Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Purdue University Northwest's HSI-Education grant project will address the priorities of ensuring equitable, resilient, and prosperous agricultural systems in America and translating research into action by recruiting underrepresented Hispanic students in the region in undergraduate research programs and then encouraging them towards the completion of advanced degrees in Engineering Sciences with a focus on Food-Energy-Water nexus. A total of 11 participants (including three teachers) will receive culturally responsive, context specific and community-oriented research/educational experiences that will result in a transformative agricultural workforce. The grant will help secure equitable access to quality education for underrepresented Hispanic students in Northwest Indiana Region.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The main objectives of this project are as follows.To provide highly immersive, informative, and experiential learning to community college and undergraduate students about the interdisciplinary aspects of water, energy, and environmental systems as related to agricultural sustainability.To prepare highly motivated underrepresented Hispanic students aspiring to pursue advanced and higher education in scientific and technical disciplines of agricultural fields.To enhance communication and leadership skills and instill positive attitude and build confidence towards various scientific and engineering professions in agriculture.
Project Methods
Methods:Laboratory exposure and mentoring, or researchexperiences through experimental design and analysis; development of curriculum or innovative teaching methodologies; workshops; experiential learning opportunities; extension and outreach activities.Evaluation Plans:Program Assessment -Formative and summative assessment methods will be used and provided to the students to evaluate the program. Formative assessments will result from weekly meetings between the student and the project mentor. Students will be asked to provide brief weekly summaries of their progress and activities, which will be included in their project binder. Daily meetings with mentors and invited guests will be an additional component of the formative assessment. Participants will be continuously evaluated to improve the program and overcome any weaknesses, and each student's project binder will be used to monitor their improvement throughout the project.Reflect & Articulate Exercises -Exercises will be developed to prompt critical reflection over the experiential learning through hands-on exercises and field trips based on Kolbe's experiential learning and DEAL models (Kolb 2014, Denny and Hardman 2020, Ash and Clayton 2009). Students will be asked to reflect on their knowledge levels at the start, during the fourth week and the last week of the program. Writing prompts will be given to aid student reflection and documentation. Outcomes from these exercises, along with other formative and summative assessments, will be used to: (i) review and revise the programmatic goals and objectives; and (ii) tailor research/extension projects to meet the student needs and to maximize their learning experiences.Evaluation Surveys -Summative evaluation methods will include a baseline or pre-program survey and post-program survey to fit the needs of our program. These surveys will be used to gather student experiences in research and experiential learning. Some components of the evaluations will be the same for each student and project, and some of the questions will be unique for each project.Exit Interviews -Exit interviews and overall program evaluations will be given to each student, and these will be helpful in planning the upcoming year's HSI program. Exit interviews and program evaluations will be used to assess not only the effectiveness of research mentoring, extension, and education activities but also the format of the program and living accommodations. When possible, surveys and evaluations will be conducted through Qualtrics online survey software.Programmatic Outcomes -The summative assessment will include 1) the number of professional presentations made at local, regional, and national conferences and 2) the number of publications such as technical reports, extension publications and videos, conference proceedings and journal articles. In a similar way, career paths of the participants will be tracked for 5 years to evaluate the long-term impact of this program. The overall program evaluations will be conducted anonymously to ensure genuine feedback. Longitudinal tracking of student achievements will be done by collecting information on retention, graduation from the programs, and persistence to attend graduate schools, which will be measured outcomes through surveys. Students will be asked to join the "PNWHSI-LinkedIn" group created for this program so that they can start to build their professional network. Similarly, contact will be maintained through social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter platforms. Faculty and research mentors will be part of these groups to maintain multiple levels of contact.