Source: University of Maryland Eastern Shore submitted to NRP
ASTEMA – ADVANCING STEM IN AGRICULTURE IN 1890 HBCUS - VIA TEAM ACTIVE EXPERIENTIAL WORK OF COLLEGE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH TRAVEL CAMP.
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1031261
Grant No.
2023-69018-41014
Cumulative Award Amt.
$749,958.00
Proposal No.
2022-12186
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2023
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2027
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[A7801]- Food and Agricultural Non-formal Education
Recipient Organization
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
11868 College Backborne Road
Princess Anne,MD 21853
Performing Department
Natural Sciences
Non Technical Summary
We propose the FANE project to attract high school and undergraduate students underrepresented in FANH and majoring in STEM disciplines, to apply their degrees in agriculture and food. THe title of the project is: ASTEMA - Advancing STEM in Agriculture in 1890 HBCUs - via Team Active Experiential Work of College and High School students with Travel Camp. High school students will work in teams with undergraduate students from PIs institution, and led by graduate student and faculty-mentors in two phases: (1) online webinars and workshops, that also will be recorded to form a library for future use, along with learning modules, professional development workshops, and leadership training during the academic year, followed by: (2) three-weeks summer travel camp where high-schools students will visit participating locations, tour HBCU's agricultural programs and facilities, and participate in team active experiential learning projects focused on precise irrigation in horticulture, and building small custom devices for agricultural use. The camp will end with a presentation and report written by teams. Project will contribute into creation a pipeline of career from high school - to college - to graduate school - to agricultural career for minorities in FANH and refugees. Webinars will be in genomics, biotechnology, interdisciplinary horticulture and phytochemistry, precise irrigation, small devices and sensors for agriculture, weather station, agricultural statistics and data analysis, use of drones, while active experiential learning will be in small devices, sensors, drones, and precise irrigation. The program will utilize best practices developed in the first three years of the current AFRI-EWD-REEU project focused solely on undergraduate students, but now adapted to the level understandable for high schoolers. All participants will have professional development and leadership training.
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
90322993020100%
Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
2299 - Miscellaneous and new crops, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
This project, called ASTEMA - Advancing STEM in Agriculture in 1890 HBCUs, is designed to attract high school and undergraduate STEM students underrepresented in FANH, to apply their degrees to career in food and agriculture.The goals of the program are:Providing training to STEM oriented high school minorities students from the east coast of US in college preparation and application of STEM majors in agriculture and food science.Providing training to highschooler's educators in application of STEM science in agricultureProvide training and leadership development to undergraduate students in team mentoring and application of STEM majors in agriculture.Creating series of recorded webinars library and supporting learning modules in fields of biotechnology, genomics, horticulture and phytichemistry, agricultural technology, and agricultural data science, college, and graduate school preparation, applying to federal jobs, leadership development.Conducting summer travel camp activities and team-based active experiential learning hands-on workshops in precise irrigation, use of drones, building of small devices and sensors for agriculture, growing and processing medical plants.The project will support followingUSDA Strategic Goals: the Goal 2 (Maximize the Ability of American Agricultural Producers to Prosper by Feeding and Clothing the World), and the Goal 3 (Promote American Agricultural Products) will be addressed by preparing STEM-educated minority workforce for agriculture and food science and industry; while the strategic Goal 4 (Facilitate Rural Prosperity and Economic Development) will be supported by promoting agriculture and food education in 1890 HBCUs in rural areas. Our project will align with AFRI-EWD goal of addressing projected shortfalls of qualified graduates in the agricultural, food, and renewable natural resources sectors of the U.S. economy, by promoting minority high school and college students to apply their STEM degrees in food and agriculture. By proposing yearlong training followed by three weeks of summer travel camp, where not only undergraduate, but also high school students will participate in team-based hand-on active experiential learning projects, being led by graduate student and faculty-mentors, would create a pipeline of career development from high school - to college - to graduate school - to agricultural career for minorities underrepresented on FANH sciences.
Project Methods
The focus on STEM disciplines in agriculture and food science instead of targeting agriculture directly is an important innovation and it is aligned with USDA need of more chemists, biologists, microbiologists, environmental engineers, and toxicologists.Curriculum: Several series of webinars will be recorded: Technology in agriculture, horticulture and phytochemistry; biotechnology; genomics, and preparation for college, graduate school, and government jobs. Each webinar will come with a supporting learning module with materials, check point questions and evaluation surveys.The amount of recorded webinars will grow every year of the project, as after running live for students, the recording of it can be reused. These materials will be available free of charge to everyone on the program web site. Materials can be incorporated in high school and college courses or used stand alone for extramural activities.Active Experiential Learning (AEL) in the lab during the summer camp:Active experiential learning (AEL) will be used both during webinars and during workshops on summer camp. This approach has shown promising results in undergraduate education. It promotes early involvement in interdisciplinary study, supports professional development and career building by showing how the student's field of study applies in other fields such as agriculture and food science. Although we can simulate the real world of interdisciplinary collaborations in the classroom and laboratory, experiential learning provides a more authentic and valuable opportunity preparing students for a professionGeneration Teaches Generation (GTG)The principle of Generation Teaches Generation (GTG), where graduate student trains undergraduate students, that in turn become an assistants and team leaders while working with high school students and educators, allows student to get educated not only by faculty mentors, but also by their peers, with whom they feel more comfortable to ask question and learn more about STEM majors and life in college. GTG in this project will be implemented in the environment of team learning pedagogy (TLP). ASTEMA experience prepares students to work in groups at their entry job positions in the future.Webinars libraryLive webinars will be developed and conducted each year of program and will be recorded, so by the ned the library of webinars will be available on demonad to all visitors of the program's website - teachers, students, and highschoolers.The following categories of webinars will be developed and delivered:Biotechnology lectures series and recorded webinars library. Two lectures annually will be presented live by Dr. Nataliya Punina from Athena Biopharmaceuticals LLC (LOS is attached) and recorded. By the end of the project, a library of 8 webinars will be created. This library will be available free of charge to not only students on the program but all other UES and local high school students via Jookender program web site.Genomics lectures series and recorded webinars library. Similarly, two annual webinars in genomics will be delivered by Dr. Nicolaus Makridakis from Athena Biopharmaceuticals LLC (LOS is attached)Agricultural and food technology, horticulture, phytochemistry, and agricultural statistics webinar series will be developed by PI Dr. Volkis and co-PI Dr. Ristvey. Two webinars annually will form a library of 8 webinars by the end of the project. Additionally, visiting lecturers will be appointed every year to highlight the field of their agricultural and food expertise.Leadership and professional development webinars will be conducted on monthly basis and will include preparation of resume, application to college and to graduate school, job search in government sector, conducting job interview, preparing scientific reports and presentations.Summer travel campActivities will include:Visiting 1890 and 1860 HBCU universities (UMES, Delaware State University and College Park University (UMCP)), learning about application process, programs in STEM and agriculture, graduate programs, and students life.4 days AEL workshop in building small devices and sensors for agriculture, where students will create one device per team of undergraduate and high school students and youth educators.. This part of training will take part at UMES. In addition, students will be broken into small groups and will get the opportunity to shadow researchers in PI's lab, learning the subject, application of STEM disciplines to this subject, methods, and goals. By the end of this observation, students will prepare a short report.Two days of workshops with medical pants - one for planting and soil analysis of medica plants, and the other one - in harvesting and processing medical herbs and preparation of medica teas. These activities will be conducted at Habanera Farms and will be led by Ms. Henriette Den Ouden, the farm owner and UMES herbal consultant (LOS is attached).4 days of Agricultural technology field trips and student learning lessons will be performed by Dr. Ristvey from Wye Research and Education Center of UMCP. Each lesson will be coordinated with a field trip to different University Research or Trial Farms.Lesson 1. Agricultural Research and Extension at a Land-Grant University. This lesson will give a basic (secondary education level) overview of agriculture in the US and the Land-Grant University System developed in the 1800s to educate farmers on US agriculture and technology.Lesson 2. Plant Nutrition and Soil. This lesson will focus on growth factors for plants including light, water, gases, and nutrients. It will also discuss the importance of soil, and its characteristics that allow it to provide nutrients to plants.Lesson 3. Agriculture Technology. This lesson will discuss technology used in agriculture from satellites to drones, and from weather stations to moisture sensors and how they help farmers make decisions.Lesson 4. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Drones) in agriculture.Research Farm Tours will be organized by Wye Research Center and will be led by Dr. Ristvey and by PI Volkis.University of Maryland, Eastern Shore's Crop Trial Research Center.University of Maryland, College Park Wye Research and Education Center Experimental fields.University of Maryland College Park Research Greenhouse. While touring the greenhouse, students will also visit UMCP campus and will learn about degrees, and the application process.Summer camp will be resumed by final presentation by teams of high school students and youth educators during the closing ceremony. Two types of presentations will be made: scientific - to faculty and students; and outreach presentation to farmers.Upon return homes, educators will be required to incorporate materials learned during the year in at least one course and submit a short report about it, while high school students will be encouraged to take high school research credit to present their summer projects. UMES undergraduate students assigned graduate students and participating faculty will get an opportunity to present results during the UMES regional research symposium and virtually at ACS National meeting.

Progress 09/01/24 to 08/31/25

Outputs
Target Audience:• High school students-trainees in the program • Master-level students - team leaders. • Graduate students-mentors • Instructors of high schools. • Parents of high school trainees • Faculty-trainers • Extension personnel • College students and administrators were affected during the presentation of results. • Communities of local farmers and local public communities during the outreach talks and presentations • Guest lecturers and guest extension agents from H-4 during the academic year. • Wider research community during presentations at national meetings. Changes/Problems:College students-leaders will be from master level classes, as described previously, with no effect on the budget. The rest is as planned, and we are on track with everything that was proposed for the project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The program provided a total of 12 STEM in agriculture webinars, ten professional development and leadership webinars, three weeks of summer camp experience that included six day-long field trips, three thematic weeks of activities, active,experiential learning, shadowing of researchers and extension agents, service learning, college visitations, working in groups with group leaders, meetings with college administration and with the admission department and honors programs, and opportunities to present to the scientific community, and to farmers and local communities. Special ice-breaking team-building sessions were provided, as well as two online and one in-person gaming evaluation and team-building sessions. A special webinar on how to maximize the outcomes of this FANE experience for future fellowship and college applications has been added. The opportunity for trainees to interact with college students from the research groups involved. Sixfield trips, visits to Land-grant universities and farms were provided. A website to assist trainees was provided. This website also posts ongoing information about available scholarships, internships, and year-long programs where students can apply. Teachers were allowed to apply what they learned in STEM to agriculture lessons. Two new lessons were created and piloted - one in agricultural chemistry, and one in agricultural molecular biology, for which materials and videos are available on the web page. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Trainees had the opportunity to present several outreach talks to farmers and local communities, and once a Research talk to the scientific community. College team leaders and instructors had the opportunity to present results at regional and national meetings through talks and posters. All curriculum materials, slides, assignments, and recordings of webinars, as well as lesson plans, workbooks, and demo-lessons recordings from teachers, are now available on the web page for everyone with full open access. The program was highlighted on the UMES website, on the relevant social media platforms, during the recruitment process, and in the local press. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?At the beginning of September 2025, we had a planning meeting of all co-PIs, collaborators, and external evaluators for debriefing the annual evaluation report. We are adjusting our planning for the 2025-26 cohort following the recommendations from that report. We have already accepted a new cohort of students and teachers and are now hiring student-team leaders. During the first cohort, we had sophomore students as team leaders, but they were not confident or sufficiently trained for the program's tasks. During our second cohort, we included undergraduate students who had just graduated and matriculated to master 's-level programs in our school (so we reported them as graduate students). We found them much more effective and helpful. For the third cohort, following recommendations from the external evaluator, we plan to keep master's level students as team leaders. This would not affect the budget, as these students receive support throughout the academic year and will only receive a stipend for the summer portion of the program, equivalent to the budgeted support for undergraduate students during the year. We plan to replace part of the webinar for new students with more current topics, including AI in agriculture and roof agriculture, a topic that many students from the previous year found very interesting. We will better organize shadowing and create more diverse opportunities, while keeping the rest of the activities the same as for the second cohort. We plan additional publications of results with participation of FANE students and teachers, nd presentations to farmers, community, and research conferences, including pedagogical talks. The web page is being permanently updated with new webinars, materials, and assignments.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The second cohort of high school students, college student leaders, and high school teachers was accepted to the program. The program started with the ice-breaking and introduction orientation meeting, followed by Zoom webinars twice a month: once a month, trainees received leadership and professional development webinars, and once a month, STEM in agriculturewebinars. All webinars were updated and modified in accordance with recommendations from the first cohort's evaluation report. New webinars were added: two biotechnology webinars and two genomics webinars; a new H-4 webinar on college and high school financial literacy; a new webinar on safety training in the lab; and a new webinar on technology and AI in agriculture. The program's web page was created, and all instructional materials, webinar videos, announcements, and more were placed on it, with open access to everyone. During the summer three-week camp, sequenced week-long thematic activities were conducted on three topics: Week 1-technology in agriculture, Week 2 - plant, soil, and phytochemistry, and Week 3 - sensory science. Activities included lectures, lab practice, field trips, conducting active experiential research in the lab, outreach activities, and presentations tofarmers, and tours of land grant universities in the area. New activities and demonstrations with large agricultural drones, hands-on shadowing opportunities in the labs, and, in extension, four full-time lab training sessions were added. This was followed by the opportunity for high school students to join for two days in one of the ongoing STEM-in-agriculture research projects.Three weeks of camp concluded with presentations on research and outreach, and certificates were issued to all trainees and instructors. As an extramural enrichment, tours of three land-grant colleges and visits to DC museums were added to the program. An evaluation report was prepared for the program's first year. Results were presented at regional and national conferences. Several students from the first cohort asked for letters of support for their college applications and were recently admitted to highly ranked colleges.

Publications

  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Aronia mitchurinii  New Generation of Super Fruits for Americans and Beyond Health Benefits. Keith Bratley1, Travis Ford1, Preeti Sharma, Andrew Ristvey2* and Victoria V. Volkis1 . 1- Department of Natural Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, MD 21853; 2 - University of Maryland Extension, Wye Research & Education Center, P.O. Box 169, Queenstown, MD 21658-0169. J. Berries Research. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1177/18785093241308676
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: The Influence of Temperature on the Antioxidants of Aronia mitschurinii Fruit Juice. Mohamed Abdelmotalab1, Breann V. Green1, Bokary Sylla1, Amit Sharma1, Deborah G. Sauder1, Andrew G. Ristvey2, and Victoria V. Volkis1*. 1Department of Natural Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, 1 Backbone Road, Princess Anne, MD 21853; 2Wye Research and Education Center, University of Maryland, Queenstown, MD 21658, USA. ACS Omega, 2024, 9(46), 46074-46090.
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2025 Citation: Development Methods for Using High-Pressure Extractors, Extraction and Automatic Steam Distillers Distillation for Aronia mitschurinii, Juvenile Ginger, and Holy Basil Plants. Sara Lahoff, Ezra Cable, Ryan More, and Victoria Volkis * Department of Natural Sciences, The University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, Maryland 21853, USA. MDPI Molecules 2025, 30(10), 2199; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules30102199
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2025 Citation: Aronia mitschurinii Encapsulated into Biocompatible Polymer as an Effective Solution for Antifouling Protection. Keith Bratley, William Weaver, and Victoria V. Volkis*. In press, ACS Omega, 2025.
  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2025 Citation: Development of an All-Natural, Organic Power Drink from Aronia Fruit Bokary Sylla*, Ludan Osman*, Kanaya Streeter*, Andrew G. Ristvey1**, Victoria V. Volkis1* Department of Natural Sciences, The University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, Maryland 21853, USA. Submitted to MDPI Molecules. 2025
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: 53. Whole plant holistic approach: Utilizing superfruits for healthy foods and using the waste for non-food-related applications. By: Bratley, Keith; Cable, Ezra E.; Sylla, Bokary; Streeter, Kanaya; Osman, Ludan; Weaver, William L.; Ristvey, Andrew G.; Volkis, Victoria. Abstracts of Papers, ACS Fall Meeting, 2024, Denver, CO., United States, 2024 (2024)


Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience: High school students-trainees in the program Undergraduate students - team leaders. Graduate students-mentors Instructors of high schools. The middle school students' community participated in online webinars. Faculty-trainers Extension personal College students and administrators affected during the presentation of results. Communities of local farmers and local public communities during the outreach talks and presentation Guest lecturers during the academic year. Wider research community during presentations at national meetings. Changes/Problems:We do not plan any significant changes. We plan to expand the scope of our webinars and add some additional active experiential earning activities during the summer cap, but it is all in the frame of a generally planned program. We are currently awaiting the results of the review for our new REEU proposal for the next five years after we successfully complete the five-year program. If this will be grated, we plan some activities to cause our FANE and REEU programs to interact to develop a feeling of a learning community and to let students at different levels share their experiences. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The program provided a total of ten STEM in agriculture webinars and ten professional development and leadership webinars, three weeks of summer camp experience that included five day-long field trips, three thematic weeks of activities, active, experiential learning, and opportunities to present to the scientific community, and to farmers and local communities. Special ice-breaking team-building sessions were provided. The opportunity for trainees to interact with college students from the REEU program was provided. Five field trips, visits to land grant universities, and farms were provided. A website to assist trainees was provided. For teachers, the opportunity to implement what they learned in STEM in agriculture lessons was provided. Two lessons were created and piloted, for which materials and videos are available on the web page. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Trainees had an opportunity to present three times the outreach talks to farmers and local communities, and one time - a research talk to the scientific community. College team leaders and instructors had an opportunity to present results at regional and national meetings in the form of talks and posters. All curriculum materials, slides, assignments, and recordings of webinars are now available on the web page for everyone as a fully open access. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?At the beginning of October 2024, we planned a meeting of all co-PIs, collaborators, and external evaluators for debriefing of the annual evaluation report. we will adjust our planning for the 2024-25 cohort following the recommendations from that report. We have already found a new cohort of students and teachers and are in the process of hiring student-team leaders. The first webinar is planned for September 30th, and we plan to again have about ten professional development and leadership and ten STEM in agriculture webinars. However, we will change some of the webinars to expand our library of instructional materials. We plan to include some basic artificial intelligence education for our cohort this year. We plan to better structure the three weeks of summer camp, devoting Mondays to college visitation, Tuesday-Thursday - for sequenced activities, and Fridays - for piloting teachers' classes and preparing presentations and reports by trainees. We plan to publish the first manuscript and present it at several regional and national conferences.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The first cohort of high school students, college student leaders, and high school teachers was accepted to the program. The program started with the ice-breaking and introduction orientation meeting, followed by Zoom webinars twice a month: once a month, trainees received leadership and professional development webinars, and once a month - STEM in agriculture webinars. The web page for the program was created, and all the instructional materials, webinar videos, announcements, and more were placed on that page, with open access to everyone. During the summer three-week camp, sequenced week-long thematic activities were conducted on three topics: Week 1 - small devices in agriculture, Week 2 - plant, soil, and phytochemistry, and Week 3 - sensory science. Activities included lectures, lab practice, field trips, conducting active experiential research in the lab, outreach activities and presentations to farmers, and tours of land grant universities in the area. Three weeks of camp ended with a presentation of research and outreach talks, and certificates were issued to all trainees and instructors. An evaluation report was created for the first year of the program. Results were presented at regional and national conferences, including pedagogical conferences.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: William Weaver1, Sasha Grebenyuk2, Andrew G. Ristvey3, and Victoria V. Volkis1 *1 - University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Department of Natural Sciences, Princess Anne, MD 21853; 2  WOM Communications LLC, 945 Concord St., Framingham, MA 01701; 3 - University of Maryland Extension, Wye Research & Education Center, P.O. Box 169, Queenstown, MD 21658-0169. Advancing STEM in Agriculture with Active Experiential Learning Engagement for High School and College Students Focused on Creation of Health Product from Super-fruits and Medical Herbs. ACS Spring National Meeting 224, New Orleans, LA, March 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: V. V. Volkis*, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Department of Natural Sciences, Princess Anne, MD 21853; A. G. Ristvey, University of Maryland Extension, Wye Research & Education Center, P.O. Box 169, Queenstown, MD 21658-0169; and W. Weaver, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Department of Natural Sciences, Princess Anne, MD 21853. Advancing STEM in Agriculture trough REEU- and FANE- Supported Active Experiential Learning Programs for College and High School Students. ARD National Biannual Meeting. Nashville, TN, April 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: V. Volkis and S. Grebenyuk. University of Maryland Eastern Shore, department of natural Sciences, Princess Anne, MD 21853 and WOM Communications LLC. Using Active Experiential Learning (AEL) and Groups Pedagogic Sequenced Activities in ASTEMA Internships  Advancing STEM in Agriculture. 2024 Lilly-Austing National Conference of Teaching and Learning. Austin, TX , May 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Ludan Osman1, Bokary Sylla1, Andrew G. Ristvey2, and Victoria V. Volkis1*. All-Natural Healthy Power Aid Drinks from Specialty Crops Rich in Antioxidants, Essential Oils, and Terpenes. 1 - Department of Natural Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, MD 21853; 2 - University of Maryland Extension, Wye Research & Education Center, P.O. Box 169, Queenstown, MD 21658-0169. Creating a Glucometer-Based Device to Observe the Ripening of Aronia mitschurinii. - ACS Spring National Meeting 2024, New Orleans, LA, March 2024. Selected to SciMix.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Ludan Osman, Bokary Sylla, and Victoria V. Volkis*. Department of Natural Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, MD 21853. Highly Nutraceutical Aronia Berry-Based Power Aid Drinks: Unleashing the Synergy of Antioxidants, Terpenes, and Essential Oils. UMES Regional Research Symposium. Princess Anne, MD, April 2024. Best poster Award.