Progress 07/01/06 to 06/30/09
Outputs
The overall goal of the grant was to develop the framework for an agriscience academy that would involve 3 types of courses: four dual credit agriculture courses taught locally by a qualified high school agriculture education instructor, four dual credit general education courses taught locally by qualified instructors, and distance education courses online or over the fiber optics network. We were able to develop curriculum material for seven courses (Agronomy, Animal Science, Farm Management, Agriculture Marketing, Foundations of Writing, College Composition, and Speech). Partnerships have been developed with 12 schools in Northeast Iowa who are now offering these courses. In collaboration with the local Area Education agency we have placed the curriculum on a Moodle course management software web site that has been accessed by several schools throughout other parts of the state. We have also developed a completely online Agriculture Business degree with many high school students taking courses from the program as a post secondary enrollment option. Future plans include further development of the online degree in collaboration with secondary programs and four year bachelor programs to allow students a seamless degree from 9th grade through a 4 year degree. As a result of this effort the Agriculture Business and Production Programs at NICC has seen an enrollment increase of over 200%. Several participating high school have stated that they now have students attending college that normally may not have. PRODUCTS: We have developed curriculum for seven courses: Animal Science, Crop Science, Farm Management, Agriculture Markets, Foundations of Writing, College Composition and Fundamentals of Speech. Notebooks and/or web based materials are available of the curriculum materials. The agriculture courses are available in a Moodle web server. (http://moodle.aea1.k12.ia.us:8888/moodle18/) The General Education materials are available in a web server housed with Northeast Iowa Community College OUTCOMES: Dual credit courses are being taught with consistent quality and rigor across all school districts. A greater number of students are staying active in their FFA chapters during their senior year. Several students are now graduating with an associate degree in agriculture in one year or less after high school. Students are entering the work force or transferring to a four year university at in a much shorter time. A greater percentage of new employees entering the agriculture workforce have some type of post secondary education DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Three of the partners for the project presented at NAAE conference. The curriculum for the four agriculture courses has been all converted to electronic format and uploaded to a Moodle web server. The link to this web site has been distributed to all teachers in the state by the State Department of Education. The curriculum for the General Education is available on an NICC web server avaailable to any instructor associated with NICC. A workshop was held in June 2009 top disseminate the materials so far developed and to gather more materials for the courses. FUTURE INITIATIVES: Plans are to continue workshops on an annual basis to share information and keep curriculum updated. Plans are to expand the partnerships with 4 year institutions to allow a more seemless transition from grade 9 through 16
Impacts
Student retention in agriculture during the senior year of high school has increased by 10-20 percent Number of student pursuing post secondary education in agriculture at Northeast Iowa Community College has increased by 210 percent. Students have reduced the cost of their post secondary education by 10-50 percent
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 07/01/07 to 06/30/08
Outputs
The overall goal of the grant is to develop the framework for an agriscience academy that would involve agriculture and general education courses taught locally by qualified high school instructors. At this point in the process we have developed curriculum for six courses: Animal Science, Crop Science, Farm Management, Agriculture Markets, Foundations of Writing, and Fundamentals of Speech. Curriculum for three other courses are currently in the development stage: Intermediate Algebra, Psychology of Human Relations, and College Composition. All courses are transferable to Iowa State University. As the project is completed we will have notebooks of all of the materials available as well as electronic copies available in a Moodle web server. (http://moodle.aea1.k12.ia.us:8888/moodle18/) The work for this project is being completed by active full time teachers thus requiring most of it to be done during the summer. In the first summer of the grant we were unable to get much going so an additional summer has been needed to complete the materials. The four objectives of the program are: Keep students actively involved in high school agriculture and FFA programs for 4 years while giving them an opportunity to complete their freshman year of college. Increase the number of students enrolling in and successfully completing a post-secondary agriculture. Provide students with a faster and less expensive tract into a successful agriculture career. Even though the program is still not fully implemented we have already accomplished all of these objectives. PRODUCTS: We have developed curriculum for six courses: Animal Science, Crop Science, Farm Management, Agriculture Markets, Foundations of Writing, and Fundamentals of Speech. Curriculum for three other courses are currently in the development stage: Intermediate Algebra, Psychology of Human Relations, and College Composition. As the project is completed we will have notebooks of all of the materials available as well as electronic copies available in a Moodle web server. (http://moodle.aea1.k12.ia.us:8888/moodle18/) OUTCOMES: Dual credit courses are being taught with consistent quality and rigor across all school districts. A greater number of students are staying active in their FFA chapters during their senior year. Several students are now graduating with an associate degree in agriculture in one year or less. Students are entering the work force or transferring to a four year university at in a much shorter time. A greater percentage of new employees entering the agriculture workforce have some type of post secondary education DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Three of the presenters for the project presented at NAAE conference. The curriculum for the four agriculture courses has been all converted to electronic format and uploaded to a Moodle web server. The link to this web site has been distributed to all teachers in the state by the State Department of Education. FUTURE INITIATIVES: Instructors will continue to meet during the summer on an annual basis to update materials on the web site.
Impacts
Student retention in agriculture during the senior year of high school has increased by 10-20 percent Number of student pursuing post secondary education in agriculture has increased by 10 percent Number of students completing degrees has increased by 25 percent Students have reduced the cost of their post secondary education by 10-50 percent
Publications
- Curriculum notebooks for six courses have been printed locally: Animal Science, 2008
- Crop Science, 2008
- Farm Management, 2008
- Agriculture Markets, 2008
- Foundations of Writing, 2008
- Fundamentals of Speech, 2008
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Progress 07/01/06 to 06/30/07
Outputs
The first phase is the development of curriculum notebooks for eight dual credit courses in the Academy. The notebooks will include the course guide, course expectations for each unit, and sample activities for each unit. The purpose of the curriculum packets will be to provide an outline and materials for teaching the courses that allows for greater consistency across various sections and teachers. At this point we have developed the first draft of four curriculum notebooks in agriculture. These drafts were distributed to 18 High School Agriculture Teachers in June to test run during the coming year. The lead instructor for each notebook will work a selected small group of these 18 teachers to finalize the packet for electronic distribution next year. In addition NICC instructors are currently working on curriculum notebooks for 5 general education courses that will distributed as their first draft this fall.
PRODUCTS: The first draft of four curriculum notebooks have been developed in agriculture; Farm Management, Agriculture Marketing, Animal Science, and Crop Science. These notebooks include the course guide, course expectations for each unit, and sample activities for each unit.
OUTCOMES: Eighteen instructors in Northeast Iowa have curriculum materials to help them enhance or expand their offerings of college level classes in their high school
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: The curriculum packets were distributed to 18 instructors at a workshop at Northeast Iowa Community College in June. Copies of the materials were displayed at the Iowa Agriculture Teachers Conference. In addition a web site has been developed for electronic distribution of the materials. (http://ag.nicc.edu/)
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Additional packets are being developed in five general education courses with the first drafts to be distributed this fall. All materials will go through testing during the coming year with final revisions made for distribution next summer. At that point everything will be uploaded electronically to the web site. During the coming year a framework will be developed for a Agriscience Academy that will utilize the curriculum packets to help students seamlessly transition from High School to College
Impacts
The curriculum packets have increased the quality of instruction in the high schools in this areas. As a result of this in the coming years it is expected that students will be better prepared to attend college and more successful in completing their degrees. It is also expected that more students will be attending college as they have already had an opportunity to obtain many of their courses while attending their local high school
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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