Source: UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA submitted to NRP
INTEGRATING SYSTEMS THINKING INTO THE LAND-GRANT CLASSROOM: STEPS TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1033109
Grant No.
2024-70003-43592
Cumulative Award Amt.
$733,226.00
Proposal No.
2024-04320
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2024
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2027
Grant Year
2024
Program Code
[ER]- Higher Ed Challenge
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
200 D.W. BROOKS DR
ATHENS,GA 30602-5016
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Integrating Systems Thinking into the Land-Grant Classroom: STEPS toward a Sustainable Future project will generate innovative tools for teaching systems thinking to undergraduate students in 1862 and 1890 land-grant university classrooms. The project will enhance the quality of instruction to help meet current and future workforce needs in the food and agricultural sciences. Graduates of land-grant universities will be the future workforce charged with solving complex, wicked problems at the nexus of food and agriculture sciences requiring climate-smart solutions. The system-wide need for climate-smart solutions make linear, short-term solutions inappropriate for addressing complex problems. However, teaching tools which integrate systems thinking into food and agricultural science contexts to improve students' systems thinking capacity are lacking. To address this gap, the STEPS project will create and test nine reusable learning objects (RLOs) which can be integrated into classrooms using hypothetical case scenarios (HCS). HCS are a teaching method used to gamify learning with the intention of enhancing student engagement. HCS tools present students with realistic, literature grounded, scenarios providing an opportunity to support and justify decisions within a structured learning environment. Students exposed to the STEPS project RLOs will be better equipped to solve complex problems related to climate-smart solutions because of engagement with real life scenarios that elicit and improve systems thinking. The STEPS project website and robust dissemination plan will ensure educators across the U.S. will have access to the RLOs, and associated training, allowing them to integrate the tools into traditional or virtual classrooms easily.
Animal Health Component
70%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
70%
Developmental
20%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
90360103020100%
Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
6010 - Individuals;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
The Integrating Systems Thinking into the Land-Grant Classroom: STEPS toward a Sustainable Futureproject has five primary goals, and eight associated objectives. The goals and objectives are summarized below: Goal 1: To establish a measure of systems thinking capacity in food and agricultural science. Objective 1: To develop and validate a Systems Thinking in Food and Agricultural Science (STFAS) scale to assess project impact and effectiveness. Goal 2: To fill the gap of systems thinking tools within food and agricultural sciences education. Objective 2: To collaborate with six faculty across four institutions to create nine interdisciplinary HCS RLOs for use in the undergraduate classroom. Goal 3: To address USDA NIFA priority areas by increasing the number of adaptable curriculum tools available for undergraduate education in the context of climate-smart solutions. Objective 3: To develop nine reusable learning objects (RLOs) using hypothetical case scenarios (HCS) covering three NIFA priority area topics in food and agricultural science education. Goal 4: To increase the use of systems thinking as a learning outcome in colleges of agriculture in land-grant universities. Objective 4: To integrate the nine RLOs in nine classes across five institutions for two years with 728 undergraduate students. Objective 5: To develop and implement a multi-institutional course using HCS RLOs with 40 students. Objective 6: To measure through pre- and post-tests students' capacity for systems thinking based on engagement with the STEPS HCS RLOs. Objective 7: To conduct at least eight professional development workshops (5 conference, 3 webinar) for land-grant faculty to integrate the HCS RLOs into their classroom. Goal 5: To analyze and communicate the impact of systems thinking learning tools on students' ability to think systemically. Objective 8: To disseminate findings related to HCS RLOs at least six conferences and six journal articles in the agricultural and natural science disciplines.
Project Methods
The anticipated methods for the Integrating Systems Thinking into the Land-Grant Classroom: STEPS toward a Sustainable Future project includes the following. Year 1: Developing and validating STFAS and Developing HCS RLOs. Developing the STFAS scale based on best practices in the literature (Crocker & Algina, 1986; Messick, 1995) with specific focus on scale development in an agricultural and food system context (Lamm et al., 2020). Establishing and implementing cross-institutional mentoring strategies for all graduate students on the project. Developing of SOP for RLO development. The project evaluators will administer the STFAS in existing team courses in Y1, at class start (pre-test) and at conclusion (post-test). Observations will serve as control conditions and results of the evaluation will be used to assess project trajectory and impact. All RLO development SOP documentation will be revised and finalized by by the end of Y1. Year 2: Implementing RLOs and Curriculum Development. Developing SOP for RLO classroom integration in Y2. RLOs will then be implemented in undergraduate classrooms at all project universities using SOP. Begin curriculum development for the multi-institutional course, "Systems Thinking in Food and Agricultural Science" for online delivery through the Ag*Idea consortium. Develop curriculum to integrate all nine RLOs previously developed with supplementary content related to systems thinking capacities such as archetypes, systems modeling, and causal loop diagrams. All RLO development SOP documentation will be revised and finalized by the end of Y2. All project activities and operations will be evaluated by the external evaluation team. The project evaluators will administer the STFAS in team courses in Y2, at class start (pre-test) and at conclusion (post-test). Observations will serve as treatment conditions and results of the evaluation will be used to assess project trajectory and impact. Year 3: Disseminating RLOs and Launching Multi-Institution Course. Continue to implement the nine RLOs in classrooms at project institutions as well as the multi-institutional course offered through the Ag*Idea consortium. All project team members will implement a rigorous marketing campaign, including branding, website promotion, social media, and conference dissemination. Offer three webinars to increase the dissemination and adoption of the RLOs. All team members will recruit for enrollment in the multi-institutional course through professional networks and associations. Train other faculty members how to integrate systems thinking HCS RLOs in their classrooms. All project activities and operations will be evaluated by the external evaluation team. The project evaluators will administer the STFAS in team courses and new multi-institutional course in Y3, at class start (pre-test) and at conclusion (post-test). Observations will serve as treatment conditions and results of the evaluation will be used to assess project trajectory and impact across Y1, Y2, and Y3.

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

Outputs
Target Audience:During the reporting period the primary focus of the project was on the onboarding and familiarization of project personnel including faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates. Therefore, the primary target audience during the past year has been affiliated project team members. Specifically, the project team has engaged in project onboarding and familiarization with the hypothetical case scenario reusable learning object (HCS RLO) format as well as systems thinking archetypes. Furthermore, the project team has developed and implemented a graduate student mentoring plan. Project personnel represent the agricultural education discipline as well as the animal science discipline and the community and food system discipline. Overall project personnel have contributed to the development of reusable learning objects within the controlled environment agriculture, sustainable animal production systems, and community food systems topical areas. This has included both individual contributions and development as well as reviews and cross training across disciplines. Faculty team members are prepared to use the HCS RLOs in their courses with undergraduates starting fall 2025. Changes/Problems:There have been limited changes and or problems associated with the project. The project team is continuing to make progress on the stated goals as was validated by the external evaluation team. The project team intends to continue to work towards the plans identified in the original project proposal. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In the past year the project has provided opportunities for both training and professional development. Specifically, the project included the development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the creation of reusable learning objects (RLOs) as well as training of project personnel on the use of SOPs. Additionally, the graduate students and postdoctoral associates engaged in the project have been involved in both training and professional development activities as it relates to both instructional design methodologies as well as systems thinking. Furthermore, graduate students on the project I've had the opportunity to conduct a comprehensive review of the systems thinking education literature and to summarize the primary systems thinking models therein. Following the preliminary educational and systems thinking training and development activities the project team has had the opportunity to engage in cross disciplinary review within the developed RLOs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project results have been communicated through the public facing project team website, stepsproject.org. These results have been primarily focused on pre-project publications which used the underlying hypothetical case scenario reusable learning object approach. The launch of the project was also covered by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences communication department with a featured story sent to university faculty and students. Additionally, systems thinking related content were shared on personal social media channels, LinkedIn in particular, and received over 1,900 views. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Goal 1 - Establish STFAS measure (Scale Development). In the next year we will finalize the STFAS measure specifically related to hypothetical case scenario reusable learning objects. We will validate the measure across multiple undergraduate agricultural and food system related classroom contexts in multiple institutions. Furthermore, we will finalize academic publications to disseminate the validation of the STFAS. Goal 2 - To fill the gap of systems thinking tools within food and agricultural sciences education. We will implement the HCS RLOs in undergraduate agricultural and food classes in multiple institutions. Specifically, we will implement HCS RLOs in at least one undergraduate class at each participating institution. We will quantify the number of courses in which HCS RLOs are integrated as well as the number of faculty members who integrate HCS RLOs into their classroom. Goal 3 - To address USDA NIFA priority areas by increasing the number of adaptable curriculum tools available for undergraduate education. We will finalize the development of nine RLOs using HCS covering three NIFA priority area topics in food and agricultural science education. The 9 HCS RLOs will be implemented in multiple undergraduate classrooms. Student evaluation scores regarding the efficacy of the HCS RLOs will be collected. Goal 4 - To increase the use of systems thinking as a learning outcome in colleges of agriculture in land-grant universities. We will integrate the nine RLOs in multiple classes across multiple institutions with undergraduate students. Furthermore, we will begin the development of a multi-institutional course using HCS RLOs. We will measure pre- and post-tests students' capacity for systems thinking based on engagement with the STEPS HCS RLOs using the STFAS. We will begin to conduct professional development workshops for land-grant faculty to integrate the HCS RLOs into their classrooms. Goal 5 - To analyze and communicate the impact of systems thinking learning tools on students' ability to think systemically. We will begin to disseminate findings related to HCS RLOs at professional conferences through peer reviewed journal articles in the agricultural and natural science disciplines. We will also continue to track the number of visitors to the project team website, the number of social media posts regarding the project, the number of outreach articles published on the website, and the number of research papers and articles disseminated via academic conferences and peer-reviewed journals.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1 - Establish STFAS measure (Scale Development). Last year we first obtained IRB approval to begin the STFAS development process. We then completed a comprehensive literature review and Delphi panel (15 experts) analysis to finalize construct dimensions. Next, we piloted the 26 item draft STFAS with agricultural students for content and response process validity. Following readability review and revision, we collected data from a panel of over 1,000 respondents and conducted internal (EFA and CFA) as well as external (nomological web construct comparison) analyses. We are drafting a manuscript "Measuring Systems Thinking in Food and Agricultural Science: Development of the STFAS" summarizing the process and results. Goal 2 - To fill the gap of systems thinking tools within food and agricultural sciences education. Last year we authored Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Hypothetical Case Scenario RLO creation which was reviewed and vetted by multidisciplinary reviewers. Next, we conducted a STEPS workshop to train project faculty/post docs/graduate students on the SOP. We then developed nine RLOs (3 resilient animal production, 3 community health & food systems, 3 controlled environment agriculture) which included an internal peer review. Goal 3 - To address USDA NIFA priority areas by increasing the number of adaptable curriculum tools available for undergraduate education. To address the goal, we ensured each RLO aligns with USDA NIFA priority topics and embeds decision prompts based on practical scenarios located within the academic literature and popular press. Goal 4 - To increase the use of systems thinking as a learning outcome in colleges of agriculture in land-grant universities. We launched a public facing website, stepsproject.org, (May 2025) which will serve as RLO repository and source of ongoing project updates. Additionally, we initiated a branding campaign (logo, design guide, social media) to support Fall 2025 faculty outreach activities. Goal 5 - To analyze and communicate the impact of systems thinking learning tools on students' ability to think systemically. Last year an external evaluation team (TECH Group) completed a Year 1 formative evaluation. Results confirmed the project is on track for all milestones. We are also developing conference abstracts on STFAS and RLOs for presentation in 2025, additionally, systems thinking education literature review manuscripts are in preparation. IRB has been obtained at the University of Georgia and North Carolina A&T to collect data regarding the efficacy of HCS RLOs in improving systems thinking capabilities.

Publications