Progress 07/15/08 to 07/14/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The items or services produced through this grant are AET Curriculum and CAD and surveying equipment. The following curriculum was created: courses in Surveying, Advanced Surveying with GIS Applications, CAD for Agriculture, CAD Applications for Land Management in Agriculture, Technical Fundamentals for Agriculture, Ag-Irrigation Management, Irrigation Evaluation and Design Principles, Advanced Irrigation Design, Drip and Micro Irrigation Design and Management, GPS Grade Management, and Three-dimensional Machine Control. A 3 year subscription of Autodesk Design Institute was purchased which includes AutoCAD, Civil 3D, AutoCAD Architecture, Autodesk Revit Architecture, and AutoCAD Inventor Professional Suite. A 44 inch, large format plotter was purchased for use in the CAD lab. Five surveying-grade base and rover stations, 7 hand-held GPS receivers and a total station were purchased for use in surveying. In addition electrical and hydraulic trainers for laboratory instruction were purchased. Outreach materials were created to disseminate career and education opportunities in the Agricultural sciences including Ag Engineering. PARTICIPANTS: The Project Director, Richard Larson, oversaw all program activities to insure project kept on track. Joy Cowden, Project Coordinator, performed day-to-day operations for the project. Ray Rawn and Clint Cowden, instructors, created curriculum and taught courses. Lynnette Thompson, Recruiter, mentored Ag Ambassadors and performed outreach for the program. Partner organizations included: : CSU-Chico, CSU-Fresno, Cal Poly-SLO, Helena Chemical, USDA-NRCS and Topcon Positioning. TARGET AUDIENCES: As a Hispanic Serving Institution, with Hispanic populations in our 16 rural cities ranging from 68-98%, the goal of this project was to increase the rate of underrepresented students in careers in science and engineering. This project served West Hills Community College District, a 3,654 sq. mile region in California's Central Valley. West Hills Community College Lemoore's enrollment was 44.54% Hispanic, while West Hills College Coalinga's enrollment was 54.5% Hispanic. In addition, of the twelve district feeder schools, nine are over 70% Hispanic and four are over 95% Hispanic. Our district is extremely impoverished with over 70% of the students being economically disadvantaged and 32.8% of students being English language learners. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The following goals were accomplished: advisory committee, curriculum development and implementation, faculty position, scientific instrumentation acquirement, and student recruitment and internship attainment. An advisory committee was formed and held meetings April and October 2009 and April 2010. Members represented institutions such as: CSU-Chico, CSU-Fresno, Cal Poly-SLO, Helena Chemical, USDA-NRCS and Topcon Positioning. The meetings were very productive; curriculum was developed and passed, student internship opportunities were established and the state of the industry and future direction for the program were discussed. The first step for creating the new Agricultural Engineering Technology (AET) program was curriculum development. The following courses were created and passed through the curriculum committee: Surveying, Advanced Surveying with GIS Applications, CAD for Agriculture, CAD Applications for Land Management in Agriculture, Technical Fundamentals for Agriculture, Ag-Irrigation Management, Irrigation Evaluation and Design Principles, Advanced Irrigation Design, Drip and Micro Irrigation Design and Management, GPS Grade Management, and Three-dimensional Machine Control. Curriculum development was a major set-back in the achievement of the goals of this project; taking considerably more time than anticipated. With major budget cuts, there have been major reductions in course offerings, making the creation of new courses difficult. The courses were passed through curriculum in August 2009 and the certificates are on the agenda for next year. Curriculum was created using C-ID; students will be able to transfer courses with departments at CSUs and UCs. Another major setback was with hiring an AET instructor. Due to budget cuts and college policy, instructors are hired in the order of need. English and Math instructors are on the list ahead of Agriculture, but there are not funds available to hire new instructors in those areas. An instructor was hired in June 2010. A 3-year subscription to Autodesk Design Institute (AutoCAD), a large format printer, and surveying equipment were purchased. A recruiter was hired to facilitate Ag Ambassadors and conduct recruitment. She recruited at 30 high school and community events throughout California. This has been productive with program enrollment at 22 students, up from 10 last year. Hispanic enrollment of 27 percent has increased from 20 percent last year. During Summer 2010, 5 students obtained experiential internships including Helena Chemical, Scythe and Spade, Pik-a-Lok Farms, and Brock Taylor Consulting. A recruiter and Ag Ambassadors recruited at 10 high schools, speaking approximately 400-500 students and at various community events such as job fairs, career expositions, World Ag Expo, State FFA Convention, and CATA meetings. The instructor also met individually with interested students; including recruiting, facility tours, application and FAFSA. In addition to high schools the recruiter and Ag Ambassadors recruited
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 07/15/08 to 07/14/09
Outputs
The following goals were established for this reporting period: advisory committee formation, curriculum development, faculty position creation, scientific instrumentation acquirement, and student recruitment and internship attainment. An advisory committee was formed and held a meeting April 2009. Members represented institutions such as: CSU-Chico, CSU-Fresno, Cal Poly-SLO, Helena Chemical, USDA-NRCS and Topcon Positioning. The meeting was very productive; curriculum was developed and student internships and the state of the industry were discussed. The first step for creating an Agricultural Engineering Technology (AET) program is curriculum development. An Associate of Science degree and a certificate in AET with concentrations in Irrigation, Construction Management, Land Assessment and Modeling, Welding and Agriculture Management were created. In addition the following courses were created: Surveying, Advanced Surveying with GIS Applications, CAD for Agriculture, CAD Applications for Land Management in Agriculture, Technical Fundamentals for Agriculture, Ag-Irrigation Management, Irrigation Evaluation and Design Principles, Advanced Irrigation Design, Drip and Micro Irrigation Design and Management, GPS Grade Management, and Three-dimensional Machine Control. Curriculum development was a major set-back in the achievement of the goals of this project; taking considerably more time than anticipated. With major budget cuts, there have been major reductions in course offerings, making the creation of new courses difficult. The courses and associate of science degree were passed through curriculum in August 2009 and the certificates are on the agenda for late October. The current track is: university-transferrable curriculum takes one academic year to be added to the schedule; therefore we are looking at offering the courses experimentally winter 2010. Because the curriculum was created using C-ID, students will be able to transfer courses on a course-by-course basis with departments at CSUs and UCs. Another major setback was with hiring an AET instructor. Due to budget cuts and college policy, instructors are hired in the order of need. English and Math instructors are on the list ahead of Agriculture, but there are not funds available to hire new instructors in those areas. Therefore, even though funding was available for an Agriculture instructor, administration was apprehensive about hiring ahead of the "needed" instructors. But the position was advertised, and an instructor was hired in June 2010. A 3-year subscription to Autodesk Design Institute (AutoCAD), a large format printer, and surveying equipment was purchased. A recruiter was hired to facilitate Ag Ambassadors and conduct recruitment. She recruited at 20 high school and community events throughout California. This has been productive with program enrollment at 22 students, up from 10 last year. Hispanic enrollment of 27 percent has increased from 20 percent last year. During Summer 2010, 5 students obtained experiential internships including Helena Chemical, Scythe and Spade, Pik-a-Lok Farms, and Brock Taylor Consulting. PRODUCTS: The items or services produced through this grant are AET Curriculum and CAD and surveying equipment. The following curriculum was created: Associate of Science in AET, certificates in AET, Irrigation Technology, 3-D Machine Control Engineering, and 3-D Machine Control Operation and courses in Surveying, Advanced Surveying with GIS Applications, CAD for Agriculture, CAD Applications for Land Management in Agriculture, Technical Fundamentals for Agriculture, Ag-Irrigation Management, Irrigation Evaluation and Design Principles, Advanced Irrigation Design, Drip and Micro Irrigation Design and Management, GPS Grade Management, and Three-dimensional Machine Control. A 3 year subscription of Autodesk Design Institute was purchased which includes AutoCAD, Civil 3D, AutoCAD Architecture, Autodesk Revit Architecture, and AutoCAD Inventor Professional Suite. A 44 inch, large format plotter was purchased for use in the CAD lab. Five surveying-grade base and rover stations, 7 hand-held GPS receivers and a total station were purchased for use in surveying. In addition electrical and hydraulic trainers for laboratory instruction were purchased. OUTCOMES: Using the funds available from this project the following goals have been achieved: AET program and student enrollment. An AET Associate of Science degree was developed including 21 units of required coursework and 9 units of electives. Students can select their electives from the following concentrations: Irrigation, Construction Management, Land Assessment and Modeling, Welding and Agriculture Management. Certificates in AET, Irrigation Technology, 3-D Machine Control Engineering, and 3-D Machine Control Operation were created that lead into the AET A.S. degree. Program enrollment is up to 22 students or 92 percent of capacity, with Hispanic enrollment of 27 percent. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: A recruiter was hired to facilitate Ag Ambassadors and conduct recruitment. The Ag Ambassadors recruited at 5 high schools throughout California. At each high school they spoke with approximately 200-300 students. In addition to visiting high schools, the instructor met individually with interested students, these meetings included recruiting, facility tours, application and FAFSA help and new student orientations. In addition to high schools the recruiter and Ag Ambassadors recruited at various community events such as job fairs, career expositions, World Ag Expo, State FFA Convention, and CATA meetings. FUTURE INITIATIVES: The AET Associate of Science degree has been approved at the college level but still must be accepted at the California Community College Chancellor's office, but is on track to be on the schedule for the 2010-2011 school year. Individual courses will be on the schedule for 2010-2011 school year, but will be taught experimentally winter 2010. It is anticipated that the first cohort will start the courses in the winter during less traditional schedules. An additional cohort will start Fall 2010 in order to complete the program and continue their general education Fall 2011. Student recruitment will be a major initiative for the second year of the project, budget allowing. A large initiative will be contacting industry and lining up student experiential internships for summer 2010.
Impacts
Students will complete certificates in AET and either obtain employment or complete an Associate of Science degree in AET for transfer to a four-year university. During enrollment at West Hills College, students will gain experiential internships in their concentration to obtain hands-on, real-world experience. With program success and student recruitment the enrollment as well as Hispanic enrollment will continue to increase.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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