SUPPORTING PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT WITH SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATH IN AGRICULTURE

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1003957
• Project Start Date: Aug 7, 2014
• Project End Date: Jul 31, 2019
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
G022 MCCARTY HALL
GAINESVILLE,FL 32611

Performing Department
Agricultural Education and Communication

Non Technical Summary
The United States has long identified public understanding of science as a priority (Shen, 1975), yet as recently as 2008, less than 30% of adults were skilled enough to comprehend The New York Times' Science section (J. D. Miller, 2010). A thorough understanding of science "plays a critical role in the quality of our national debate and, in turn, the health of our democracy" (Meinwald & Hildebrand, 2010, p. vii) as well as the preparedness of a globally-competitive workforce (Carnevale, Smith, & Melton, 2011; Goecker, Smith, Smith, & Goetz, 2010; National Research Council, 2012). Traditional ways to increase opportunities for engaging in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning privilege formal classroom learning environments and experiences, but people have more opportunities to engage with STEM outside the classroom throughout their lives (Falk & Dierking, 2010). Researchers have struggled to identify learning in non-classroom experiences may look like, but recent re-characterization of the nature of the experiences to include affective features such as identity have helped conceptualize a holistic picture of development (Falk & Dierking, 2000). In addition, many efforts to investigate STEM overlook the large segment of students and researchers in agricultural and natural resources fields. This project will examine three related issues to public engagement with Ag-STEM: first, the use of visualizations of scientific data to support learning about current research, second, the STEM identity development of future Ag-STEM professionals and its relation to Ag-STEM career persistence, and third, public engagement with science for learning in science centers. Through mixed methods research in all of these areas, PI Stofer will build theory on public engagement with Ag-STEM and develop quantitative measures to investigate these issues and informal Ag-STEM learning with broad audiences. The research will include agricultural and natural resources disciplines in the fields and topics of study, and results from the research will be shared with both Agricultural and STEM Education communities.

Animal Health Component

100%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

0%

Applied

100%

Developmental

0%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
903	6099	3020	100%

Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;

Keywords

public engagement with science

agriscience education

stem education

ag-stem

agriculture literacy

science literacy

career aspiration

decision-making

scientific data visualization

personal meaning mapping

science identity

stem career persistence

Goals / Objectives
Goals/Objectives (purpose statement) -Goal: This project will add to the understanding of the ways public audiences engage with Ag-STEM research, including how they gather, understand, and use research information and how this engagement influences their self-concept.Objectives:Characterize and improve user engagement with scientific data visualizationsCharacterize Ag-STEM identity development over timeInvestigate public engagement with Ag-STEM

Project Methods
Methods - This project will use both qualitative and quantitative methods for its primary methods. To investigate meaning-making from data visualizations, primary data collection will be observations of museum visitors using the visualizations in context, with follow-up semi-structured interviews. Ag-STEM identity will use a Likert-type scale survey instrument with semi-structured interviews for validation, investigating both undergraduate and public audiences. Public engagement with Ag-STEM will involve personal meaning mapping, observations, and interviews with museum visitors, plus surveys of their experiences with exhibits. Analysis will include thematic coding for observations, interviews, and meaning mapping, and statistical analyses such as t-tests, ANOVAs, and k-means cluster analysis for surveys as appropriate.Efforts. The results of this research will be shared in Extension workshops including online workshops through the University of Florida and eXtension.org, and in-person workshops at Extension conferences such as Extension Professionals Association of Florida. Workshops will also be offered to informal and formal educators through advertising the aforementioned workshops to those groups and offering them at conferences such as the Association of Science-Technology Centers, a gathering of international informal science educators. Workshops will share both the results of this research project, to provide Extension faculty and educators insight into public audiences' needs, as well as the instruments and tools developed from this research, so Extension faculty and educators can themselves further investigate their audiences' backgrounds and development.Evaluation. Workshop participants will themselves complete the identity instrument and personal meaning maps not only to learn how to administer them themselves, but also for evaluation purposes. Analysis using those tools will proceed in the same quantitative and qualitative methods manner as described for the research. In addition, workshop participants will be asked to complete an evaluation of the workshop experience itself, using a mix of quantitative and open-ended questions. This evaluation will cover the usefulness of the content presented, the effectiveness of the presentation style, likelihood of using information and tools presented in the future. Measures of success will be high scores on all of these measures, including high science identity scores as well as high post-workshop evaluation scores.

Progress 10/01/18 to 07/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Researchers and Extension personnel and Florida Master Naturalists Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Several students continue to volunteer on various projects related to this Hatch project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Primarily through research papers and conference papers, as well as social media (Twitter: @Dr_Stofer) and blog http://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/aecdept/katie-stofer What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Renewed Hatch project as this one ended.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Continued grant-funded research with data visualizations. Several conference publications on embodied cognition and gesture interactions with spherical displays. 2. Presented work at the 2019 Southern Region conference of the Association for Agricultural Education and submitted for journal publication. 3. Received grant funding to produce "talk nature with me," a public engagement program with Florida Master Naturalists sharing natural resources education with audiences. Began professional development for this program and implemented the first instance in late July.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Clyde, M.*, Eberhardt, A., Prysby, M., & Stofer, K. A. (2018). Untapped: Accessing extension to strengthen connections between citizen science and community decision-making. Journal of Extension. (56) 5, Article 5FEA7.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Soni N.*, Bapat, S., Gleaves, S., Darrow, A., Schuman, C., Neff, H., Chang, P., Stofer, K. A., Anthony, L. (2019). Towards Understanding Interactions with Multi-Touch Spherical Displays. Extended Abstracts of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI2019). Glasgow, UK, May 4-9, Paper No. LBW0238.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Soni, N.*, Gleaves, S., Neff, H., Morrison-Smith, S., Esmaeili, S., Mayne, I., Bapat, S., Schuman, C., Stofer, K. A., Anthony, L. (2019). Do User-Defined Gestures for Flatscreens Generalize to Interactive Spherical Displays for Adults and Children? In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Pervasive Displays, Palermo, Italy, June 12-14, Article No. 24.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Soni, N.*, Darrow, A., Luc, A., Alexandre, J., Morales, A., Kirkland, B., Chang, P., Schuman, C., Neff, H., Gleaves, S., Stofer, K. A., Anthony, L. (2019). Analysis of Collaborative Interactive Gestures During Embodied Cognition in Tabletop Science Learning Experiences. Proceedings of the Conference of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL19). Lyon, France, June 17-22, 2019, Pages 9-16.

Progress 08/07/14 to 07/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Researchers and Extension personnel and Florida Master Naturalists Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Multiple undergraduate and graduate students have volunteered on research and programming aspects of the various projects. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Research and Extension publications, conferences, and social media What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Several research and education products related to a grant-funded (NSF) project on visualizations on a touch-enabled sphere. 2. Research with general education students in biology and geoscience on science identity. Data collection is complete; analysis and publication continue. 3. Several smaller funded projects on climate change programming and natural resources programming. Several research and Extension publications as well as ongoing production of programming.

Publications

Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Researchers and Extension personnel as well as purveyors of agritourism Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Several students, both undergraduate and graduate, have participated in the research related to this Hatch project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?One graduate student presented at an international conference on the visualization work. Produced one webinar for agritourism professionals to detail the statewide plan and focus group findings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue research analysis and publication of data obtained to date. Produce public engagement with Florida Master Naturalists around Florida, and collect data on the events. Continue to secure grant funding to support these efforts.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Continued grant-funded research with data visualizations. Conducted a set of focus groups to design content and interactions for a touch-enabled spherical display; prepared educational research with a tabletop for publication; analyzed interaction data for computer science publications. 2. Continued revisions of manuscript on general education students and identity. Continued data collection on identity from participants in a geoscience recruitment program. 3. continued publications on community engagement events from previous report year. produced Extension documents on promoting public engagement. Secured funding for expansion of public engagement activities with Florida Master Naturalists.

Publications

• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Stofer, K. A., Rumble, J. N., & Anderson, S. (2018). Florida Consumers⿿ Perceptions of Agritourism: Focus Groups (No. PIE16/17⿿03a). University of Florida/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education. Retrieved from http://www.piecenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Agritourism-2017_Focus-Group-Report_Final.pdf
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Rumble, J. N., Stofer, K. A., & Ruth, T. K. (2018). Statewide Plan for Agritourism. PIE2016/17-03B. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Lundgren, L.*, Stofer, K. A.*, Dunckel, B., Krieger, J., Lange, M., James, V. (under review). Panel-Based Exhibit using Participatory Design Elements May Motivate Behavior Change. Journal of Science Communication.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Stofer, K. A.*, Lundgren, L.*, Dunckel, B., Krieger, J., Lange, M., James, V. (under review). Public engagement on climate and health in museums and participatory dialogues may foster behavior change. Journal of STEM Outreach.

Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:1. We began research on a tabletop display with public audiences - university students and other community members. 2. We continued research with undergraduate students 3. We continued research with community members Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?3 graduate students and 2 undergraduate students have been co-investigators on the various projects in this time period. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Publications are in progress. Web recordings are archived on YouTube and distributed on social media. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1. Continue research and publications; continue development of the display technology. 2. Finalize data analysis and publications. Explore further grant opportunities and research collaborations. 3. Finalize data analysis and publications. Secure further funding.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. We began grant-funded research with a new touch-enabled spherical display for visualizations. 2. We submitted a conference paper on undergraduate STEM identity development and continued data analysis. 3. We produced two community-expert panel discussions and conducted evaluations of the same.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Stofer and Newberry (2017). When defining agriculture and science, explicit is not a bad word. Journal of Agricultural Education. 58 (1), 131-150.

Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Adults and families of the general public in the Alachua County, Florida, and surrounding county area. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?"talk science with me" offers 30-minute orientation for the scientists who will be conversing with the public. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1. We have secured additional funding to investigate these visualizations on a spherical display system and will begin development of educational products for the display and associated research in this period. 2. Finalize data analysisand produce publications. Conduct interviews with students to gather qualitative data for analysis. 3. Finish data analysis and produce publications.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. Nothing to report 2. We continue to analyze student survey data collected in 2014, 2015, and early 2016. 3. After piloting the program in July 2015, the "talk science with me" public engagement with science program was offered 4 times in the project year at approximately 10 venues each time. Up to 20 scientists participated each time. While the program was offered, we collected data on the interactions of scientists and public audiences. Data analysis on these events is ongoing.

Publications

Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Science and agricultural education researchers and practitioners, especially informal education researchers and practitioners Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue peer-review publication preparation and data collection for all objectives. Continue to secure external funding to pursue these projects.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? One undergraduate honors thesis for Objective 3b has been submitted; we are turning it into peer-reviewed publications and presentations at the moment. Data collection for objective 2 continued and peer-reviewed publications are in preparation. An NSF grant to fund work with objectives 1-3 was also secured.

Publications

Progress 08/07/14 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Undergraduate STEM and non-STEM major students in introductory plant pathology courses. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Two volunteer undergraduate researchers were involved in this research, conducting literature reviews, and collecting and analyzing data. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Objective 1. Create an online instrument for broader data collection. Objective 2. Continue to collect data on students; refine instrument to include agriculture identity; expand to other student populations for comparison. Objective 3. Continue data analysis. Create online instruments for broader data collection.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 2. Undergraduate students in introductory plant pathology courses were surveyed about their science identity. Data analysis with these and comparison populations is ongoing. Objective 3. Data collection and analysis of personal meaning maps with public definitions of STEM terminology was performed.

Publications