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

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this curriculum development award are faculty and community partners who may be interested supporting development of sustainable agriculture curriculum. Down the line, the goal is to have local agriculture companies, farms, growers and students who are interested in learning about or implementing sustainable methods in their growing operations enroll in agriculture courses at Oxnard College after curriculum is developed using the current funds. Changes/Problems:A major challenge we have faced has been fund availability. An initial delay in fund availability and subsequent directive to stop activities until late spring created a challenges in recruitment of additional personnel (faculty) and shifted the project timeline. While we were able to develop one in depth report, the funding for this work was not charged to the grant because of the fiscal uncertainty caused by both goverment shutdowns and executive orders surrounding grant funding. We continued working on the grant goals and expect to make significant progress in the next few months. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The PI is currently in communication with professional development providers to develop training around the development of Course Outlines of Record and Syllabi based on California Community College standards and Educational Code Regulations. This training will be available to faculty in various disciplines to ensure that any faculty who contribute the interdisciplinary sustainable agriculture program consistently apply best practices in development of curricula and syllabi. This training will be available to faculty in spring and summer 2026. Additionally, several faculty members associated with this project are currently participating in a different project directed out of Arizona State University focusing on best practices in STEM teaching. Each of these faculty members have been participating in monthly meetings for approximately one year and have developed a keen understanding of the needs and challenges students in the Oxnard area face when entering STEM careers. 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?We are well underway toward goal completion. Faculty have been working on curricular assessment and identification of curriculum across the California Community College System, this is helping ensure that Oxnard College fills gaps in regional sustainable agriculture course availability. Specifically, faculty are workg in three major areas that will span this current reporting period and the next: alignment of curriculum with existing state and national standards, course comparison at various California Community Colleges, and couse outline development in various disciplines including geological, biological, and chemical sciences and engineering.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? At this time, we have had intermittent access to funding, as such, work on the project was intermittent for a period of time. Funding was not received until the third week ofNovember 2024 due to error in accounting of federal aid to Oxnard College. The academic period at Oxnard College ended December 13, 2024, limiting the time available to recruit experts and partners. The project PI, Dr. Paloma Vargas, developed a scope of work and reached out to two experts who began work on identifying curriculum and developing curriculum that meets the California Community College regulations in the first quarter of 2025. While this work was in progress, program officer Chrisopher Green communicated with PI to stop all grant activities from late January until late, 2025 near the end of the academic. This, again, slowed progress as faculty were unavaible to work on the project. Project PI, Dr. Vargas, worked during the summer to connect with external partners, develop various calls for proposal and stipended work (per college district policy), developing a spending plan, monitoring the grant budget, and realigning timelines to ensure project completion. Late summer, we were able to re-start work with faculty and professional development consultants. This work is currently in progress with outcomes/deliverables due at the end of the calendar year. Additional stipend opportunities have been created for faculty to develop course outlines of record and will be available to faculty during the 4th quarter.

Publications