Progress 08/01/04 to 07/31/06
Outputs
The "Grow Your Own" garden project conducted by the Section High School, Section, AL Agriscience Department was a tremendous success. The project has continued after the federal funds were expended.
PRODUCTS: A site for the garden project was developed and is available for future use. A garden tractor was purchased along with a wide assortment of garden tools. Five lesson plans were developed on gardening topics.
OUTCOMES: The project served as a model to the community, and gardening procedures were imitated by many community patrons. Funding sources have been enlisted for continuation of the project as well as other agriscience activities. The community gained tremendous respect for the "learn-by-doing" approaches used by the Section Agriscience Department.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: The Agriscience teacher promoted the garden project at county and district agriscience meetings. The Daily Sentinel in Scottsboro, AL carried a tremendous feature on the gardening project.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Using the success of this project, the Section Agriscience Department did other gardening projects, such as demonstrations on organic gardening and gardening without land facilities using bales of hay, etc.
Impacts
Students gained skills which many will use throughout thier lives to do hobby gardening as well as engage in commercial garden production. The participating teacher increased his competence in teaching horticulture by 60%. The Agriscience teacher learned how to involve the community in projects as well as how to enlist community resources.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/04 to 09/30/05
Outputs
This successful project engaged 162 students at Section High School in learning about the food industry by actually growing a campus garden. Focus was given to hands-on instruction whereby students also used a campus greenhouse to start many of the plants grown in the garden. Student experiences included selecting a garden site, doing a soil test to determine nutrient needs of the respective crops, seedbed preparation, fertilizing and liming according to soil test results, mulching to conserve moisture and control weeds, staking plants, controlling pests, harvesting, as well as marketing strategies. A veteran gardener brought practical experience to the project, an area land grant college supplied technical updates on horticulture, and a community college enligtened prospective professionals on how to prepare for entry into advanced study in food science. Some 42 non-traditional students were recruited to the program and seven cross-curricula activities involving
general education programs broadened the outreach of the project.
PRODUCTS: 1. A model campus garden was grown by participating students as a learning laboratory. 2. The project resulted in a 10% increase of students who pursued horticulture-related jobs and a 20% increase in students trained for such jobs. 3. A specialized course of study in vegetable production was developed and piloted as a result of the project.
OUTCOMES: 1. Participants increased their scores on horticulture written tests by 12% and their performance on skill tests related to horticulture by 25%. 2. Cross-curricula participation increased by 33%. 3. Use of outside resources in horticulture increased by 50%. 4. The agriscience teacher increased his teaching competency by 20% as a result of the project.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: 1. Project success stories were featured in three area newspapers. 2. Informal presentations on the project were made at area and state agriscience meetings. 3. Project staff responded positively to three requests for information on the project.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Evaluation activities identified highly successful, moderately successful, and slightly successful strategies and outcomes of the project. The most successful elements are being incorporated in Section High School's continuous horticulture instructional program. Further, projects for new proposals that use the experience gained from this projectare currently being pursued.
Impacts
1. The agriscience teache's versatility and competence levels have resulted in a horticulture curriculum that is activity-based rather than being altogether textbook dependent. 2. Enrollment in horticulture classes have almost doubled as a result of the project. 3. The average number of program completers in the agriscience program has risen from three to 23.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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