Progress 07/15/03 to 07/14/05
Outputs
The project provided secondary teachers with information about agricultural issues and helped them enhance the agricultural literacy of their students by using agriculture as a relevant context for teaching their specific subject matter. The first objective was to provide secondary teachers with enhanced understanding of the importance of agriculture in Nebraska and the depth and breadth of issues surrounding agriculture. This objective was addressed by offering a graduate level course for 18 secondary teachers of agricultural sciences, science, and social studies. The course was taught at the UNL Haskell Agricultural Laboratory during the summers of 2004 and 2005. Nine UNL research scientists provided the course content in the areas of weed management, soil fertility, irrigation management, beef feedlot cattle, conservation buffers, entomology, and swine production. The researchers discussed their projects from the perspectives of research design and social, economic,
environmental, and political issues. The second objective was to encourage the teachers to enhance the agricultural literacy of their students by using agriculture as a context for teaching their subject matter. To accomplish this objective, the teacher had to create a unit and teach it in his/her classroom to earn a grade in the course. The unit created by the social studies teacher illustrates the potential of this objective. The social studies unit investigated soil erosion and flooding problems in the Shell Creek watershed area. Students discovered tillage practices which contributed to soil erosion, flooding, and water quality problems, learned how conservation buffers along the waterway reduced the problem, and learned how to communicate that information to others. The third objective was to stimulate student interest in agricultural careers by exposing them to the variety of careers involving agriculture and demonstrating the scientific research conducted at the Haskell Ag Lab.
This objective was accomplished by hosting a youth field day at the Ag lab in 2004. Approximately 50 high school youth participated in a demonstration tour of the research center and small group meetings with UNL College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources departmental representatives. As originally planned, the project included funding for 23 secondary teachers who would participate as part of interdisciplinary teams from six school districts. Teams would include teachers of ag, science, social studies and business. Recruitment efforts included a direct mail invitation to all secondary teachers in the four disciplines in the six districts targeted in the initial proposal. Superintendents and principals were also contacted and asked to encourage teacher participation and project staff made personal visits at each of the six schools. Despite these efforts, teacher response was minimal. Additional recruitment of ag sciences teachers occurred via a listserve administered by
CASNR faculty. A total of thirteen teachers participated in 2004 (7 ag teachers, 5 science teachers, and 1 social studies teacher). Five additional teachers enrolled in 2005 (3 science teachers, 2 ag science teachers).
PRODUCTS: Teachers enrolled in the course for credit will produce a unit using agriculture as a context for teaching their subject matter speciality. They will teach the unit at an appropriate point in their curricula. Four units have been completed to date. Examples of the types of units developed include an activity designed to determine the critical period of weed control in corn for use by ag and science teachers. Another unit, created by a social studies teacher, helped students discover issues surrounding the Shell Creek watershed such as the impact of crop tillage practices on soil erosion, flooding, and water quality; conservation practices to alleviate the problem such as buffer strips; and ways to communicate those findings to others. Additional units will be assessed once teachers have found an appropriate opportunity to test the module in their own classroom.
OUTCOMES: Teachers who participated in the ag literacy course were asked to evaluate the course on a variety of dimensions using a 5-point Likert scale with 1 being poor and 5 being great. Some key results include: Potential of creating interest in agricultural literacy - 3.999; Potential benefit of projects/research ideas for your students - 3.976; Correlation of material to your curriculum - 3.991. When participants were asked what they found to be the most beneficial outcome of the course, responses included: 'I will be able to apply all the information and resources to my curriculum. Being introduced to so many resources is very valuable.' 'Presenters had a wealth of information to present. They prompted many different areas of thought regarding their particular areas.' 'It introduced a lot of new topics and ideas to me about integrating more ag or different areas of ag into our science project program.' The secondary students who participated in the tour/student recruitment
activity also completed an evaluation instrument which indicated the activity was successful in increasing the students' awareness of the science involved in agriculture, UNL's agricultural research across the state, and their likelihood of considering a career in the agricultural sciences. Ninety-five percent of the students indicated they would 'probably' or 'definitely' share some of the research conducted at the Haskell Ag Lab with their friends of family; 88 percent said they would 'probably' or 'definitely' investigage a college major within UNL's College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources; and 82 percent said they would 'probably' or 'definitely' consider a career involving scientific research.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Because only a few units have been completed to date, no dissemination activities have been undertaken at this point. We plan to disseminate the lesson plans electronically at an appropriate time.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: This project has led to development of a funding proposal to the National Science Foundation GK-12 program. If funded, eight ag sciences graduate students (specifically agronomy and entomology) would be placed at the Haskell Ag Lab in Concord. They would complete their coursework via distance education and conduct research projects at the station. They would spend two full days per week in secondary schools as science and math resources developing inquiry based activities, centered around agriculture, to support student learning in the life sciences. Two types of educational products are envisioned in the project. First, units in the existing digital library of crop technology (croptechnology.unl.edu) would be enhanced to include linkage to the national science standards. Second, 4-H school enrichment curricula for the secondary science level will be developed. Another future initiative is the development of an annual youth field day at the Haskell Ag Lab by UNL
Extension staff. An interest survey has been distributed to secondary teachers throughout northeast Nebraska and there is some interest to support such a field day.
Impacts
This project has a number of impacts to report: 1. Secondary teachers from fifteen communities in northeast Nebraska have an increased appreciation for the importance of agricultural literacy among all secondary students. 2. Teachers from fifteen communities have an increased awareness of agriculture as a scientific enterprise and the availability of UNL's research capacity in rural Nebraska. 3. Researchs at the Haskell Agriculture Laboratory discovered a new audience for disseminating results of their work.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 07/15/03 to 07/15/04
Outputs
The project has two objectives: Increase ag literacy of secondary teachers by exposing them to the scientific, environmental, economic, and social issues surrounding elements of agriculture; Increase high school student interest in careers in agriculture. Objective one was addressed by offering a graduate course for secondary teachers. Seven ag education, five science, and one social studies teacher from twelve rural school districts enrolled in a 3-credit hour ag literacy course in the summer of 2004 at the UNL Haskell Agricultural Laboratory (HAL). Nine UNL research scientists provided course content in the areas of weed management, soil fertility, irrigation management, beef feedlot cattle, conservation buffers, entomology, and swine production. Objective Two was addressed through two strategies. First, each teacher enrolled in the ag literacy course was asked to bring at least three sophomore-level students to HAL in August, 2004 to participate in a tour of the
research projects and have opportunity to interact with researchers and faculty representatives from the UNL College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR). Approximately 50 students participated in 2004. The second strategy included secondary science, social studies, and agriculture teachers using ag as a relevant context for teaching their specific subject matter. Teachers will implement their units during the 2004-05 academic year, a change from the original plan of the fall semester to allow teacher discretion in matching the unit to their year-long curriculum. The project plan included funding for 23 secondary teachers who would participate as part of interdisciplinary teams from six school districts including science, business, social studies and agriculture teachers. Recruitment efforts included a direct mail invitation to all secondary teachers in the four disciplines in the six districts targeted in the initial proposal. Superintendents and principles were
also contacted and asked to encourage teachers participation and project staff made personal visits at teach of the six schools. Despite these efforts, teacher response was minimal. Invitation letters were then sent via direct mail to all secondary teachers from the four target disciplines within a 9-county radius of the HAL. Additional recruitment of ag sciences teachers occurred via a listserve administered by CASNR faculty. Because only 13 teachers enrolled in the course in 2004, it will be repeated in 2005. Recruiting efforts will be modified to attempt to increase the diversity of subject matter taught by participating teachers. Few if any expenses were charged to the grant by the anniversary date but that was not a reflection of project activity. Difficulties with establishing an acceptable fiscal agent to serve on behalf of Crofton Community Schools became an issue which was ultimately resolved by contracting with the Educational Service Unit #1. Front-end recruiting expenses,
co-PI salary, and equipment purchases were encumbered by Crofton Community Schools and UNL then later submitted to the ESU for reimbursement. Tuition for the ag literacy course was incurred in July, 2004.
PRODUCTS: Each secondary teacher enrolled in the project will produce a unit using agriculture as a context for teaching their subject matter speciality during the 2004-05 academic year. Four teachers have completed their units to date. After the units have been taught in the respective secondary classrooms, the units will be made available to other teachers across the state and beyond via the Web.
OUTCOMES: Teachers who participated in the 2004 ag literacy course were asked to evaluate the course on a variety of dimensions using a 5-point Likert scale with 1 being POOR and 5 being GREAT. Some key results include: Potential of creating interest in agricultural literacy-3.999; Potential benefit of projects/research ideas for your students-3.976; Correlation of material to your curriculum-3.991. When participants were asked what they found to be the most beneficial outcome of the course, responses included: 1. I will be able to apply all the information and resources to my curriculum. Being introduced to so many resources is very valuable. 2. Presenters had a wealth of information to present. They prompted many different areas of thought regarding their particular areas. 3. It introduced a lot of new topics and ideas to me about integrating more ag or different areas of ag into our science project program. The secondary students who participated in the tour/student recruitment
activity also completed an evaluation instrument which indicated the activity was successful in increasing student awareness of the science involved in agriculture, UNL agricultural research across the state, and their likelihood to consider a career in the agricultural sciences. Ninety-five percent of the students indicated they would probably or definitely share some of the research conducted at the Haskell Ag Lab with their friends or family; 88 percent said they would probably or definitely investigate a college major within the UNL College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources; and 82 percent said they would probably or definitely consider a career involving scientific research.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: None to report at this time.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Teachers who participated in the ag literacy course found the breath of information from the course valuable. Yet they desire additional opportunities to learn hands-on techniques for exercises they can use in their classrooms and inquiry based activities as well. Future initiatives include UNL offering a number of 1-credit hour courses teaching various sampling techniques over the next several years and seeking funding from the National Science Foundation GK-12 program. The GK-12 project envisioned would place ag sciences graduate students in area secondary math and science classrooms as resources to help teachers develop and implement inquiry based activities, linked to state and national science and math standards, again using agriculture as the context for the activities. High school students who attended the tour/student recruitment event at the Haskell Ag Lab in August, 2004, will be tracked to monitor their future enrollment decision with respect to the UNL
College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
Impacts
None to report at this time.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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