Non Technical Summary
The Agriscience Metaverse Academy will bring together agriculture teachers from Tennessee and Nebraska to learn how to create and deliver immersive experiences in virtual settings to teach agriscience content. The evolution of virtual reality (VR) allows teachers to bring experiences, like touring a dairy barn or visiting a greenhouse, to students regardless of economic constraints and physical mobility. This year-long, prolonged professional development program will bring together 28 teachers across two states to engage in virtual collaborations through the metaverse, a fully immersive and interactive online environment, in addition to attending a 5-day in-person workshop. During the workshop, teachers will learn how to teach with virtual reality and will work in pairs to develop 14 new lesson plans around six different agricultural content areas using VR activities. Additionally, each teacher will receive a class set of 11 Meta Quest 2 VR headsets and a 360° camera. Expected outcomes include students with increased access to agricultural experiences, leading to increased levels of agricultural literacy and interest in entering the agricultural workforce.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
903	7410	3020	100%

Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
7410 - General technology;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;

Goals / Objectives
The objectives of the Agriscience Metaverse Academy (AMA) are:improve teachers' knowledge of virtual reality (VR) technology for educational settings,improve teachers' knowledge of Metaverse applications and uses,increase teachers' ability to use virtual reality, specifically Immersive Metaverse Experiences (IME), as a context for teaching food and agriculture conceptsinitiate virtual reality collaboration between teachers

Project Methods
Members of the project team at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) will create, review, and deliver the AMA training. Implementation of this project has been subdivided into 5 phases, described as follows:Phase 1: Development of AMA Materials and Online ModulesPhase 1 is devoted to the development of the Agriscience Metaverse Academy (AMA), which includes the design of Immersive Metaverse Experience (IME) learning activities and related curriculum to illustrate how carefully identified and planned IME integrated activities function to stimulate interest, enhance learning, engage discussion, and bridge knowledge gaps regarding agricultural literacy. The two IME integrated activities to be developed will provide basic agriscience content knowledge, an IME activity, and student reflection and assessment instruments. Instructional materials will be included to introduce topics, describe the agricultural context of each IME-integrated activity, and facilitate knowledge transfer to students. All teacher materials will include instructor notes.Once each IME-integrated activity is designed and tested, Drs. Conner and Granberry will further develop the associated curriculum to include learning objectives, student instructions, and supplemental teaching materials. Instructional materials will include a listing of necessary supplies and equipment, technology resources, and easy-to-follow "how to" instructions. For agriculture teachers who participate in the PD, VR headsets will be provided to facilitate student learning activities. Additionally, assessment tools will be developed to encourage student reflection and analysis of learning. During Phase 1, Dr. Ruth will develop three online modules to introduce participants to the goals of the AMA. Modules will provide participants with an introduction to VR headsets and a foundation to explain IME in education.Phase 2: Participant RecruitmentTwenty-eight secondary agriculture teachers from Tennessee and Nebraska will be recruited to participate in a one-year professional development program designed to demonstrate the educational applications of IME in secondary agriculture classrooms. Teachers will be invited to apply to participate in the PD using an application distributed via email listservs and ALEC social media pages for UTK and UNL. To be eligible to participate, teachers must teach secondary agriculture courses during the academic year following the in-person PD. Fourteen teachers from each state will be selected for the program.Phase 3: Implementing the Agriscience Metaverse Academy Phase 3 represents participation in one of two face-to-face 5-day workshops conducted by the ALEC Departments at UTK and UNL. Prior to the 5-day workshops, each participating teacher will be shipped a Meta Quest 2 VR headset and complete three online learning pre-modules leading them through the setup and basic functionality of the device and the principles of VR. All modules will be completed by participants prior to the face-to-face PD to allow them to engage more easily in the content once in person. To demonstrate their understanding of the technology and its collaborative potential, all teachers will participate in an onboarding meeting in a metaverse setting. Hosted by the application "Spatial," cohorts will meet in small groups and interact using virtual avatars. This initial meeting, led by Dr. Greig, will allow participants to explore a virtual environment and experience interacting with other avatars. The subsequent face-to-face workshops will introduce information centered on the educational applications for IME in agricultural content areas. After the basis for IME has been established, teachers will complete, as students, two IME integrated activities developed for the workshop at the in-person PD. One activity will demonstrate a VR field trip, while the other will include aspects of the Metaverse to bring in a guest speaker from another location to discuss career opportunities in food and agricultural sciences.Merely providing two "ready to go" IME integrated activities will not sustain long-term evolution in the teaching methodology of high school agriculture teachers. In order to encourage the teachers to further integrate IME into the courses they teach, the teachers participating in the workshop will receive hands-on instruction on how to capture 360° images and utilize those images with VR headsets for instruction in their classes. Additionally, teachers will be paired and tasked with developing an IME integrated lesson and corresponding educational materials with assistance from technology and pedagogical experts from UNL and UTK. Teachers will be informed of this expectation when they register for the program.Each IME integrated activity developed by teachers will adhere to the following parameters: 1) Each will be associated with one of seven agriculture career pathways that are present in both Nebraska and Tennessee standards (Agribusiness; Agricultural Engineering, Industrial, and Mechanical Systems; Animal Systems; Biotechnology Systems; Environmental and Natural Resource Management; Food Products and Processing; Plant Sytems). 2) Each activity will represent a current agricultural industry application. 3) Each will use a VR headset to incorporate an IME that is related to the agricultural content of the lesson. Upon conclusion of the two 5-day face-to-face workshops, 14 additional IME activities will be drafted for implementation in the classroom.Phase 4: Curricula Materials ImplementationAfter the 5-day face-to-face workshops, participants are expected to implement the two predeveloped IME integrated activities and the activity they developed during the workshop into one or more courses throughout the subsequent academic year. Additionally, each teacher will be required to utilize their 360° camera to develop at least one VR-compatible resource related to their local agricultural resources. Teachers will be informed of this requirement before participating in the PD. Instructional and content support will be provided through two follow-up metaverse meetings, one during each semester, during which teachers will be encouraged to share their experiences using IME in their classrooms and creating IME activities. Furthermore, Canvas, a learning management platform, will be used to support teachers. Through Canvas, cohorts of teachers engaged in the program will have ready access to instructional support materials and related discussion boards for peer support. Minimally, it is expected this project will directly impact 420 high school students (28 teachers with an average class size of 15 students) per year. However, the indirect impact should be significantly higher as all IME integrated activity instructions, and related curricula materials will be provided online and open access.Phase 5: Summative Evaluation and DisseminationThe project team will complete a summative evaluation of the project and disseminate findings associated with the project outcomes and impacts. Consideration will be given to process indicators that relate to the accomplishment or failure of project outcomes. The summative evaluation will be informed by data collected during the formative evaluation (see "Evaluation Plans" below for details). Furthermore, curricula materials and online modules will be disseminated to schools and teachers beyond Nebraska and Tennessee (see "Communicating Results/Dissemination Plan below). Findings and outcomes will be disseminated through various outlets, including but not limited to, education and research conferences (state, regional, and national), journals, state and national teacher listservs, and the ALEC Lab website at UTK. We will also share project outcomes at UNL and UTK through social media.