Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The BP3 project's target audience includes high school and community college students and educators from across the nation. The BP3 project impact goals include: 1) an increased number and diversity of students across the country interested in pursuing and completing a 2- or 4-year degree in agricultural science or other STEM fields related to agricultural sciences; and 2) an increased number of high school and community college educators across the country who are better prepared to teach agricultural science content. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the reporting period, three professional development webinars were offered to STEM teachers in grades 10-14.177 participants viewed the webinar either live or recorded from the agenergyia.org website. Iowa State University developed a learning activity pertaining to the research disseminated for each webinar. This hands on, inquiry based, classroom activity allowed participants to integrate the latest research into their high school and/or community college classroom. These activities were downloaded93 times during the reporting period. Below are the data of individual activities and the number of times they were downloaded. The PowerPoint presentations were also available for download from the website. It is rare that researchers in the field will allow their presentations to be utilized in the classroom. PowerPoint presentations from the three webinars were downloaded135 times during the reporting period. Below are the detailed data of downloads for each individual webinar pertaining to the number of times it was viewed, how often the PowerPoint was downloaded, and how often the activity was downloaded. Webinar Title: Integrating Perennial Bioenergy Crops, (February 26, 2015). Presented by Dr. Catherine Bonin. Webinar Watched: 72 Downloaded PowerPoint: 65 Downloaded Activity: 43 Webinar Title: The Potential of Sorghum as a Bioenergy Feedstock, (March 26, 2015). Presented by Dr. Andy Van Loocke. Webinar Watched: 56 Downloaded PowerPoint: 41 Downloaded Activity: 19 Webinar Title: Economic Costs and Environmental Impacts of Making Biofuels with Heat and Pressure, (April 8, 2015). Presented by Dr. Mark Wright. Webinar Watched: 49 Downloaded PowerPoint: 29 Downloaded Activity: 31 How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results of this project have been disseminated on the agenergyia.org website. Webinar recordings can be viewed; and curriculum modules, PowerPoint presentations, and classroom activities can be downloaded. There are no barriers or obligations to download the information. This is disseminated freely with no expectations attached. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Eastern Iowa Community Colleges and Iowa State University partnered to deliver three professional development and research-based instructional webinars during this reporting period. The topics of these webinars focused on emerging technologies in sustainable and renewable agriculture. These topics came out of the EPSCoR activities across bioenergy, wind, energy utilization, and policy and based on the needs of business and industry per of the NSF Regional Energy Defining Forums. The webinars were accompanied by downloadable PowerPoint presentations and classroom activities for instructors to use in the classroom. A comprehensive evaluation plan was designed to determine the connection between the project activities and the data collection, analysis, and findings. The Project Co-Directors coordinated formative evaluation activities and worked with the Instructional Designer to conduct an internal process evaluation focusing on implementation progress. The internal evaluation involved documenting, quantifying, verifying achievements, and monitoring program activities throughout the project. The summative evaluation was the responsibility of the external evaluators, Blanche and Ken Sheinkopf of The Sheinkopf Group. Their evaluation report has been submitted to the partners.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
http://agenergyia.org/
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Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The BP3 project's target audience includes high school and community college students and educators from across the nation. The BP3 project impact goals include: 1) an increased number and diversity of students across the country interested in pursuing and completing a 2- or 4-year degree in agricultural science or other STEM fields related to agricultural sciences; and 2) an increased number of high school and community college educators across the country who are better prepared to teach agricultural science content. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the reporting period, three professional development webinars were offered to STEM teachers in grades 10-14. 177 participants viewed the webinar either live or recorded from the agenergyia.org website. Iowa State University developed a learning activity pertaining to the research disseminated for each webinar. This hands on, inquiry based, classroom activity allowed participants to integrate the latest research into their high school and/or community college classroom. These activities were downloaded 93 times during the reporting period. Below are the data of individual activities and the number of times they were downloaded. The PowerPoint presentations were also available for download from the website. It is rare that researchers in the field will allow their presentations to be utilized in the classroom. PowerPoint presentations from the three webinars were downloaded 135 times during the reporting period. Below are the detailed data of downloads for each individual webinar pertaining to the number of times it was viewed, how often the PowerPoint was downloaded, and how often the activity was downloaded. Webinar Title: Integrating Perennial Bioenergy Crops, (February 26, 2015). Presented by Dr. Catherine Bonin. Webinar Watched: 72 Downloaded PowerPoint: 65 Downloaded Activity: 43 Webinar Title: The Potential of Sorghum as a Bioenergy Feedstock, (March 26, 2015). Presented by Dr. Andy Van Loocke. Webinar Watched: 56 Downloaded PowerPoint: 41 Downloaded Activity: 19 Webinar Title: Economic Costs and Environmental Impacts of Making Biofuels with Heat and Pressure, (April 8, 2015). Presented by Dr. Mark Wright. Webinar Watched: 49 Downloaded PowerPoint: 29 Downloaded Activity: 31 How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results of this project have been disseminated on the agenergyia.org website. Webinar recordings can be viewed; and curriculum modules, PowerPoint presentations, and classroom activities can be downloaded. There are no barriers or obligations to download the information. This is disseminated freely with no expectations attached. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Eastern Iowa Community Colleges and Iowa State University partnered to deliver three professional development and research-based instructional webinars during this reporting period. The topics of these webinars focused on emerging technologies in sustainable and renewable agriculture. These topics came out of the EPSCoR activities across bioenergy, wind, energy utilization, and policy and based on the needs of business and industry per of the NSF Regional Energy Defining Forums. The webinars were accompanied by downloadable PowerPoint presentations and classroom activities for instructors to use in the classroom. A comprehensive evaluation plan was designed to determine the connection between the project activities and the data collection, analysis, and findings. The Project Co-Directors coordinated formative evaluation activities and worked with the Instructional Designer to conduct an internal process evaluation focusing on implementation progress. The internal evaluation involved documenting, quantifying, verifying achievements, and monitoring program activities throughout the project. The summative evaluation was the responsibility of the external evaluators, Blanche and Ken Sheinkopf of The Sheinkopf Group. Their evaluation report has been submitted to the partners.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The BP3 project's target audience includes high school and community college students and educators from across the nation. The BP3 project impact goals include: 1) an increased number and diversity of students across the country interested in pursuing and completing a 2- or 4-year degree in agricultural science or other STEM fields related to agricultural sciences; and 2) an increased number of high school and community college educators across the country who are better prepared to teach agricultural science content. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? During the reporting period, six professional development webinars were offered to STEM teachers in grades 10-14. 5,329 participants viewed the webinar either live or recorded from the agenergyia.org website. Iowa State University developed a learning activity pertaining to the research disseminated for each webinar. This hands on, inquiry based, classroom activity allowed participants to integrate the latest research into their high school and/or community college classroom. These activities were downloaded 479 times during the reporting period. Below are the data of individual activities and the number of times they were downloaded. The PowerPoint presentations were also available for download from the website. It is rare that researchers in the field will allow their presentations to be utilized in the classroom. PowerPoint presentations from the six webinars were downloaded 544 times during the reporting period. Below are the detailed data of downloads for each individual webinar pertaining to the number of times it was viewed, how often the PowerPoint was downloaded, and how often the activity was downloaded. Webinar Title Webinar Watched Downloaded PowerPoint Downloaded Activity Biofuel Policy. What is it and what impact does it have? Speaker: Dr. Dermot Hayes Date: Wednesday September 30, 2013 968 129 99 Why are we developing advanced biofuels? Speaker: Dr. Robert Brown Date: Wednesday October 10, 2013 1,601 116 137 Dedicated Energy Crops: What, Why and Where? Speaker: Dr. Emily Heaton Date: Wednesday November 12, 2013 336 68 73 Sustainable Integrated Bioenergy-Agronomic Systems Speaker: Dr. David Laird Date: Wednesday February 17th, 2014 932 71 56 Extreme Weather and Climate Change Now & Future Trends Speaker: Dr. Christopher Anderson Date: Wednesday March 12th, 2014 636 71 75 Evolution of Corn and Ethanol and Co-Product Processing- Towards a More Sustainable Industry Speaker: Dr. Kurt Rosentrater Date: Wednesday April 28th, 2014 856 89 39 Total 5,329 544 479 Of the webinar participants who completed the survey, 100% were employed as a teacher or administrator in a high school and/or community college. 100% of the participants surveyed rated the webinars as either very good or excellent. 0% rated unsatisfactory, fair, or satisfactory. 100% of those surveyed said they would be willing to implement the curriculum and/or activity into the classroom. Since the curriculum was developed and disseminated on the agenergyia.org website, 17,169 modules have been downloaded. Below is a breakdown of the number of times each module was downloaded. Module Number of Downloads Module 1: Ag Energy Basics 733 Module 2: Resource Conservation 4,112 Module 3: Efficiency Part 1 580 Module 4: Efficiency Part 2 568 Module 5: Introduction to Renewable Energy 2,006 Module 6: Solar 760 Module 7: Geothermal 601 Module 8: Wind Part 1 529 Module 9: Wind Part 2 476 Module 10: Hydro 3,952 Module 11: Biogas 794 Module 12: Biofuels Part 2 437 Module 13: Biofuels Part 3 712 Module 14: Low Input 467 Module 15: Project Development 442 Total 17,169 Note. Number of downloads as of August 21, 2014 How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Results of this project have been disseminated on the agenergyia.org website. Webinar recordings can be viewed; and curriculum modules, PowerPoint presentations, and classroom activities can be downloaded. There are no barriers or obligations to download the information. This is disseminated freely with no expectations attached. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? 1) EICC and ISU will continue to develop and deliver professional development webinars for high school and community college faculty (grades 10-14) based on research that comes out of the EPSCoR activities across four research platforms (bioenergy, wind, energy utilization, and policy). Three to six professional development webinars will be developed capitalizing on the innovation from the EPSCoR research platforms and coordinating with the EPSCoR FLARE (Future Leaders in Advancing Renewable Energy) Institute with the impact of increasing high school and community college faculty teaching competencies and subject matter. The webinars will be made available to all high school and community college educators free of charge through the national Advanced Technology Environmental and Energy Center (ATEEC) website. 2) EICC and ISU will continue to expand the Introduction to Agriculture-based Sustainable and Renewable Energy course developed in the New Era grant to incorporate the emerging research that results from the EPSCoR research and FLARE broader impact activities.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Eastern Iowa Community Colleges and Iowa State University partnered to deliver six professional development and research-based instructional webinars during this reporting period. The topics of these webinars focused on emerging technologies in sustainable and renewable agriculture. These topics came out of the EPSCoR activities across bioenergy, wind, energy utilization, and policy and based on the needs of business and industry per of the NSF Regional Energy Defining Forums. The webinars were accompanied by downloadable PowerPoint presentations and classroom activities for instructors to use in the classroom. The partners added curriculum to the Web-based Introduction to Agriculture-based Sustainable and Renewable Energy course, and more instructional activities were added to the agenergyia.org website. These modules include emerging research-based information, and science and inquiry-based activities for students in grades 10-14. A comprehensive evaluation plan was designed to determine the connection between the project activities and the data collection, analysis, and findings. The Project Co-Directors coordinated formative evaluation activities and worked with the Instructional Designer to conduct an internal process evaluation focusing on implementation progress. The internal evaluation involved documenting, quantifying, verifying achievements, and monitoring program activities throughout the project. The summative evaluation was the responsibility of the external evaluators, Blanche and Ken Sheinkopf of The Sheinkopf Group. Their evaluation report has been submitted to the partners.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
http://agenergyia.org/
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Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The BP3 project’s target audience included grades 10-14 high school and community college students and high school and community college educators across the nation. The BP3 project impactincluded: 1) an increased number and diversity of students across the country interested in pursuing and completing a 2- or 4-year degree in agricultural science or other STEM fields related to agricultural sciences; and 2) an increased number of high school and community college educators across the country who are better prepared to teach agricultural science content. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Completion of thefirst objectiveresulted in a set of research-based instructional webinars about emerging technologies in sustainable and renewable agriculture recorded and available for STEM teachers in grades 10-14. Through July 31, 2013 294high school and/or community college STEM educatorsparticipated in and/or view the webinars. Following each of the three webinars, attendees were asked to complete a brief online survey. Their surveys also covered evaluation of the webinars in a couple of areas. Three of the 10 participants who responded to this question rated the overall quality of the content/presentation of the webinars as “excellent,” while the other seven rated it “very good.” When asked to rate the usability of the webinar’s software platform (accessing the webinar, ease of use, etc.), five rate it “excellent,” 3 “very good,” and two “satisfactory.” How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The recorded professional development webinars and web-based Introduction to Agriculture-based Sustainable and Renewable Energy course modules areavailable nationally through various channels.Project staff have presentedpresentations of the project at local, regional, and national conferences dedicated to agriculture-based renewable energy topics includingthe national and regional Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (PETE) networks, and ATEEC mailings and newsletters. The results havebeen disseminated to high school and community college agriculture organizations such as the Ecological Society of America 96th Annual Conference, Harvesting Clean Energy Conference, Evergreen State College Science Fair, Washington State University Research Extension Program Research Symposium for Advanced Biofuels Conference, and Iowa Agriculture Education Association. The general objective of the BP3 program is to disseminate research findings and information on sustainability and renewable energy topics to agriculture energy instructors. The prime activities are promoted on the website (http://agenergyia.org/modules) which contains 15 modules including “Ag Energy Basics,” “Resource Conservation and Sustainability,” “Energy Conservation,” and the use of various renewable energy technologies in agriculture, and also to offer recorded webinars on technologies and general information areas in energy and agriculture. To date 16,793 modules have been downloaded from the agenergy website. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? EICCD and ISUwill work together to build and deliver professional development webinars for high school and community college faculty (grades 10-14) based on research that comes out of the EPSCoR activities across four research platforms (bioenergy, wind, energy utilization and policy) and based on the needs of business and industry that came out of the NSF Regional Energy Defining Forums. Three to six professional development webinars each year will be developed capitalizing on the innovation from the EPSCoR research platforms and coordinating with the EPSCoR FLARE (Future Leaders in Advancing Renewable Energy) Institute with the impact of increasing high school and community college faculty teaching competencies and subject matter expertise. The webinars will be made available to all high school and community college educators free of charge through the national ATEECwebsite. As research emerges from the EPSCoR program, ISU researchers and EICCD/ATEEC instructional designers will work together to develop bi-monthly webinars for high school and community college faculty that demonstrate what is taking place in the laboratory that cover the four different platforms, and share insights into how these discoveries could change business and industry and affect jobs in the workplace. In addition, instructional designers will include hands-on, science and inquiry-based activities for students to perform in the classroom to educate them as to the importance of STEM research in the sustainable and renewable energy field. The webinars will be recorded and made available to all high school and community college educators free of charge through the national ATEEC website. EICCD andISUwill work together to expand the Introduction to Agriculture-based Sustainable and Renewable Energy course developed in the New Era grant to incorporate the emerging research that results from the EPSCoR research and FLARE broader impact activities and based on employment needs that came out of the NSF Regional Energy Defining Forums to introduce students to emerging research and interest them in STEM, agricultural science, and sustainable and renewable energy. The course will be modularized and web-based and made available free of charge to high school and community college students through the agenergyia.orgwebsite. The BP3 project’s target audience will include grades 10-14 high school and community college students and high school and community college educators across the nation. The BP3 project impact will include: 1) an increased number and diversity of students across the country interested in pursuing and completing a 2- or 4-year degree in agricultural science or other STEM fields related to agricultural sciences; and 2) an increased number of high school and community college educators across the country who are better prepared to teach agricultural science content.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Eastern Iowa Community College District and Iowa State Universitypartnered to: 1) deliverthree professional development webinars this reportingperiod for high school and community college faculty based on research that came out of the EPSCoR activities across bioenergy, wind, energy utilization and policy and based on the needs of business and industry that came out of the NSF Regional Energy Defining Forums; and 2) expanded the Introduction to Agriculture-based Sustainable and Renewable Energy course to incorporate EPSCoR research and FLARE broader impact activities based on employment needs that came out of the NSF Regional Energy Defining Forums.The project resulted in an increased number of high school and community college educators across the country who are now better prepared to teach agricultural science content.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2012
Citation:
http://agenergyia.org/
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