Progress 07/01/18 to 06/30/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary target audience of this project is public education teachers, with a specific focus on secondary teachers (grades 7-12) in Maury County, Tennessee. As a result of our programming with the primary audience, secondary audiences of community stakeholders and K-12 public education students have been impacted. Changes/Problems:The Covid-19 Pandemic significantly impacted the original timeline of this grant as schools were closed for large periods of time in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. However, two no-cost extensions allowed us to complete all proposed grant activities. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?July 2022: Two HUS faculty engaged in intensive professional development through an internship based experience in Botswana. December 2022: Three HUS and six Columbia Central faculty attended ACTE Tech Career Vision Conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Curricula developed through the Extension internship has been shared with all HUS faculty and was published through Tennessee 4-H. These resources are freely available to the public on the TN 4-H website. The STEM camp developed and delivered in Botswana in 2019 was also published and continues to be disseminated through Tennessee.? What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A second one year, no-cost extension was given to compensate for project time lost in 2020 due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. In Year 5 of the project, weengaged faculty and students from Maury County Public Schools, community partners, and professionals in Extension, agriculture, and industry fields to raise awareness of FANH concepts, how those concepts connect to state content standards across grade levels, and the manner in which those concepts can be effectively integrated into regular classroom instruction through project-based teaching. Objective 1:Increase teacher capacity to implement project-based instruction in FANH sciences In the 2022-2023 school year, Hampshire Unit School (HUS) operated in a fully face-to-face structure. Three HUS teachers and six Columbia Central High School teachers attended the CTE's Career Tech Vision 2022 in Las Vegas, NV. Upon returning from this conference, the team of teachers hosted small breakout sessions during faculty meetings at each school to share what they had learned and to brainstorm plans to more fully integrate agriculture into their own classrooms. In July 2022, a team of two HUS faculty traveled to Botswana for 10 days. During this trip, participants visited the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources to meet with faculty from various disciplines, toured local farms and ag production facilities, and led two three-day STEM camp for primary students in the village of Ntlhantlhe. The STEM camp was delivered in conjunction with Dr. Jennifer Richards (PI) who was simultaneously leading a teacher professional development workshop for village teachers on using their local environment to bring agriculture into their classrooms. HUS faculty delivered STEM based lessons on the engineering design process and led student through a STEM challenge to create an efficient irrigation system using only materials found in nature. Upon returning to the school, the team hosted workshops with HUS faculty to share their experiences and provide resources and examples of incorporating ag and natural resources into their standardized curriculum. Objective 2: Develop externships for faculty to engage with Extension, agriculture, and industry personnel This objective was completed in Years1 & 2 of the project. Objective 3: Identify high-quality curricula and supporting instructional materials and supplies to increase the quality of project-based FANH instruction In June 2020, the STEM Leadership Team from HUS and project PI Richards met to develop a lesson plans and supply lists needed to build and restock STEM boxes. Each box contains a lesson plan and all the necessary materials needed to teach that lesson. All lessons incorporate ANR concepts into core subject content standards. These boxes were assembled in Fall 2021 and restocked in the spring and fall of 2022 as well as the spring of 2023. Teachers report increased use of ANR concepts as a result of access to the STEM boxes and supplies. In Spring 2023, a team of five Columbia Central High School teachers (two ag teachers, two science teachers, and an administrator) worked collaboratively to design and build an outdoor STEM classroom to more fully engage students in project-based natural resource instruction. The outdoor classroom can accommodate 30 students and includes work tables, a sun canopy, flexible seating, storage, and outdoor dry erase board. Objective 4: Provide stipends and course release time for grade level and discipline specific curriculum development teams This objective was completed by the end of Year 4.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Richards, J. K. 2020. Irrigation Challenge STEM Camp. UT Extension Publication, W674.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Richards, J. (2020). Curriculum Corner: Irrigation STEM Challenge. Tennessee 4-H Ideas Newsletter, 20(17).
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Progress 07/01/21 to 06/30/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary target audience of this project is public education teachers, with a specific focus on secondary teachers (grades 7-12) in Maury County, Tennessee. As a result of our programming with the primary audience, secondary audiences of community stakeholders and K-12 public education students have been impacted. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?September & October 2021: Faculty teams develop thematic units with course release time. November 2021: Team of five HUS faculty attended NSTA National Area Conference. December 2021: Six HUS faculty attended ACTE Tech Career Vision Conference. March 2021: Developing & Using STEM Boxes In-service. Hampshire Unit School (18 teachers). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Curricula developed through the Extension internship has been shared with all HUS faculty and was published through Tennessee 4-H. These resources are freely available to the public on the TN 4-H website. The STEM camp developed and delivered in Botswana in 2019 was also published and continues to be disseminated through Tennessee. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We requested and were granted a second no-cost extension to reschedule activities lost due to the pandemic and restrictions placed on the school. Over Year 5 of the project, we will continue to offer professional development opportunities both onsite and nationally for teachers to attend conferences and workshops. We will expand these professional development opportunities to Columbia Central High School, another school within Maury County, will provide course release time for teams of teachers to work collaboratively to develop lesson plans and curriculum.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A one year, no-cost extension was given to compensate for project time lost in 2020 due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. In Year 4 of the project, weengaged faculty and students from Maury County Public Schools, community partners, and professionals in Extension, agriculture, and industry fields to raise awareness of FANH concepts, how those concepts connect to state content standards across grade levels, and the manner in which those concepts can be effectively integrated into regular classroom instruction through project-based teaching. Objective 1:Increase teacher capacity to implement project-based instruction in FANH sciences In the 2021-2022 school year, Hampshire Unit School (HUS) operated in a fully face-to-face structure. Five HUS teachers attended the 2021 National Harbor Area Conference hosted by National Science Teachers Association in National Harbor, MD. Upon returning from this conference, the team of teachers hosted small breakout sessions during a faculty meeting to share what they had learned and to brainstorm plans to more fully integrate agriculture into their own classrooms. A team of six teachers and administrators attended ACTE's Career Tech Vision 2021 in New Orleans, LA. The group then provided a presentation of programming ideas and resources to the fully HUS faculty. Objective 2: Develop externships for faculty to engage with Extension, agriculture, and industry personnel This objective was completed in Years1 & 2 of the project. Objective 3: Identify high-quality curricula and supporting instructional materials and supplies to increase the quality of project-based FANH instruction In June 2020, the STEM Leadership Team from HUS and project PI Richards met to develop a lesson plans and supply lists needed to build and restock STEM boxes. Each box contains a lesson plan and all the necessary materials needed to teach that lesson. All lessons incorporate ANR concepts into core subject content standards. These boxes were assembled in Fall 2021 and restocked in the spring of 2022. Teachers report increased use of ANR concepts as a result of access to the STEM boxes and supplies. Objective 4: Provide stipends and course release time for grade level and discipline specific curriculum development teams A total of 27 instructional days were provided as course release time in the fall of 2021 for eight HUS faculty members to engage in lesson plan development and creation of thematic units as a team.
Publications
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Progress 07/01/20 to 06/30/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary target audience of this project is public education teachers, with a specific focus on secondary teachers (grades 7-12) in Maury County, Tennessee. As a result of our programming with the primary audience, secondary audiences of community stakeholders and K-12 public education students have been impacted. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?August 2020: Eight HUS faculty attended a three day/two night professional development experience hosted at Lone Oaks Farm (LOF) led by PI Richards and LOF STEM educators. HUS teachers participated in six outdoor educational learning sessions designed to teach them best practices in incorporating STEM instruction into outdoor spaces. Teachers then worked in teams to develop lesson plans for use in their own classrooms which could be taught outside on the school's property. October 2020: All HUS attended a Defining ANR STEM Instruction at HUS professional development workshop. February 2021: Three HUS teachers and PI Richards participated in the Global Learning in Ag virtual conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?HUS faculty who traveled to Botswana in 2019 hosted a symposium for the GLAG virtual conference to share lessons learned from their ANR STEM outdoor teaching experiences. Curricula developed through the 2019 Extension internship has been shared with all HUS faculty and was published through Tennessee 4-H. These resources are freely available to the public on the TN 4-H website. The STEM camp developed and delivered in Botswana in 2019 was also published and continues to be disseminated through Tennessee. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We requested and were granted a no-cost extension to reschedule activities lost due to the pandemic and restrictions placed on the school. Over Year 4 of the project, we will continue to offer professional development opportunities both onsite and nationally for teachers to attend conferences and workshops. We will conduct at least one site visit of an ag-based school in Nashville. We will offer the Externship program again in the summer of 2022 and will provide course release time for teams of teachers to work collaboratively to develop lesson plans and curriculum.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In Year 3 of the project, weengaged faculty and students from Maury County Public Schools, community partners, and professionals in Extension, agriculture, and industry fields to raise awareness of FANH concepts, how those concepts connnect to state content standards across grade levels, and the manner in which those concepts can be effectively integrated into regular classroom instruction through project-based teaching. Objective 1:Increase teacher capacity to implement project-based instruction in FANH sciences In the 2020-2021 school year, Hampshire Unit School (HUS) operated in a hybrid (virtual/face-to-face) structure. The school experiences several outbreaks of Covid-19 requiring the entire school to move to virtual delivery multiple times throughout the school year. This significantly limited the programming conducted in Year 3 of the project. However, in August 2020, eight HUS faculty attended a three day/two night professional development experience hosted at Lone Oaks Farm (LOF) led by PI Richards and LOF STEM educators. HUS teachers participated in six outdoor educational learning sessions designed to teach them best practices in incorporating STEM instruction into outdoor spaces. Teachers then worked in teams to develop lesson plans for use in their own classrooms which could be taught outside on the school's property. Objective 2: Develop externships for faculty to engage with Extension, agriculture, and industry personnel Due to Covid-19, the Extension Externship program did not run in June 2021 as planned. Objective 3: Identify high-quality curricula and supporting instructional materials and supplies to increase the quality of project-based FANH instruction In June 2020, the STEM Leadership Team from HUS and project PI Richards met to develop a lesson plans and supply lists needed to build and restock STEM boxes. Each box will contain a lesson plan and all the necessary materials needed to teach that lesson. All lessons incorporated ANR concepts into core subject content standards. Three separate dates were scheduled to build out the STEM boxes, but each had to be rescheduled due to Covid-19 surges. These boxes were assembled in Fall 2021 and will be discussed in the Year 4 progress report. Objective 4: Provide stipends and course release time for grade level and discipline specific curriculum development teams Course release time was used in the fall of 2020 for four HUS faculty members to engage in planning professional development and the Extension Externship for summer of 2021. A full faculty PD session as conducted by PI Richards on October 21, 2020. The goal of this session was to dispel common misconceptions about STEM instruction and to collectively develop a working definition of what ANR based STEM instruction would look like at HUS. Due to Covid-19, the externship did not occur. We are requesting a no-cost extension to provide an additional year to reschedule activities lost due to the pandemic and restrictions placed on the school.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Richards, J., Parks, R., Richey, P., & Cathey, S. (2021) Growing Connections: Immersing students and teachers from Botswana in STEM challenges. Global Learning in Agriculture Virtual Conference. (72 International Educators)
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Progress 07/01/19 to 06/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary target audience of this project is public education teachers, with a specific focus on secondary teachers (grades 7-12) in Maury County, Tennessee. As a result of our programming with the primary audience, secondary audiences of community stakeholders and K-12 public education students have been impacted.In Year 2, three Maury County teachers who are participants in this project traveled to Ntlhantlhe, Botswana to visit with local teachers regarding ways they incorporate agriculture into their classrooms. The Maury County teachers also conducted a 3 day STEM camp centered around an irrigation water challenge, thus Ntlhantlhe teachers and primary students were also targeted audiences. Changes/Problems:The Covid-19 pandemic caused major disruptions to the implementation of this grant. Many of the conferences and professional development workshops/experiences, as well as the Extension Externship were planned for the spring and summer of 2020. However, the grant team and HUS representatives have maintained at least monthly contact and will be able to resume grant activities with the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. A one year no-cost extension has been requested to allow additional time to complete the activities that were not feasible during the pandemic. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?July 2019: Two HUS faculty and one administrator traveled to Botswana for seven days. During this trip, participants visited the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources to meet with faculty from various disciplines, toured local farms and ag production facilities, and led a two-day STEM camp for primary students in the village of Ntlhantlhe. December 2019: Three HUS faculty and one administrator attended the National Association of Agricultural Educators conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Curricula developed through the 2019 Extension internship has been shared with all HUS faculty and is in development to be published through Tennessee 4-H. The STEM camp developed and delivered in Botswana to show how to integrate ag and natural resources was published and disseminated through Tennessee 4-H and shared with HUS faculty. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over Year 3 of the project, we will continue to offer professional development opportunities both onsite and nationally for teachers to attend conferences and workshops. We will conduct at least one site visit of an ag-based school in Georgia and a high school in Chicago. We will offer the Externship program again in the summer of 2022 and will provide course release time for teams of teachers to work collaboratively to develop lesson plans and curriculum. The remainder of the lessons from the 2019 Extension Externship will be published and disseminated.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In Year 2 of the project, weengaged faculty and students from Maury County Public Schools, community partners, and professionals in Extension, agriculture, and industry fields to raise awareness of FANH concepts, how those concepts connnect to state content standards across grade levels, and the manner in which those concepts can be effectively integrated into regular classroom instruction through project-based teaching. Teachersparticipated in professional development workshops and conferences. ?Objective 1:Increase teacher capacity to implement project-based instruction in FANH sciences A team of three HUS faculty and one administrator attended the National Association of Agricultural Educators conference in December 2019. Upon returning to school, the team shared resources and ideas with HUS faculty through faculty meetings and professional learning communities (PLCs). In July 2019, a team of two HUS faculty and one administrator traveled to Botswana for seven days. During this trip, participants visited the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources tomeet with faculty from various disciplines, toured local farms and ag production facilities, and led a two-day STEM camp for primary students in the village of Ntlhantlhe. The STEM camp was delivered in conjunction with Dr. Jennifer Richards (PI) who was simultaneously leading a teacher professional development workshop forvillage teachers on using their local environment to bring agriculture into their classrooms. HUS faculty delivered STEM based lessons on the engineering design process and led student through a STEM challenge to create an efficient irrigation system using only materials found in nature. Upon returning tothe school, the team hosted workshops with HUS faculty to share their experiences and provide resources and examples of incorporating ag and natural resources into their standardized curriculum. The team, in conjunction with visiting hosts from Botswana, held a school wide assembly in which the team presented pictures of their experiences and talked about lessons learned. Objective 2: Develop externships for faculty to engage with Extension, agriculture, and industry personnel?? Due to Covid-19, the Extension Externship program did not run in June 2020 as planned. Objective 3: Identify high-quality curricula and supporting instructional materials and supplies to increase the quality of project-based FANH instruction? HUS faculty and administrators, in conjunction with project PIs, engaged in three meetings with faculty and administrators at Columbia State Community College to identify opportunities to develop/offer dual credit and dual enrollment courses in ANR fields. There was strong agreement to move forward with a horticulture/plant sciences courses, however, due to Covid restrictions and suspension of in-person school at HUS and CSCC these plans have been put on hold. We intend to revisit this as we emerge from the pandemic restrictions.? Objective 4: Provide stipends and course release time for grade level and discipline specific curriculum development teams? Course release time was used in the fall of 2019 for four HUS faculty members to engage in planning professional development and the Extension Externship for summer of 2020. However, due to Covid-19, these PDs and externships did not occur. We are requesting a no-cost extension to provide an additional year to reschedule activities lost due to the pandemic and restrictions placed on the school.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Richards, J. K. 2020. Irrigation Challenge STEM Camp. UT Extension Publication, W674.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Richards, J. (2020). Curriculum Corner: Irrigation STEM Challenge. Tennessee 4-H Ideas Newsletter, 20(17).
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Progress 07/01/18 to 06/30/19
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary target audience of htis project is public education teachers, with a specific focus on secondary teachers (grades 7-12) in Maury County, Tennessee. As a result of our programming with the primary audience, secondary audiences of community stakeholders and K-12 public education students have been impacted. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?All faculty members participated in FANH Project-based professional development onsite at Hampshire Unit School: Sept 2018 - Grant Kick-Off and Introduction to FANH Sciences; Sept 2019 - Small Group FANH Coaching Sessions; Oct 2018: Project-based Learning. Three teachers attened the STEM Innovation Network in Nashville, TN conference in May 2019. Two teachers attended Project-Based Learning: Learn it, Love it, Live it Workshop by Staff Development Educators in November 2018. One teacher attended the National Ag in the Classroom Annual Conference in June 2019, and six teachers attendedProject-Based Learning World conference in June 2019. 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?Over Year 2 of the project, we will continue to offer professional development opportunities both onsite and nationally for teachers to attend conferences and workshops. We will conduct at least one site visit of an ag-based school in Georgia. We will offer the Externship program again this summer and will provide course release time this spring for teams of teachers to work collaboratively to develop lesson plans and curriculum.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In Year 1 of the project, we have engaged faculty and students from Maury County Public Schools, community partners, and professionals in Extension, agriculture, and industry fields to raise awareness of FANH concepts, how those concepts connnect to state content standards across grade levels, and the manner in which those concepts can be effectively integrated into regular classroom instruction through project-based teaching. Teachers have participated in professional development workshops and conferences as well as an immersive Extension Externship program. Participants in the Extension Externship program produced week-long project based units of study that were FANH focused. These lessons will be taught throughout the 2019-2020 school year and will serve as models for other teachers as to how they can integrate FANH concepts into their classrooms. As a result of their engagement in this project, the school hosted its first annual Ag Day in which all 420 students participated. Ag Day activities included face-to-face discussions with over 30 local farmers, businesses, and government agencies and hands on experiences such as a farming simulator and petting farm. The event was strongly supported by the community and a committee of joint stakeholders has been formed to plan an even larger 2nd annual event for Spring 2020. Objective 1:Increase teacher capacity to implement project-based instruction in FANH sciences Participants attended conference and workshops hosted by the STEM Innovation Network (3), National Ag in the Classroom Annual Conference (1), and Staff Development of Educators (2). Additionally, a team of six attending the Project-Based Learning World conference in June 2019. This immersive workshop engaged team members in all aspects of planning rigorous project-based instruction. In daily debrief sessions, the team discussed ways to apply what they were learning and how to engage other faculty members. Upon returning to school, participants from all conferences and workshops conducted miniprofessional development sessions with other faculty as a means of sharing and planning collaboratively. Objective 2: Develop externships for faculty to engage with Extension, agriculture, and industry personnel A four-day immersive Extension Externship program was developed and delivered in June 2019. Days 1-3 included field trips to local farms, the Middle Tennessee Research and Education Center, Ridley 4-H Center, the school's greenhouse, a nearby forest, and a local golf course. Extension professionals led one to two hour instructional sessions with participants to demonstrate how various FANH disciplines relate to state content standards in math, language arts, social studies, and science. Participants were able to ask questions and collaboratively brainstorm lesson plan ideas. On Day 4 of the Externship, participants worked collaboratively with PI Richards to translate what they had seen and experienced over the week into a project-based, interdisciplinary unit grounded in FANH sciences. These units will be taught during the 2019-2020 school year as "model" lessons. Other faculty members will be granted course release time to observe delivery of the FANH units to serve as additional professional development on incorporating FANH concepts into classroom instruction. Objective 3: Identify high-quality curricula and supporting instructional materials and supplies to increase thequality of project-based FANH instruction Project participants made the decision to postpone purchasing instructional materials and supplies until year 2 of the project. Their rationale for this was to increase their background knowledge in FANH disciplines in the first year to better understand their needs before expending resources on curricular materials. Objective 4: Provide stipends and course release time for grade level and discipline specific curriculum development teams Funds budgeted for stipends and course release time were integrated into the Externship stipends to provide summer stipends for project-based unit development. These are the units that are discussed in Objective 2 above.
Publications
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