriculture, but it really gave me a deeper love and appreciation for it and to bring that to my children and my students because I do see it as a dying, thing.... So I definitely think it has been life changing for me. I've enjoyed it. It was a wonderful workshop, very much poured into it was very well thought through. It was wonderful, so I definitely will be using it in my classroom and look forward to the upcoming sessions..." (425) "It was for me like it was like a big eye opener 'cause I didn't realize like all that went into like, I mean, I knew it probably took a lot to bring food into like Walmart and stuff, but I didn't realize like all the stuff you had to go through to get the food in there. Yeah, I didn't realize a lot of that and just all the career opportunities and we're in a small town.... Our kids don't know anything about what's out there in the world, so just all the career opportunities with food science alone was a huge eye opener to me and just being able to tell my kids about that, I think it's gonna be tremendous." (430) How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?ACRE 2.0, Cohort 1, teachers on the delayed post survey included the following examples of outreach to peer educators: ACRE activities are discussed in Science team meetings on site; "I have shared the reading strategies with my fellow teachers. I have also shared these with my student intern and my Junior observer that assists me in the classroom. They have asked me about strategies and I was happy that I could share." "PLC conversations with my fellow colleagues." "I presented the [ACRE] workshop information and strategies to my school and our elementary science teachers." "I shared with other Ag teachers about using the Food Science activities with other Ag teachers around the state. I showed them the competencies in our curriculum and how they can be used." Evidence of peer and parent outreach also includes a recruitment for ACRE 2024 power point; emails to colleagues; photo poster of workshop activities; state science teachers conference presentation power point. Five ACRE 2.0 teachers shared ACRE resources during a session at the statewide Mississippi Science Teachers Association (MSTA) Conference on October 21, 2024. Electronic resources from the session were shared on the MSTA website after the conference. Presentation title and authors: Lemley, S.M., Marlow, T., Bright, T., Miller, J. L., Adams, C. McGhee, N. & Tucker, D. (2024). Literacy and Instructional Strategies to Integrate Agriculture, Poultry, Dairy, and Food Safety Science in Your Classroom. Mississippi Science Teacher Association, Biloxi, MS. Evidence of peer and parent outreach includes a Parent newsletter to Kinder parents dated 9-16-24. (424) On the fall follow-up day survey, 100% of participating teachers reported they "have shared ACRE 2.0 content with colleagues" and 71% "have shared ACRE 2.0 content with the educational community at large." What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, the activities and content of the upcoming professional development days will address all ACRE 2.0 program objectives. Data from the cohort 2 delayed post surveys and interviews will be analyzedDuring the next reporting period, recruitment and selection of the ACRE 2.0 Cohort 3 will occur (this has already started). The 4-day Summer institute will be conducted with the 2025 new participating teachers, and the Fall 2025 follow-up day will be held. All MSU-based professional development ACRE days include instruction by university faculty on various Agriculture science literacy, instructional strategies, and leadership. These are achieved through presentations, excursions to Agricultural centers and farms, hands-on participant activities, and participant production of lessons plans reflecting the ACRE content and instruction.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: ACRE 2.0 teachers will improve their knowledge of food science and poultry science. Teachers will make connections to the appropriate grade-level curriculum implementing inquiry experiences to support student-centered food science and poultry science explorations in K-12 classrooms. Data comparing the pre-institute and delayed-post institute surveys provided evidence that ACRE 2.0 cohort 1 teachers' knowledge levels improved over the course of the year. On the post-institute survey, when asked, "On an assessment where I had to explain embryo development", 79% of teachers responded they would score at least 80%. (Pre-survey demonstrated 84% would score below 80%.) "On an assessment where I had to explain the difference between poultry products labeled with the following 'free-range,' 'organic,' 'no antibiotics added', 'natural', 'no hormones', 'pasture raised', 'free range', 'farm raised', and 'cage free birds', 89% of teachers responded they would score at least 80%. (Pre-survey demonstrated 80% would score below 80%.) "On an assessment where I had to explain the difference between food quality and food safety," 86% of teachers responded they would score at least 80%. (Pre-survey demonstrated 71% would score below 80%.) Data from the delayed-post institute interviews were submitted as written documentation. (Note: there was an issue with the WebEx software which eliminated the use of oral interviews.) These data demonstrate that ACRE 2.0 cohort 1 teachers have improved their knowledge of food and poultry science and implemented food and poultry science explorations. A typical teacher response: "I have used the materials that were provided in my "kit" to help my students better understand what all goes in to our food process. From preparing fields, sowing seed, growing and the hazards to growing, to harvest and consumption. We have explored the costs and how sometimes the costs outweigh the benefits." (316) ACRE 2.0 cohort 2 teachers also demonstrated improvement of their knowledge of food science and poultry science. Data comparing the pre-institute and post institute surveys provided evidence that ACRE 2.0 cohort 2 teachers' knowledge levels improved over the course of the 4-day institute. On the post-institute survey, when asked, "On an assessment where I had to label the anatomical organs of a chicken", 65% of teachers responded they would score at least 80%. (Pre-survey demonstrated 92% would score below 80%.) On the post-institute survey, when asked, "On an assessment where I had to explain embryo development", 77% of teachers responded they would score at least 80%. (Pre-survey demonstrated 84% would score below 80%.) On the post-institute survey, when asked, "On an assessment where I had to explain the benefits of food processing, 73% of teachers responded they would score at least 80%. (Pre-survey demonstrated 92% would score below 80%.) Data from the post-institute interviews also provided evidence that ACRE 2.0 cohort 2 teachers' knowledge levels improved over the course of the 4-day institute. When asked how the ACRE 2.0 institute has benefited them, teachers said, "Yes, definitely. It's definitely made me more agriculturally literate. I think that it has benefited me a lot to see like the science of it all and just being with other teachers who also teach that so yes, it has definitely benefited me." (407) "Absolutely. It got rid of some of my misconceptions like with the steroids and chicken, and opened my eyes to some of the careers that are available in the field. I had NO idea all that was there and it's right here at my student's fingertips." (409) Objective 2: ACRE 2.0 teachers will develop lesson plans incorporating appropriate standards and objectives that reflect their knowledge of food science and poultry science concepts and disciplinary literacy. Teachers will identify which socio-emotional learning skills they are teaching on their teacher developed lesson plans. These plans will be evaluated by peer participants with a rubric created by the ACRE 2.0 leadership team. 28 out of the 28 ACRE 2 cohort 1 teachers submitted one lesson plan after the PD. Many submitted a second plan at the spring follow up. As teachers increase integrating Ag literacy into their lessons, they realize the many benefits. On the March 1, 2024, delayed post survey, one teacher wrote, "Since my school is a rural school and many of my students are involved in FFA and rodeoing, it helps me make connections with my students. This eventually leads to relationships that extend past the classroom and after. Students love when teachers are interested in what they do." 26 out of the 26 ACRE 2 cohort 2 teachers have submitted one lesson plan at the summer institute. Twenty-one of them submitted a second plan at their spring follow up, Feb. 10, 2025. Data from the post-institute interviews also provided evidence that ACRE 2.0 cohort 2 teachers plan to incorporate socio-emotional learning skills into their lesson plans. And they improved their knowledge levels of socio-emotional learning strategies in addition to how teachers can support student centered agricultural science explorations. "I think you really gotta get the students involved in the learning process. Other words, really student teaching students and teachers are more facilitator. ... (416) Objective 3: ACRE 2.0 teachers will serve as teacher leaders in their classrooms and schools by disseminating ACRE 2.0 curriculum and promoting food science and poultry science concepts in their content areas and by promoting socio-emotional learning skills development in their students. Teachers will document their peer and parent outreach through two types of artifacts/evidence by the end of the spring semester. "ACRE 2.0 has most definitely benefited me with a plethora of literacy strategies and activities. It also has allowed me to network with other teachers across the state. I have learned so much information that also helps me personally in making decisions about my own food choices. The thing I have benefited most from is the support offered as I implement the Ag Science curriculum into my classroom." (304) One example of teacher leadership exhibits leadership beyond the school site. "I received a top three finalist in the state of Mississippi for the Presidential Award of Excellence in Math and Science for the 2023-24 school year. I wrote about my professional development in the ACRE program and the opportunities it opened up for me. I was able to teach a lesson to Master students at MSU and present at the Science [teachers] state conference through the people I met at ACRE. This has been an amazing professional development for me and I hope for others." (322) The second cohort of ACRE 2.0 teachers are serving as teacher leaders in their classrooms and schools by disseminating ACRE 2.0 curriculum, promoting food science and poultry science concepts in their content areas, and by promoting socio-emotional learning skills development in their students. After engaging in the SEL lessons at ACRE 2.0, what activities do you envision using to help students to be informed and engaged citizens? "Activities to promote informed and engaged citizenship include organizing debates on agricultural policy issues, inviting guest speakers from agricultural organizations, and facilitating community service projects related to food security or environmental sustainability." (420) "... I think it's very important that students do have some type of service projects." (425) " ... I think if they [students] are physically engaging in something, then they're gonna take ownership in it and they're gonna be more informed." (430)

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Lemley, S.M., Marlow, T., Bright, T., Miller, J. L., Adams, C. McGhee, N. & Tucker, D. (2024). Literacy and Instructional Strategies to Integrate Agriculture, Poultry, Dairy, and Food Safety Science in Your Classroom. Mississippi Science Teacher Association, Biloxi, MS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Under Review Year Published: 2025 Citation: Lemley, S.M. (under review). Civic agriculture: Empowering K-12 teachers to embrace the local to promote agricultural literacy. Literacy Research Association. Las Vegas, NV.
• Type: Other Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Lemley, S.M. (2024, April 16). Infusing socio-emotional learning into K-12 classrooms utilizing hunger as an agricultural context. Literacy in the Disciplines. https://literacy6-12.org/infusing-socio-emotional-learning-into-k-12-classrooms-utilizing-hunger-as-an-agricultural-context/
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2025 Citation: Lemley, S.M., Morrison, C.C., Crist, C., White, S., Wamsley, K.G.S., & Wells, J. (accepted). Four-day teacher professional development increases agricultural literacy awareness, tackles food science and poultry science misconceptions. American Society of Animal Science-Southern Section. Arlington, TX. April 5-9, 2025.

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

Outputs
Target Audience:The ACRE 2.0 program targets K-12 teachers from districts across Mississippi who seek to increase their own agricultural literacy and that of their students. Teachers must be employed at an elementary, middle or high school in Mississippi. Recruitment efforts included targeting teachers by contacting school district administration and through social media. Thirty in-service teachers applied to participate in the 2023-2024 Cohort 1 of the ACRE 2.0 Professional Development program. Out of those 30 applicant teachers, 28 participated in the June 2023 4-day institute and 26 participated in the September 2023 follow-up day at MSU. Changes/Problems:ACRE 2.0 in June 2023 was a 4-day professional development institute on the MSU campus. Shortening the institute from previous ACRE 10-day institutes and from the planned one-week summer learning experience resulted in a much larger level of participation. Focus was given to applicants from the target districts and recruitment was statewide. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided numerous training and professional development opportunities in the form of guest lecturers, field excursions, and materials/activities for classroom use, all of which provide authentic experiences. Additionally, participants met university faculty from various disciplines and departments which afforded numerous opportunities for mentorships. During this reporting period, the ACRE project has included: Speakers Topics presented by various university faculty include: Food Safety Practices; Mississippi Commodities; Embryo Development and Growth; Farm to Fork; Food Preservation/Processing/Chemistry; Food Sensory Evaluation; Fermentation; What's in a Label?; Navigating Food Claims; Food Deserts; Meat Chemistry and Cuisine; HATCH Project/Poultry; Literacy strategies (e.g., Meaning Prediction through Think Pair Share; Meaning Predictions chart; Jamboard; RAFT; Story Impressions; Written Conversation; Admit/Exit Slips; Student Friendly Vocabulary Explanations; What do you see?; Write About; Found Poem; LINK strategy; I used to think... Now I think... strategy; Carousel; science hero trading cards; Possible Sentences; Quick Writes; NEWSELA articles at varying lexile levels) are integrated with Ag science content throughout the institute. SEL resources: books (Be Kind; I Am Kind; Free Lunch; How'd That Get into my Lunchbox?; and Maddi's Fridge); videos (Food deserts of Memphis, You Tube video, The Guardian; The Hungriest State, MSU Films) Training and Professional Development Materials include: Texts: How Did That Get Into My Lunchbox?; Maddi's Fridge; Free Lunch; Chicks and Chickens; Ag newspapers from Ag Foundation (e.g., Farming Practices; Poultry; Soybeans), Non-books: Ag Mags; Ag career posters, glow germ gel, Chick Life Cycle Exploration Set; baby chicks hatching video; Training and Professional Development Field excursions include: MSU Dairy Farm; MSU Meat Lab; the Leveck Animal Research Center (specifically the poultry unit) Formative assessment data of the project's processes were collected routinely through end-of-day reflections, institute mid-point, and end checks, and informal conversations with participants throughout. Project leaders are responsive to the needs and inquiries of the participants. End of institute ideas and requests for continuing learning were also collected to inform the agendas/content of the two academic follow-up days. Request for topics of interest for the fall 2023 follow-up day was made in June 2023. Request for topics of interest for the spring 2024 follow-up day was made in September 2023. Teachers were able to explore career pathways in food, poultry, and Ag science during the institute and fall follow-up day. During lunch panels, teachers heard from representatives from Cal Maine Foods. Further, the field trips also allowed the teachers to learn more about career pathways in agriculture and food science. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results from the first year of the ACRE 2.0 project have thus far been disseminated to communities of interest. Teachers have reported: "I have shared it across my district at the local Career Tech Day for 3rd and 4th graders. I [shared] the egg posters, and the egg development to discuss different areas of agriculture. ... I have discussed and shown otherag teachers in the state the information we learned and some of the resources we received. I showed them how I used them in my class ..."; "I have ... shared information with a couple of my colleagues in my same grade band. It's been a fantastic opportunity to break down the key features and benefits, encouraging my colleagues to explore the platform. I even convinced 2 of my colleagues to sign up for the Farm to Classroom Professional Development. They participated in it and loved it. Like me, they were unaware of how to integrate agriculture into their lessons until after the class. It's been a rewarding experience so far, seeing the enthusiasm grow as more educators get on board."; "... I have talked to other teachers about how we made sausage at our last ACRE 2.0 class. We were able to cook and share sausage with our co-workers during school."; from classroom lessons, "Students learned that all goods must begin with raw materials. They learned that farmers play an important role in making sure goods are available for us to buy in the store. In my classroom we completed the lesson by reading Thank a Farmer by Maria Gianferrari. I also shared some videos with the students on how farmers produce different things and how they are processed. The videos featured the soybean process from planting, growing, to harvest, and cotton from planting in the fieldcleaning,processing, separating seeds and hulls forcattle consumption, shipping to farms, and cotton storage at thecotton gin in bags for shipping. The students also were able to see the machinery associated with the process.In the end students learned that there are many different steps that a product must go through before theend productsarrive on the store shelf." Two ACRE 2.0 teachers shared ACRE resources during a session at the statewide Mississippi Science Teachers Association (MSTA) Conference on October 22, 2023. Electronic resources from the session were shared on the MSTA website after the conference. Presentation title and authors: Lemley, S.M., Clary, R.M., Marlow, T., Bright, T., Reed, K., & Tucker, D. (2023). Integrating Agriculture and Active Literacy Strategies in Your Student-Centered Science Classroom. Mississippi Science Teacher Association, Biloxi, MS. Further, two ACRE 2.0 teachers spoke to EDE 8733: Elementary/Middle Science Methods in July. They spoke about activities/labs they do in their classes and brought in information from ACRE 2.0 content. The ACRE 2.0 grant was featured on the MSU website (https://www.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2023/09/msu-grant-project-brings-agricultural-literacy-mississippi-classrooms) and on WXXV News (https://www.wxxv25.com/msu-grant-project-brings-agricultural-literacy-to-mississippi-classrooms/_) What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, 2/1/24 through 1/31/25, the activities and content of the upcoming professional development days will address all ACRE 2.0 program objectives. During this next reporting period, the ACRE 2.0 Cohort 1 spring follow-up day March 1,2024, will be held on the MSU campus where delayed post-survey data will be collected. Remaining teacher-created lesson plans will be collected and shared. For the spring 2024 follow up, teachers will experience a session in systems thinking and mapping and will learn more about food science. After the spring 2024 follow up session, final delayed interviews will occur via WebEx. Recruitment and planning for the 2024 summer learning experience will continue. A summer institute will be held as well as a fall 2024 follow-up day for the second teacher cohort of ACRE 2.0. Program assessment data are collected to measure the efficacy of the objectives. Those measures include pre-post surveys, reflections, and pre-post interviews. These data-gathering tools and the data gathered were reviewed by the ACRE leadership team prior to the June 2023 start of ACRE 2.0.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Throughout this first year, the ACRE 2.0 Project has provided in-service teachers with opportunities to increase their food science and poultry science knowledge and understanding and the tools to incorporate agricultural science literacy into their classrooms. Data from surveys and interviews were collected and analyzed to demonstrate these accomplishments. Objective 1: ACRE 2.0 teachers will improve their knowledge of food science and poultry science. Teachers will make connections to the appropriate grade-level curriculum implementing inquiry experiences to support student-centered food science and poultry science explorations in K-12 classrooms. Teachers experienced authentic explorations in the field during the ACRE 2.0 program to the MSU Leveck Animal Research Center [South Farm] Poultry Research Unit and the Meat and Muscle Biology Lab. Hands-on learning is a large part of the ACRE 2.0 program. In addition to the field experiences, replicable classroom activities included sensory evaluation activities, food sensory perception lessons, added sugar in beverages lesson, USDA taste testing activities, ice cream in a bag, oxidation of fruit, and dressing up a mixture activities, fermentation in a bag, bread in a jar, and glogerm activities. Teachers received lesson plans for all of the food science activities and received glogerm in their teacher kit to use with their students. Data from the post-institute interviews demonstrate that ACRE 2.0 teachers have improved their knowledge of food and poultry science. A typical teacher response: "... I learned a lot of the processes that go into as far as how you process the meat and what it goes through, and how their quality controls inspect ...." (316) Data from the post-institute interviews demonstrate that ACRE 2.0 teachers plan to implement food and poultry science explorations. "... getting them that experience with going to the farm and how the process of how does this chicken get on your plate? Like learning the process. And how does this milk get in your glass?" (311) "[ACRE 2.0] opened my eyes to all of the jobs out there that kids could do in the agricultural industry and just introducing that in 5th grade like things they can do and they can go ahead and prepare for." (323) "I know I'm going to use more of the USDA healthy meals things and then I'm going to do the Hatch out program so that they can get more hands-on and just bring in more of the experts to give them more hands-on..." (314) Pre-post data from the institute surveys provided additional evidence. On the post-institute survey, when asked, "On an assessment where I had to explain embryo development", 83% of teachers responded they would score at least 80%. (Pre-survey demonstrated 84% would score below 80%.) "On an assessment where I had to explain the difference between poultry products labeled with the following 'free-range,' 'organic,' 'no antibiotics added', 'natural', 'no hormones', 'pasture raised', 'free range', 'farm raised', and 'cage free birds', 82% of teachers responded they would score at least 80%. (Pre-survey demonstrated 80% would score below 80%.) "On an assessment where I had to explain the difference between food quality and food safety," 86% of teachers responded they would score at least 80%. (Pre-survey demonstrated 71% would score below 80%.) From the survey data collected on September 21, 2023, when asked, "What poultry science and/or food science activities have you implemented from the summer?", ACRE 2.0 teachers provided several responses: "The difference between table eggs and fertilized eggs"; "Making SauerKraut from cabbage"; "I have incorporated reading passages about food comparison in different countries in how it shows history for different cultures"; "Fermentation"; "We did a sort the eggs into order based on the 29 days lifecycle of a egg". Objective 2: ACRE 2.0 teachers will develop lesson plans incorporating appropriate standards and objectives that reflect their knowledge of food science and poultry science concepts and disciplinary literacy. Teachers will identify which socio-emotional learning skills they are teaching on their teacher developed lesson plans. These plans will be evaluated by peer participants with a rubric created by the ACRE 2.0 leadership team. All 28 ACRE 2.0 teachers submitted lesson plans based on the content of the June 2023 institute. All plans reflect ACRE 2.0 content. No lesson plans were submitted based on the fall 2023 follow-up day however teachers are expected to submit one more plan by the end of the school year. At this point in the reporting cycle, the spring 2024 follow-up day has not yet occurred. Teachers will be expected to submit their second lesson plan by the end of April 2024. Objective 3: ACRE 2.0 teachers will serve as teacher leaders in their classrooms and schools by disseminating ACRE 2.0 curriculum and promoting food science and poultry science concepts in their content areas and by promoting socio-emotional learning skills development in their students. Teachers will document their peer and parent outreach through two types of artifacts/evidence by the end of the spring semester. Data from the post-institute interviews demonstrate that ACRE 2.0 teachers planned to promote socio-emotional learning skills development in their students. "One of the books that we read was, how did that get in my lunch box? There are so many students that really don't know about farming and agriculture and how the things get to the table or to their lunch box." (304) One teacher was inspired to learn more about her school community. "I'm now going to do some research about the population in my community for my school." (306). The post-interviews also reveal that teachers planned to share resources in their school communities. "ACRE 2.0 has benefitted me in so many ways. All of the hands-on activities and resources that I can take back to my class.... The resources... have been so valuable to take back and work with not only our classroom... to share with other teachers in our school district and ... outside of our school district..." (322) "I've known somewhat about agriculture, but I didn't really know how to kind of bring it into my classroom and what to do with that. So, [ACRE 2.0] has given me some good information on how to bring that in there and offer it to my students so they have more opportunities." (314) From the survey data collected on September 21, 2023, ACRE 2.0 teachers are implementing various socio-emotional learning skill development activities in their classrooms. These include: "students to research poverty levels targeted areas"; "We have open dialogue about emotions as well as reading passages on how to deal with emotions"; "We discussed and read the book Be Kind. Students were able to relate to the story line about being left out of activities."; "We read the book I am Kind. We have talked about how it feels to be included in activities and how it feels to be left out from activities."; "We cover SEL daily in Family Dynamics by digging deeper to relationship skills, social awareness, self-management, self-awareness, and making responsible decisions. We frequently have class discussions about our everyday lives so that everyone can understand that we all have different backgrounds; and that's okay!!"; "we do the FFA Salute every day." In addition to serving as teacher leaders in their own school communities, two ACRE 2.0 teachers presented a session at the state-wide science teachers conference in Biloxi, Mississippi, on October 22, 2023. Session title: Integrating Agriculture and Active Literacy Strategies in Your Student-Centered Science Classroom.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Lemley, S.M., & Morrison, C.C. (2023). Howd that get into my lunchbox: Taking a bite into ag literacy and socio-emotional learning. Mississippi Early Childhood Association, Meridian, MS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Lemley, S.M., Clary, R.M., Marlow, T., Bright, T., Reed, K., & Tucker, D. (2023). Integrating Agriculture and Active Literacy Strategies in Your Student-Centered Science Classroom. Mississippi Science Teacher Association, Biloxi, MS.