Source: AMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST, INC submitted to
REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE CURRICULUM FOR THE HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOM
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1031488
Grant No.
2023-38414-41175
Cumulative Award Amt.
$150,000.00
Proposal No.
2023-05215
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 15, 2023
Project End Date
Sep 14, 2026
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[SPECA]- Secondary Challenge Program
Project Director
Reiss, K.
Recipient Organization
AMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST, INC
1150 CONNECTICUT AVE STE 600
WASHINGTON,DC 20036
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The project will develop and publish a publicly available and vetted Regenerative Agriculture Curriculum in collaboration with an Advisory Council and through two school years of training participating teachers, piloting curriculum delivery, and enhancing the curriculum with a total of 10 high schools in Ohio and 10 high schools in Kansas. The project goal is to fill a gap in need for a high quality, adaptable, and up-to-date curriculum on regenerative agriculture for high school students that meets national standards for agriscience. The project will contribute to the SPECA program goal to Attract, Inspire, and Retain an Engaged and Motivated Workforce that's Proud to Represent USDA by increasing the rate of students that view the agriculure sector as a viable career path as a result of the project curriculum. The project also contributes to the SPECA program goal to Expand Opportunities for Economic Development and Improve Quality of Life in Rural and Tribal Communities by providing foundational knowledge of regenerative practices that can enhance the economic returns on investment for farmers and ranchers and restore soil health for lon-term stewardship and sustainability.
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
10201991070100%
Knowledge Area
102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships;

Subject Of Investigation
0199 - Soil and land, general;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology;
Goals / Objectives
Project goals include:To promote widespread use of regenerative farming practices that rebuild soil and sequester carbon.To help the next generation of farmers and ranchers get on the land and succeed in agriculture.
Project Methods
The ACI Program and Communications Manager, Kinzie Reiss, in Kansas, will collaborate with the ACI Program Associate, Julie Platz, in Ohio, to design and implement the project deliverables. The manager and associate will be overseen by Deputy Director, Ashley Brucker. ACI Director, Brian Brandt, will provide project support in the form of outreach to potential Advisory Council members and advising on project progress.The ACI Program and Communications Manager and ACI Program Associate will convene the Advisory Council and technical experts for the development of the curriculum in the first year of the grant. The Advisory Council will consist of AFT, Ohio State University Extension (OSUE), Kansas Soil Health Alliance (KSHA) staff and board members, Ohio Ecological Farm and Food Association (OEFFA), Dr. Josh Stephens of Euclid Schools, soil health successful farmers, and resource professionals from NRCS. The team will develop a regenerative agriculture curriculum based on scientific research, current agriculture curriculum, current farming practices and national agriscience standards. The ACI Program and Communications Manager and ACI Program Associate will work with AFT's Midwest Communications Manager to create a visually appealing curriculum document. The ACI Program and Communications Manager and ACI Program Associate will identify ten pilot schools that meet the demographic and geographic needs of the project. AFT will assemble curriculum kits for the pilot teachers, with the supplies needed to teach the curriculum and to which many teachers in Title I schools do not have access.Year two will include training for teachers in the pilot schools. AFT will work with the pilot schools to host two in-person trainings, one in Kansas and one in Ohio, for the teachers in a train the trainer model, allowing the educators to receive hands on experience both as a teacher and student of the curriculum. Before the training, a pre-survey will be administered to pilot teachers to understand: 1) current knowledge of regenerative agriculture; 2) current practices in teaching about regenerative agriculture and soil health practices; and 3) their confidence in teaching regenerative agriculture principles. Once teachers are trained, it is expected that they utilize the curriculum within their classroom and provide feedback on the effectiveness. The ACI Program and Communications Manager will visit each participating Kansas school and the ACI Program Associate will visit each participating Ohio school during curriculum delivery to assist teachers and students. The project aims to increase the teachers' knowledge of regenerative agriculture and confidence in teaching those principles. Additionally, pilot teachers will report on their students' understanding of regenerative agriculture pre- and post-curriculum delivery. In addition to curriculum implementation at the pilot schools, this program strives to include a community component to regenerative agriculture education. Part of the teacher training will include discussion on a community component. This community component, to be decided upon by teachers and their students, could be a farmer mentorship in the classroom, a farmers' market or stand run by students, or an agriculture project-based science exhibition open to the community.In the third year of the grant, AFT, OSUE, and KSHA will revise the curriculum under the advisement of the other Advisory Council members and following the suggestions of the pilot teachers. AFT will identify 10 additional schools to include as project participants and will host a second set of two trainings, one in Kansas and one in Ohio, for additional teachers using the revised curriculum. AFT will visit each participating school during curriculum delivery to assist teachers and students. The teachers will provide feedback, using the same survey as the initial teachers. Data will be collected and made available to the project partners and Advisory Council. Finally, the curriculum will be revised a second time based on feedback and Advisory Council recommendations, and then will be posted on AFT's Farmland Information Center (FIC) to serve as a free resource in regenerative agriculture for educators nationwide.

Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience of high school teachers was reached during this reporting period. Nine high school teachers were selected to complete pilot training for the curriculum, teach the curriculum to their students and provide input on the curriculum. AFT focused on reaching school districts identified as Title 1 recipients. To reach teachers in the districts, AFT communicated with universities that had robust agricultural education certification programs in both Kansas and Ohio. Universities and one Ohio community college helped identify names of potential pilot teachers. The program manager, a past agricultural educator, also reached out to teacher contacts to gauge interest. AFT cross checked school districts on each state department of education's website for Title I status. All nine of the teachers taught at school districts identified as receiving Title I funding. Two additional teachers also were interested in the project but had personal conflicts for the day of the training. Each of those teachers are interested in future training for the curriculum. Nine teachers participated in a training. One training was held in each state for teachers. The training included both formal classroom exercises and laboratory instruction. The teachers were able to go through the soil health experiments within the curriculum with an instructor. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the reporting period, two one-day training sessions were held in person with pilot school teachers. The agenda of the training, in each state, was: Introductions and Project Overview, Lesson Overview & How they Work Together, Activities "In the Field" (rainfall simulator, wind simulator, VESS card, aggregate stability and infiltration test), lunch, Activities "In the Classroom" (pollinator habitat design, livestock activity and web soil survey), and finally discussion among the teachers and feedback about the project. The training hosted four teachers in Kansas and five teachers in Ohio. An additional teacher was signed up at the Kansas event, but could not attend due to personal reasons and plans to attend in the future. Additionally, AFT has fielded questions from the pilot teachers after the August training about the curriculum to ensure that the pilot teachers successfully complete the curriculum with their students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The curriculum was disseminated only to the advisory council and pilot teachers during this reporting period. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?To accomplish the goals during the next reporting period, AFT will continue to be available to answer questions and provide support to the current pilot teachers and schools. In the spring, AFT program manager will review feedback from pilot teachers about the curriculum and suggest changes to the advisory committee. AFT and subawardees will identify additional pilot teachers and update the curriculum before testing it a second time.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? From September 2023 to September 2024, AFT Program Manager and AFT Program Associate convened the Advisory Council and technical experts for the development of the curriculum. The Advisory Council consisted of AFT, Ohio State University Extension (OSU-E), Kansas Soil Health Alliance (KSHA), Ohio Ecological Farm and Food Association (OEFFA), Dr. Josh Stephens of Euclid Schools, soil health successful farmers and NRCS resource professionals. The full advisory team met twice during this time period- in November and in June. At the November meeting, AFT program managers discussed the deliverables and timeline with the full group. The team also discussed potential pilot schools for year one of the grant and how to connect with the teachers. It was decided that sub awardees, KSHA and OSU-E, would meet monthly from December to May to create the curriculum. At the June meeting, AFT program managers updated the timeline and refreshed the full advisory council on the deliverables. All deliverables were on track and pilot teachers had been identified by AFT program managers and subawardees. The full advisory committee was presented with Lesson 1: Introduction to Soil Health and given digital access to all the curriculum for final review. Edits were made in July. Concurrently, AFT program managers assembled the curriculum kits and prepared the pilot school trainings. The curriculum kits were valued at $500/each and the Kansas Soil Health Alliance helped ensure the materials were complete and aligned with field practices of farmers. Two trainings were hosted, one in Kansas and one in Ohio, in early August.

Publications