Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
To achieve the desired future of global leadership, all parts of the U.S. agriculture industry require a diverse and competent workforce with both technical and leadership abilities. Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) education has long played a role in supporting agribusiness by preparing students for careers in developing and marketing value-added food and fiber consumer products and instilling entrepreneurial knowledge and skills that are of great importance for the next generation of agricultural entrepreneurs. Further, food and fiber industries are being impacted by emerging technologies (e.g. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and 3D imaging) that improve efficiency and capacity to meet the needs of the U.S economy. However, these technologies are not typically being integrated into FCS education at all levels, so primary and secondary students may understand the value of skills and training with advanced technologies for their competitiveness. Integrating these emerging technologies in the high school education within the FCS curriculum would increase the diversity and number of high school students pursuing post-secondary training with these technologies. For this reason, introducing secondary students to advanced technologies in the food and fiber industry would serve to both attract students already interested in technology towards more advanced education as well as demonstrating the relevance of these technologies and solidifying students' commitment to a career in the food or fiber sciences.By supporting the one-day event, post event engagement, and follow-up competition and exhibition, the Technology and Leadership Education Network for Texas Students (TALENTS) project will produce several events to approximately five high schools with involving 10 FCS teachers and 100 high school students (20 high school students from each school) in Travis, Harris, Hays, and Bexar Counties in Texas. This project can enhance FCS teachers' 1) understanding of advanced and emerging technologies used in logistics and merchandising and their relevance to the production and distribution of food and fiber products 2) capacity and confidence for teaching about advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) relevant to food and fiber industries and 3) exposure to emerging technologies (e.g., 3D visualization) that could integrate into a variety of high school family and consumer science curricula. The one-day event will be hosted in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences (School of FCS) building in San Marcos in Spring 2025. The one-day event will be broken into the morning sessions and the afternoon session. During the first half of the day, students will attend a workshop series about product design and retail technologies with industry partners from various food and fiber brands in the School of FCS. Two to three industry partners will present in the demonstration sessions, each showcasing the application of a selected new technology. Industry partners will be selected through our established industry relationships with the department (e.g., HEB, Target, Amazon). These sessions will illustrate to students how the technologies are applied in real-world contexts along exciting career pathways. Students will learn from the demonstrations, engage in discussions, ask questions, and network with industry partners. Students will be put into small groups to visit the Fashion Innovation Lab where they could see our students working with the technologies mentioned by the industry partners. They will see how these technologies are used in research and creative work. Meanwhile, other small groups will rotate to various industry presenters in the room, providing a more intimate setting to ask questions and discuss career opportunities. Concurrently, teachers will attend a hands-on concurrent technology training workshop in the computer lab of the School of FCS. This will provide hands-on trainings to the teachers with the technologies that are being presented to their students by our industry partners. The topics for hands-on trainings should cover but not limited to: 1) Virtual and augmented reality: Innovative displays for Agricultural products; 2) Artificial Intelligence as a content/image generator; 3) 3D compositing design by Adobe Dimension; 4) 3D design visualizations by Browzwear. FCS teachers will benefit from the hands-on training sessions. These prepared topics will equip them with the skills and knowledge to guide their students in creating projects that can be submitted for TALENTS Competition and Exhibition in the fall. In total, this part takes about 3 hrs. In the afternoon, students and teachers will be transported to one of several nearby distribution centers with the industry partner for the afternoon session. For example, San Marcos, TX is home of an HEB distribution center and two separate Amazon distribution centers. The afternoon session will provide all attendees with practical knowledge and first-hand look at the logistics and operations involved in managing a large-scale retail supply chain.By providing the planned events and evaluations of participants' learning outcome and feedback, the project can enhance curricula in FCS by providing hands on experience to teachers and their students. This project provides high school students with 1) real-world learning experiences through education network events and competitions, 2) opportunities to choose a career within the field of agriculture, 3) increase interest of starting new businesses that could support rural economies in Texas. Further, by using food and fiber related examples in the training and competitions, students will be inspired to start a business related to food and fiber manufacturing and logistics retail after they graduate from high school while others may pursue advanced training opportunities in food and fiber related majors in higher education.Moreover,this project will specifically target students from diverse backgrounds whose representation in agricultural and merchandisingfields can be increased. Additionally,this project will indirectly benefit future students who receiveguidance fromtheir FCS teachers with new skills and curriculum gained through helping previous studentscreateprojects tosubmittoTALENTS Competition and Exhibition.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) education has long played a role in supporting agribusiness by preparing students for careers in developing and marketing value-added food and fiber consumer products and instilling entrepreneurial knowledge and skills that are of great importance for next generation of agricultural entrepreneurs. Further, food and fiber industries are being impacted by emerging technologies (e.g. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and 3D imaging) that improve their efficiency and ability to meet the needs of the U.S. But these technologies are not unilaterally being integrated into FCS education at all levels, so primary and secondary students may not know that they could achieve this training and be more competitive in the job market if they were engaged with curriculum that incorporated advanced technologies. There is an obvious opportunity to integrate these emerging technologies in the high school education of many students from within the FCS curriculum, and if that integration occurred, more high school students might pursue further training that would allow them to ascend to higher levels of employment. Therefore, introducing secondary students to advanced technologies in the food and fiber industry would serve to both attract students already interested in technology towards pursuing college level education as well as demonstrating to students committed to a career in food and agricultural sciences the relevance of these technologies.The Technology and Leadership Education Network for Texas Students (TALENTS) project will produce several events with the aim to enhance FCS teachers' 1) understanding of advanced and emerging technologies used in logistics and merchandising and their relevance to the production and distribution of food and fiber products 2) capacity and confidence for teaching about advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality relevant to food and fiber industries and 3) exposure to emerging technologies (e.g., 3D visualization) that could integrate into a variety of high school FCScurricula. Relevant teaching topics include fashion design, interior design, nutrition, and entrepreneurship. This project also provides high school students with 1) real-world learning experiences through education network events and competitions, 2) opportunities to choose a career within the field of agriculture, 3) increase interest of starting new businesses that could support rural economies in Texas. Further, by using food and fiber related examples in the training and competitions, students will be inspired to start a business related to food and fiber manufacturing and logistics retail after they graduate from high school while others may pursue advanced training opportunities in food and fiber related majors in higher education. Additionally, this project will specifically target students from diverse backgrounds whose representation in agricultural and merchandising fields can be increased.The goal of the project is for FCS teachers and their students to have an enhanced understanding of career opportunities in agricultural, supply chain, logistics operations, and related industries; more students will choose food and fiber majors. Students will have a new perspective on their ability to choose a career in food and fiber that will utilize their interests in advanced technologies. Students' problem-solving skills, communication skills, and leadership skills will be enhanced. FCS teachers will be more capable of integrating advanced technologies into FCS coursework. Additional students at the high schools will be more likely to opt into FCS courses that have been enhanced with advanced technologies. Both teachers and students will have increased confidence in their abilities.
Project Methods
The several events proposed by the TALENTS project will begin during the fall semester of the academic year after award and culminate with a student competition in the following spring semester, after a year of engagement on the use of advanced technologies used by food and fiber entrepreneurs and leaders in the food and fiber industry. In specific, the project will include:Pre-event Preparation: PD, two co-PDs, and two undergraduate (UG) ambassadors will all be involved in the preparation in Fall 2024. Two UG ambassadors will help to organize the event. They will assist the PD to communicate the location and schedule, prepare an event plan, design marketing materials and event flyers, identify the key high schools, and manage communications with the high schools. One co-PD will be responsible for communicating with the industry partners about the event and around the specific technologies they will demo during the workshop. The PD and the other co-PD will be responsible for developing training workshop materials based on the specific technologies that the industry partners will choose to demonstrate. Technologies in the department such as the biometric technology (e.g., eye trackers), data analysis and visualization (e.g., snscrape API and Selenium), virtual and augmented reality (e.g., Adobe Aero) and 3D design (e.g. Adobe Dimension and Browzwear), will be considered and other new emerging technologies used by the industry partners will be selected.TALENTS Day: This event will be hosted in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences (School of FCS) building in San Marcos in Spring 2025. This event will be used to establish a model that can be adopted by other universities that produce FCS teachers.Immersive technology experience. During the first half of the day, students will attend a workshop series about product design and retail technologies with industry partners from various food and fiber brands in the School of FCS. Two to three industry partners will present in the demonstration sessions, each showcasing the application of a selected new technology. Industry partners will be selected through our established industry relationships with the department (e.g., HEB, Target, Amazon). These sessions will illustrate to students how the technologies are applied in real-world contexts along exciting career pathways. Students will learn from the demonstrations, engage in discussions, ask questions, and network with industry partners. Students will be put into small groups to visit the Fashion Innovation Lab where they could see our students working with the technologies mentioned by the industry partners. They will see how these technologies are used in research and creative work. Meanwhile, other small groups will rotate to various industry presenters in the room, providing a more intimate setting to ask questions and discuss career opportunities. In total, this part requiresabout 3 hrs. A co-PD and two UG ambassadors will be responsible for keeping track of the schedule and managing this portion of the event.FCS teacher technology professional development. Concurrently, teachers will attend a hands-on concurrent technology training workshop in the computer lab of the School of FCS. This will provide hands-on trainings to the teachers with the technologies that are being presented to their students by our industry partners. The topics for hands-on trainings should cover but not limited to: 1) Virtual and augmented reality: Innovative displays for Agricultural products; 2) Artificial Intelligence as a content/image generator; 3) 3D compositing design by Adobe Dimension; 4) 3D visualizations by Browzwear. FCS teachers will benefit from the hands-on training sessions. These prepared topics will equip them with the skills and knowledge to guide their students in creating projects that can be submitted for TALENTS Competition and Exhibition in the fall. The PD, one co-PD, and the microcomputer lab coordinator will be responsible for facilitating the training sessions.Supply chain workshop at local distribution center. Students and teachers will be directed to the Harris Dining Hall (about 3 mins walk distance from the department) for lunch. After lunch, students and teachers will be transported to one of several nearby distribution centers with the industry partner for the afternoon session. For example, San Marcos, TX is home of an HEB distribution center and two separate Amazon distribution centers. The afternoon session will provide all attendees with practical knowledge and first-hand look at the logistics and operations involved in managing a large-scale retail supply chain. The focus for visiting the distribution centers should cover but not limited to: 1) Data analytics and Artificial Intelligence, 2) Logistics and transportation management; 3) Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality; 4) Supply chain visibility and tracking. All key personnel and UG ambassadors will participate in this afternoon session. In total, this part requires about 3 hrs.Post Event EngagementData Collection. Pre- and post-program surveys for all students and teachers will be collected in addition to select semi-structured interviews with the FCS teachers. The pre-program survey responses will be collected and analyzed two weeks ahead of the event day and the post-program survey conducted after the event. Teachers will participate in the semi-structured interviews. All key personnel will prepare the surveys and conduct the semi-structured interviews. Interviews will be audio recorded and transcribed. Survey and interview data will be analyzed collaboratively by all key personnel.Curriculum enhancement. FCS teachers will work with all key personnel to develop lessons plans that integrate a key technology (see above) into their classroom curriculum. Key personnel will assist teachers during the summer months, as needed, to provide support as they prepare for implementation during the upcoming school year.Student engagement. FCS teachers will implement a key technology (see above) into their classroom curriculum in Fall 2025, providing a hands-on experience for students to utilize these technologies.TALENTS Competition and Exhibition. At the beginning of the Fall 2025 school term, key personnel will provide A Call for Submissions to the participating FCS teachers for a poster competition that requires the application of the key technologies, relevant to an application in the food and fiber industries (e.g. a VR merchandising plan for a new food product or a 3D design of a garment made from a Texas natural fiber). Participating FCS teachers will work with teams of their secondary students to create a poster submission about food and fiber product development. Submissions will be made digitally so that the results can be shared easily both by Texas State on a dedicated TALENTS page within the School of FCS website but also by high schools with participating students. Poster submissions will be juried by key personnel and select industry partners. Winners will be invited to attend the annual Texas State University Fashion Merchandising (FM) Retail Summit in Fall 2025, where all submissions will be exhibited, and award winners will be featured. Student teams will receive a certificate for their accomplishment and monetary awards will be given to the winning teams (1st $700, 2nd $500, 3rd $300).