Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Save the Bananas! An Agri-STEM introduction to crop vulnerability and solutions-seeking for 4-H Youth in rural WV is a three-pronged program provided by WVU 4-H that will impact K-12 youth throughout the state of West Virginia. Save the Bananas! is made up of a five-part curriculum and a one-time activity called "Don't Go, Bananas!" All of these lessons will focus on the risks facing the most commercially produced and shipped banana, the Cavendish, and how its reliance on cloning makes it vulnerable to a fungal disease. One of the most obvious solutions to this risk to our food supply is bioengineering; Save the Bananas! will provide youth an opportunity, while working in groups, to use research-grade tools to figure out how genetic modification could save the Cavendish and other crops facing similar issues exacerbated by climate change. The five-part curriculum will be deployed at 4-H camps, including a girl-tailored weekend STEM camp called Eureka!. Eureka! participants will take part in a year-long virtual leadership cohort complete with service learning activities where they teach Agri-STEM lessons at their local elementary schools. Additionally, the five-part curriculum will be turned into shippable classroom kits with accompanying training videos for educators to deliver to middle and high school classrooms. This program will focus on creating positive STEM interactions for youth who are underserved; WVU 4-H will help develop future Agri-STEM leaders by making opportunities equitable and helping youth envision themselves as future leaders in STEM.
Animal Health Component
25%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
25%
Developmental
75%
Goals / Objectives
"Save the Bananas! An Agri-STEM introduction to crop vulnerability and solutions-seeking for 4-H Youth in Rural WV," will introduce rural youth to a potential future in the Agri-STEM career field, increasing STEM self-efficacy, engagement, and developing youth as future STEM leaders. The major goals of this program are1) to expose disadvantaged youth to positive, experiential Agri-STEM learning,2) to increase positive association with Agri-STEM and genetic modification,3) to increase interest in Agri-STEM careers, and4) to create a sense among our youth, underrepresented in STEM, that they are capable and would be valued in the Agri-STEM industry. Objectives are based on past performance of similar programs.Objectives:40% of youth will show an increased interest in Agri-STEM and biotechnology;50% of participants in the Eureka! cohort will show increased leadership skills;100% of participants will have an increased awareness of Agri-STEM science and biotechnology concepts;50% of participants will show an increased positive attitude towards biotechnology and bioengineered foods; and35% will show an increased interest in Agri-STEM careers.
Project Methods
Save the Bananas! will begin with a planning period in which the PI and Co-PI will work with Dr. Dan Paccione, a WVU Davis-Michael Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences and world-renowned expert in molecular genetics, will develop the main five curriculum lessons that make up the core of Save the Bananas! as well as the single lesson "Don't Go, Bananas." All curricula will focus on working with genetic modification to solve the real-world threats to the Cavendish banana previously mentioned. In subsequent years, curricula will be refined with feedback from youth and staff that deliver the programs.Delivery: Save the Bananas! will predominantly be deployed at county and state 4-H Camps. WVU Jackson's Mill, the state 4-H campsite, hosts one weekend and three week-long state 4-H camping events over the summers. Activities at State and County 4-H Camps include classes; free-time activities where youth choose which structured activity-from line dancing to hands-on science-or unstructured socializing or rest, to participate in; and youth-led assemblies with creative games, improv, and sing-alongs. Save the Bananas! will be offered as a class during these camps, with the "Don't Go, Bananas" activity offered as a free-time activity for all youth throughout the week.The WVUE 4-HYD camping model involves week-long overnight County 4-H Camps where youth ages 9-21 come together and take classes in 30-minute to 90-minute segments. on topics ranging from coding to crocheting, and participate in daily educational activities. The average county camp has 75 participants. State camps are larger events with the capacity for up to 400 youth in attendance from all over WV. Additionally, 4-H hosts weekend and week-long topical camps including the Eureka! STEM Camp.Save the Bananas! will strongly rely on youth-leading youth. STEM Ambassadors are undergraduate students engaged annually by 4-H; eight, four supported by this grant, will lead Save the Bananas! during our State and week-long County 4-H Camps which increases 4-H's capacity to deliver robust programming. STEM Ambassadors receive a week of training, prior to camp deployment, where they learn about pedagogy, educational best practices, step-by-step STEM experiments and content, as well as skills to serve in a camp counselor role.Select lessons from the curricula will be offered as a workshop during the annual spring Eureka! STEM Camp, a free STEM weekend camp tailored to girls in grades 6-8. Directed by Suzanne McDonald, PI of Save the Bananas!, Eureka! is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for rural disadvantaged youth. All Eureka campers will have the opportunity to continue honing their leadership skills through monthly virtual leadership training sessions. Meetings will be held during the school year, for a minimum of five sessions. Participants will learn more about using their strengths, communicating their ideas, and working as a team. Program staff will use adapted lessons from the Powerful Youth "Leadership 101" curriculum and 4-H Leadership curriculum, "Leadership Road Trip, Where Are You Going?" developed by Ohio State University.In addition, Eureka! Teen Leaders will learn more about the careers of women in STEM fields that interest them. They will ultimately have the opportunity to put these skills into practice as they learn to teach Agri-STEM concepts to elementary youth in their community through two 4-H Storybook STEM lessons and activities. Storybook STEM lessons are pre-existing. We will provide all materials necessary to complete Storybook STEM activities with up to 25 elementary students per Teen Leader, resulting in the potential indirect reach of another 200 youth. Additionally, each year, eight alumni will return as peer-mentoring Teen Leaders. In this way, we maximize the number of girls who can benefit from the program while also promoting the continued development of leadership skill sets. The program, in its third year, is hosted at Jackson's Mill, in the new Annette S. Boggs STEAM Education Center, and is organized so that youth participate in several experiential STEM activities during the course of the camp. All STEM classes held during Eureka! are led by women with advanced STEM degrees, who provide hands-on learning experiences for campers in forensics, chemistry, engineering, computer science, physics, and biology. Each year a featured guest motivates the girls with insight on preparing for and working in an exciting STEM career.Outreach activities created during this program, specifically the "Don't go, Bananas!" activity, will be offered by Extension Staff to their local schools or as part of community outreach activities. STEM Kits and training videos will be created by the PI and Co-PI and made available to K-12 educators; these kits will be assembled and distributed through ECA Educational Services, Inc. (Education Consultants of America or ECA), a kit distribution company utilized by STEMCARE to assemble, ship, and refurbish educational kits. This expands the reach and impact of the program, providing more youth with positive Agri-STEM experiences.A mixed methods evaluation directly aligned with the project objectives and outcomes detailed in the previous section will be conducted; evaluation tools will be developed during the initial planning phase and refined as the curriculum is refined over the course of the program. The team will seek WVU's Institutional Review Board approval. A pre-post survey will assess Agri-STEM awareness, interest, and attitudes. This survey will be given at each 4-H state and county camp and at the Eureka! camp and again at the end of the Teen Leader Eureka! experience. The Eureka! survey will include leadership skills. Additionally, a focus group of approximately 10 Eureka! Teen Leaders will occur at the end of each cohort. The focus group will be delivered virtually to make it more accessible to statewide participants and take advantage of virtual collaboration tools such as Jam Board, a virtual whiteboard, and transcription. Participants in the focus group will receive $15 gift cards to participate. The evaluator will assess all data and provide reports to the program leadership. Additional data including demographic data like age, race, gender, and socioeconomic status will be collected and reviewed through Z-Suite, the system by which participants register for all 4-H activities.Program Implementation Evaluation: Each year STEM Ambassadors take surveys and participate in a focus group. The evaluator will add questions specifically about their involvement with Save the Bananas! Year three educators utilizing the kit boxes will also complete a post-program survey. This feedback will be reviewed along with the evaluator's data reports from participants at each of the quarterly meetings program leadership will have annually. During these meetings, they will also share their personal observations, review benchmarks like advertising and deliverables like curriculum development to ensure they are being met and created according to the timeline, and decide on program adjustments for future delivery.