Source: OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLABORATIVE: INCREASING OREGON AITC`S CAPACITY AND PROMOTING CAREER AWARENESS FOR RURAL STUDENTS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1020444
Grant No.
2019-38414-30264
Project No.
ORE00331
Proposal No.
2019-02913
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
SPECA
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2019
Project End Date
Sep 30, 2023
Grant Year
2019
Project Director
Well, J. A.
Recipient Organization
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
CORVALLIS,OR 97331
Performing Department
SMILE Program
Non Technical Summary
Broadening participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields has been a clarion call for change across the educational landscape for several decades now. Federal agencies have supported efforts to address this issue by funding collaborative projects that have included institutions of higher education, yet this wicked problem persists.The Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) Program at Oregon State University is a school-university partnership program with an explicit mission to provide access and opportunities to youth who have been historically underserved and underrepresented in STEM fields. For 32-years SMILE has partnered with scientists and researchers to develop curriculum and activities based on cutting-edge research that is accessible to K-12 teachers, youth and communities. This type of work is significant to the mission of a land-grant university by providing quality outreach and bringing the work of the university to the broader state-wide community. The foundation for reaching a diverse target audience are SMILE's 26 afterschool STEM clubs (16 MS, 10 HS) serving over 400 students, in grades 6-12, from populations underrepresented and underserved. Each school year, 43 science and math teachers deliver STEM programming in 25 one-hour club meetings. Middle and High School students will participate in an annual College Connection Challenge event that allows them to work with researchers and near-peer mentors in FANH disciplines. Additionally, OAITC reaches thousands of rural students and provides their teachers with professional development.This project exemplifies the land-grant outreach mission and involves the College of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Food Sciences and Technology, Agricultural Science Ambassadors, Agricultural Sciences Leadership Academy Fellows and Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom (OAITC). Through this collaboration we will create curriculum that highlights Food Science/Technology and Manufacturing (FST) and related careers, provide near-peer mentors who are undergraduate student leaders in the College of Agricultural Sciences will serve as near peer mentors at the College Connection events. This includes two groups: The College of Agricultural Sciences Ambassadors (ASA) and the College of Agricultural Sciences Leadership Academy (CASLA) Fellows. OAITC faculty will design virtual field trips that highlight FAHN sciences and careers. OAITC will specifically work with CASLA Fellows to develop kits for student participants in the virtual field trips. ASA and students in the FST course 385 will work with FST Technology faculty to develop and deliver FAHN curriculum to teachers and K-12 students. The intended outcome in this project is an increased awareness of FAHN sciences, Agricultural majors and careers, interactions with near-peers in these majors and experiential learning opportunities for K-12 youth that highlight FAHN sciences and careers. Additionally, any curriculum developed will be disseminated through the National Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix, which is used nationally by K-12 teachers and AITC organizations.The pre-post nature of the evaluation will be able to show the impact of participation, either teacher or student (K-12 or undergraduate) as they engage in teacher development, afterschool club, Beaver Hangout sessions, and developing lessons to support youth interests in agricultural careers, food science, and technology. Lastly, teacher feedback will be solicited and captured to enhance and refine developing lessons and curriculum. This particular evaluation will be built to address the "soft skills" needed in new graduates (Crawford, Lan, Fink, Dalton & Fieltz, 2011).Surveys measuring teachers' content knowledge, familiarity with FANH careers, and views of integrating developed lessons into their curriculum will be administered before and after the OAITC's Teacher Workshops in 2020 and 2021. The impact on undergraduate students participating in the project as Agricultural Sciences Ambassadors program, Agricultural Leadership Academy Fellows and FST 385 students will also be evaluated. This evaluation will focus on student self-efficacy relating to their perceived ability to communicate agricultural sciences and to be a leaders in their profession.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
50250103020100%
Knowledge Area
502 - New and Improved Food Products;

Subject Of Investigation
5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
Our overall project goals align with SPECA's goals of enhancing the quality of school instruction to meet food, agricultural, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH) workplace needs. Our collaborative project will increase the number and diversity of students who are exposed to FANH topics and careers; increasing their understanding of food and agricultural sciences and their interest in pursuing food and agricultural science degrees and careers. This project draws upon: 1) SMILE's 32-year history of providing STEM experiences and STEM career awareness to underserved and underrepresented youth in mostly rural communities across the state of Oregon and professional development to teachers of these youth; 2) OATIC's expertise to engage teachers in thinking critically about environmental, technological, and social issues facing the food and agricultural sciences; 3) the College of Agricultural Sciences food science faculty and their FST course, Communicating Food and Fermentation Science; and 4) Two undergraduate leadership programs, Agricultural Leaders Fellows and Agricultural Science Ambassadors who will serve as near-peer mentors and be involved in the design and delivery of curriculum to teachers and youth.Objectives:Create FST curriculum of 6-8 activities for OAITC based on current research and aligned with Next Generation Science Standards and National Agricultural Literacy Outcomes.Facilitate 6 virtual field trips promoting FAHN sciences and careers to 3600 rural students.Deliver curriculum to 150 teachers through SMILE and OAITC's professional development workshops.Increase1350 students awareness of, and interest in, FAHN 2/4-year degree programs through connecting College of Agricultural undergraduate student (near-peer) mentors from similar backgrounds.Increase 400 students' soft-skills by engaging them in out-of-school time, FST activities based on real-world issues, which require teamwork, problem-solving, and communication and provide leadership opportunities.Disseminate the project's curriculum and activities through websites and annual conference presentations.
Project Methods
Effort: In this project we use a learning ecosystem approach that utilizes an existing infrastructure (Penuel, Lee & Bevan, 2014; Penuel, Clark, & Brevan, 2016) and builds upon the expertise of SMILE, OATIC, College of Agriculture's Food Science and Technology Department, CAS Agricultural Sciences Ambassadors and Agricultural Leadership Fellows to strengthen K-12 FANH education in both classroom and out-of-school settings.This projects unique approach to improving K-12 instructional outcomes integrate research-based activities and leverages existing SMILE and OAITC youth-serving programs including afterschool clubs, teacher professional development workshops, and family events. This approach engages students in activities focused on real-world issues that affect their communities, and expose them to FANH careers. The afterschool SMILE clubs, near-peer mentoring experiences, virtual field trips and College Connection Challenge events will motivate K-12 students and give them the confidence, skills, and information they need to achieve a higher education and become part of the FANH workforce.Annually, this project will improve 50 teachers' ability to engage their students through five OAITC lead teacher workshops that will increase their knowledge of FAHN sciences by introducing new activities based on current research in Food Science, and Technology activities, a College Connection Challenge event for middle and high school students, virtual field trips (via Beaver Hangouts) with accompanying 'Inquiry Boxes.' The FST curriculum will align with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and National Agricultural Literacy Outcomes (NALO) and promote educational achievement through linking students' interests to college programs and promising careers involving FANH sciences.In this project we will use research-related curricular content and designing activities by highlighting research conducted at OSU under funding support from USDA and other federal agencies. SMILE has a 32-year history of partnering with OSU faculty to create broader impacts through developing and delivering activities and curriculum based on current research. Dr. Zhenglun Li, FST Instructor, will take the lead in curriculum development with support from Jay Well, SMILE Assistant Director, Jessica Jansen, OAITC Executive Director and Dr. Haley Traini, Assistant Professor Director of College of Agricultural Sciences Leadership Academy, FST faculty, Agricultural Science Ambassadors, and CAS Agricultural Leaders Fellows will also participate in the curriculum development. The curriculum will be shared with teachers at the annual teacher workshops, implemented in the afterschool clubs, frame the College Connection events, virtual field trips and support the near-peer mentoring.Evaluation: This project will integrate a robust evaluation plan to assess the impacts of the project related to increased awareness and interest in agriculture careers. 2,250 K-12 students that participate in Beaver Hangouts sessions, 650 middle and high school students who engage in SMILE club meetings and College Connection Challenge events, and 100 educators that participate in OAITC professional development sessions. The agricultural sciences career interest and awareness of SMILE's MS and HS students will be assessed using a pre-post survey design. Each year, there will be three groups of OSU undergraduates that will be engaged in this project: 10 Agricultural Sciences Ambassadors, 10 Agricultural Leadership Academy, and 10 students in the FST 385 course. The pre-post nature of the evaluation will be able to show the impact of participation, either teacher or student, as they engage in teacher development, Beaver Hangout sessions, and developing lessons to support youth interests in agricultural careers, food science, and technology. Lastly, teacher feedback will be solicited and captured to enhance and refine developing lessons and curriculum. This particular evaluation will be built to address the "soft skills" needed in new graduates (Crawford, Lan, Fink, Dalton & Fieltz, 2011).Surveys measuring teachers' content knowledge, familiarity with FANH careers, and views of integrating developed lessons into their curriculum will be administered before and after the OAITC's Teacher Workshops in 2020 and 2021.The impact on undergraduate students participating in the project as Agricultural Sciences Ambassadors program, Agricultural Leadership Academy Fellows and FST 385 students will also be evaluated. This evaluation will focus on student self-efficacy relating to their perceived ability to communicate agricultural sciences and to be a leaders in their profession.Project assessment and evaluation will utilize other scholarly work on integrating agriculture education into formal classrooms and informal learning spaces, particularly by Scherer (2016), Ortega (2011), and Knobloch (1997). These scholars sought to impact underrepresented middle and high school students' interest and awareness of agricultural careers, utilized precollege program events and teacher workshops through integration of agricultural science lessons into current curriculum that was already being taught in school by partneringteachers.SMILE has a documented history of evaluating programs to revise curriculum and to support student outcomes. The assessment of these programs has been able to document student outcomes of participation, as well as document what parts of the program the students found most beneficial to them. Each survey scale was adapted from existing ones (e.g. Kier, Blanchard,Osborne, & Albert, 2014; J. Zajacova, Lynch, & Epenshade, 2005). Knowing what elements of each program supported student outcomes was integral to the revisions of each program.

Progress 09/01/19 to 09/30/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The foundation for reaching a diverse target audience is SMILE's afterschool STEM Clubs, which serve 700 students in 4th - 12th grade, from populations that are historically underrepresented and underserved in STEM. SMILE Clubs are weekly, afterschool club meetings and annual events, including community-based Family Math and Science Nights and a College Connection Challenge that brings students onto campus. Due to the pandemic, all events have moved to a virtual format. Demographics for the 2022-2023 school year: Elementary School: 297 students. Middle School: 242 students. High School: 204 students. 55% of students identify as female, 92% are from low-income families, and 69% are from student would be the first person in their family to attend college. Racial/Ethnicity self-identification: 43% Hispanic/Latino/a, 42% white, 9% multiracial, 3% Indigenous/Native American/Alaska Native, 2% Asian, 1% Black/African American, and 1% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the final year of the project, we hosted three teacher professional development workshops: 2023 Winter Teacher Workshop (47 teachers) - held in-person on Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28, 2023, at the Oregon State University Corvallis campus. Teachers worked with program staff in a session to develop the Challenge objectives, lessons, and requirements around activities and student participation. 2023 May Teacher Workshop (30 teachers) - held in-person from Thursday, May 11 - Saturday, May 13, 2023, at the H.J. Andrews Forest Research Station, located in Blue River, Oregon. Teachers learned about forestry sensors, how traditional and cutting-edge forestry practices are in use, and how climate feedback loops impact forests. Teachers provided feedback on the Challenge. Several teachers reported that Challenges were a main reason their students continue to participate and were a great way to support their students. While the teachers who participated in the Challenge thought it went well, the feedback was that Challenge events work best in-person and they were looking forward to spring 2023. 2023 August Teacher Workshop (45 teachers) - held in-person from Sunday, August 6 - Wednesday, August 9, 2023, at the Oregon State University Corvallis campus. Teachers learned about wine production, smart forestry and mechanized harvesting practices, and sustainable STEM practices. Ten students in the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) Program also received hands-on training on how to develop agricultural educational content. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All virtual professional development workshops, curriculum, and Challenge resources and outputs were offered virtually through our SMILE website. Additional resources and community networking opportunities are shared with the teachers through a password-protected site. Program staff attended the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference, held in Orlando, Florida in June 2023, to disseminate curriculum and activities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During the final year of the grant, we hosted six in-person Challenges for elementary, middle, and high school students and their teachers, led three teacher professional workshops, and partnered with Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom on an elementary virtual field to a research dairy. Additionally, in March 2023, we were approved for a re-budget request, which allowed us to partner with Oregon State University students in the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) Program and UniversidadAutónoma Chapingo, and agricultural college in Texcoco, Mexico on an educational project to capture agricultural focused video and stories that will be used in culturally responsive multilingual lessons for K-12 students. In-Person Challenges Elementary School Challenges. Elementary SMILE students joined other SMILE elementary clubs to experience a day at a university campus. The events ran from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, with students working in groups on hands-on science activities--some of which where agricultural focused, learning about the journey to college, and going on a campus tour. There were three Elementary School Regional Challenges held in April 2023, with 284 total participants: Friday, April 7 - Boise State University, with 58 students and 14 adults. Participants were from Four Rivers Elementary School and Nyssa Elementary School. Saturday, April 15 - Oregon State University, with 106 students and 16 adults. Participants were from Chiloquin Elementary School, Dayton Grade School, Heritage Elementary School, Lincoln Elementary School, Nellie Muir Elementary School, Tom McCall Upper Elementary School, Washington Elementary School, and Willamina Elementary School. Saturday, April 22 - Southern Oregon University, with 73 students and 17 adults. Participants were from Allen Dale Elementary School, Highland Elementary School, Lorna Byrne, Redwood Elementary School, and Riverside Elementary School. Middle School Challenges. Middle School SMILE students joined other SMILE Middle School clubs to experience life on two university campuses. Students spent the night in dorm rooms at Western Oregon University and worked together in groups on hands-on science activities at both Western Oregon University and at Oregon State University. Students explored various university spaces including classrooms, dining halls, and dorms. There were two Middle School Challenges held in April 2023, with 119 participants: Wednesday, April 4 - Thursday, April 5 with 49 students and 12 adults. Participants were from French Prairie Middle School, Seven Oak Middle School, and Valor Middle School. Wednesday, April 11 - Thursday, April 12 with 48 students and 10 adults. Participants were from Lorna Byrne Middles School, North Middle School, Nyssa Middle, and Ontario Middle School. High School Challenge. High School SMILE students joined other SMILE High School clubs to experience life on two university campuses. Students spent the night in dorm rooms at Western Oregon University and worked together in groups on hands-on science activities at both Western Oregon University and at Oregon State University. Students explored various university spaces including classrooms, dining halls, and dorms. There was one High School Challenge held in April 2023, with 128 participants: Wednesday, April 18 - Thursday, April 19 with 112 students and 16 adults. Participants were from Hidden Valley High School, Illinois Valley High School, South Medford High School, Four Rivers High School, Forest Grove High School, Nyssa High School, Ontario High School, Siletz High School, Willamina High School, and Woodburn High School. Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom: Elementary Virtual Field Trip This elementary virtual field trip was held on Thursday, June 1, 2023, and provided students with a 30 minute of virtual experience of the Oregon State University Research Dairy with the opportunity to submit questions live throughout. Live Attendees - Students: 2,758 connected attendees; additional 42 views to date. Classrooms: 128 classrooms Classroom Registrations Total registered: 172 Classes, 3,670 Students. All registered teachers were provided a link to the recorded experience. Educators were given a survey and 39 participants responded. Overall, the comments were very positive despite some technical difficulties with video quality and sound. Several comments also mentioned misuse of the chat by a small handful of participating students. Following the field trip, Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom staff reached out to participating teachers and addressed the behavior. The teacher whose students were acting out was apologetic and provided helpful insight. Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom will work to arrive at a solution that allows students to participate directly without causing distribution. Importantly nearly all survey respondents would be interested in participating in similar experiences in the future. MANRRS Student Program to Universidad Autónoma Chapingo Project staff worked with 10 Oregon State University students in the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) Program and partnered with UniversidadAutónoma Chapingo, an agricultural univeristy in Texcoco, Mexico on an agricultural education project. The goal of this project was to collect video and stories that can be The students that would later be used for culturally responsive multilingual lessons. These lessons are being developed in response to rural Oregon teachers from the SMILE program requesting lessons they can use in their classrooms that are culturally relevant to their students and utilize students' native languages (we have focused on Spanish/English). Through this rebudget and the partnerships we were able to foster in a short period of time we anticipate the creation of an 4 agricultural focused lessons in additional to the lessons originally proposed: Received training from program staff on how how to caputure video for educational lessons and on educational lesson development. Participated in a in a faculty-led engagement trip to UniversidadAutónoma Chapingo, an agricultural college located in Texcoco, Mexico, where ancient and contemporary agricultural practices and challenges were explored via site visits, botanical garden, industry tours, and presentations by agricultural researchers, producers, and specialists. More information on this program can be found here: https://oregonstate-idea.terradotta.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgramAngular&id=11295 Capured extensive video and stories in Spanish during the trip for a variety of lessons including GMO corn use and import in Mexico, Mexican fresh cheese production, prickly pear fruit "tuna" farming and processing, Nopal farming and processing, Chinampas and other Aztec farming techniques, small subsistence farming techniques, and many others. Held three teacher focus groups for over 50 teachers to discuss their needs for classroom ready cultrally responsive lessons. Have outlined lessons that will be developed that will be delivered to a Oregon state wide network of teachers in an upcoming workshop in August 2024. We anticipate 4 lessons and they will be piloted with 900 4-12 grade students in afterschool STEM clubs.

Publications


    Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

    Outputs
    Target Audience:The foundation for reaching a diverse target audience is SMILE's afterschool STEM Clubs, which serve over 500 students in 6th - 12th grade, from populations that are historically underrepresented and underserved in STEM. SMILE Clubs are weekly, afterschool club meetings and annual events, including community-based Family Math and Science Nights and a College Connection Challenge that brings students onto campus. Due to the pandemic, all events have moved to a virtual format. Demographics for the 2021-2022 school year: Elementary School: 205 students. Middle School: 160 students. High School: 85 students. 55% of students identify as female, 93% are from low-income families, and 75% are from student would be the first person in their family to attend college. Racial/Ethnicity self-identification: 41% Latino/a, 39% white, 12% multiracial, 8% Indigenous/Native American/Alaska Native. Changes/Problems:The pandemic continued to be a challenge logistically due to the resulting shut-down of the University and of K-12 schools. We were able to provide virtual professional development to educators offer the Challenge virtually but have not been able to offer an in-person Challenge to students yet. With communities resuming in-person education and events, we are planning for in-person Challenge events to be held between April 11 - 18, 2023. As our no-cost extension has been approved through June 2023, we expect to be able to complete the in-person portions of the grant project in spring 2023. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?2021 Summer Teacher Workshop (29 teachers) - held in-person from Monday, August 2 - Wednesday, August 4, 2021. Teachers worked with program staff in a session to develop the Challenge objectives, lessons, and requirements around logging activities and student participation. January Teacher Workshop (48 teachers) - held virtually on Friday, January 28, 2022, due to pandemic. The workshop had a session preparing the teachers for the upcoming. Challenge-specific teacher professional development workshops were held online on Tuesday, March 29, 2022 for elementary school teachers and online on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 for middle and high school teachers. 43 teachers from 32 schools participated. May Teacher Workshop (34 teachers) - held in-person on Friday, May 6 - Saturday, May 7, 2022. Teachers provided feedback on the Challenge. Several teachers reported that Challenges were a main reason their students continue to participate and were a great way to support their students. While the teachers who participated in the Challenge thought it went well, the feedback was that Challenge events work best in-person and they were looking forward to spring 2023. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All virtual professional development workshops, curriculum, and Challenge resources and outputs were offered virtually through our SMILE website. Additional resources and community networking opportunities are shared with the teachers through a password-protected site. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For the remainder of this grant, we are planning to fully return to hosting in-person Challenges in spring 2023. Jessica Jansen at Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom has identified the themes for the final round of lessons and virtual field trips. We are also submitting a re-budget request in order to sub-contract with Timelooper, a developer of virtual reality and augmented reality apps that are successfully being used to educate students on agricultural topics on USDA award #2021-67037-33379. If approved, we would work with Timelooper to develop an app on food security and food safety, which would be disseminated through the Oregon State University Precollege Program's and the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom's networks to educators and students across Oregon and rural Washington. We are currently meeting with our school partners and planning for an in-person teacher workshop to prepare for the Challenge events. Beaver Hangouts will continue the virtual delivery of content to K-12 students by OSU food science undergraduate students.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? Based on teacher input on the Challenge objectives, lessons, and participation logging requirements during the 2021 Summer Teacher Workshop (held Monday, August 2 - Wednesday, August 4, 2021), program staff developed the materials, videos, and activities during fall 2021. SMILE Challenge Resources (materials and videos) are available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1ROKBDlx7VP7LsLGIbAQaFBZkUuJ51miB Due to the Omicron surge in winter 2022, both the teacher professional development sessions and the Challenge event were held virtually. During the 2022 Winter Teacher Workshop (held virtually on Friday, January 28, 2022), program staff presented an overview of the Challenge and accompanying materials to the teachers. Teachers participating in the Challenge attended virtual workshops on the logistics of the event in two sessions in March 2022: one for elementary school teachers (March 29) and the other for middle and high school teachers (March 30). The Challenge was open to all elementary, middle, and high schools participating in the SMILE Program across the state, with 475 students from 32 schools participating. The theme of the Challenge was "Natural Disasters and Food Security."

    Publications


      Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

      Outputs
      Target Audience:The foundation for reaching a diverse target audience is SMILE's afterschool STEM Clubs, which serve over 400 students in 6th - 12th grade, from populations that are historically underrepresented and underserved in STEM. STEM Clubs are weekly, afterschool club meetings and annual events, including community-based Family Math and Science Nights and a College Connection Challenge that brings students onto campus. Due to the pandemic, all events have moved to a virtual format. Demographics for the 2019-2020 school year: Middle School: 260 students. 54% female, 90% low-income, 81% first generation, 32% Latino/a, 43% white, 12% Native American, 13% multiracial, and 2% other. High School: 146 students. 67% female, 95% low-income, 80% first generation, 45% Latino/a, 28% white, 10% Native American, and 1% other. Changes/Problems:The pandemic continues to be a challenge logistically due to the resulting shut-down of the University and of K-12 schools. We were able to provide virtual professional development to educators but have not been able to offer an in-person Challenge to students. With the no-cost extension through June 2022, we hope to be able to complete the in-person portions of the grant project starting in 2022. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Due to the global pandemic, the planned 2021 spring events that would have brought the SMILE students and teachers to campus were, again, cancelled. We were, however, able to deliver curriculum to teachers in a virtual professional development session. Link to Professional Development site with 2021 content: https://precollege.oregonstate.edu/virtual-professional-development-teachers How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All virtual professional development workshops, student field trips, and curriculum were offered virtually through our SMILE website. Additional resources and community networking opportunities are shared with the teachers through a password-protected site. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For the final year of this grant, we expect to fully return to hosting in-person middle school challenges in spring 2022. Jessica Jansen at Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom has identified the themes for the final round of lessons and virtual field trips. We are currently meeting with our school partners and planning for a virtual fall teacher workshop and hope to offer an in-person teacher workshop in January 2022. Beaver Hangouts will continue the virtual delivery of content to K-12 students by OSU food science undergraduate students.

      Impacts
      What was accomplished under these goals? November 2020 FST Lessons and Professional Development: Due to COVID and the resulting shift to online learning the FST course was not taught. We worked with food science partners to create content and deliver it to teachers, virtually. With no students to develop, pilot, and refine the curriculum/challenges, we focused on developing two hands-on lessons instead of the 6-8 initially proposed. All materials were packaged for individual students and over 500 kits were sent to student's homes through school districts. The lessons created--Cold Fermentation for Bread Baking (11/12/2020) and What Makes Food Spoil (11/19/2020) and resulting virtual teacher PDs can be found here: https://precollege.oregonstate.edu/fall-2020-virtual-professional-development-teachers These lessons used what we learned in our initial virtual lesson from Spring 2020 with the OSU Agricultural Science Ambassadors, and OAITC. These virtual PD can be found here: https://precollege.oregonstate.edu/spring-2020-virtual-professional-development-teachers Feedback: We tracked student feedback from online SMILE teacher logs. These lessons where run in two different ways--SMILE teacher facilitated through a virtual SMILE club meeting, or asynchronously with students discussing results at virtual SMILE club meetings. While attendance for virtual SMILE club meetings has been lower than in non-COVID years the majority of teachers reported that the lessons were completed by students. Teachers reported that students enjoyed the lesson because they were able to eat the products. Based on this feedback we will be producing more kits for these lessons and sending them our elementary students after our teacher professional development workshop in January 2021. Lessons learned: These lessons used what we learned in our initial virtual lesson from Spring 2020 with the OSU Agricultural Science Ambassadors, and OAITC. These virtual PD can be found here: https://precollege.oregonstate.edu/spring-2020-virtual-professional-development-teachers The main lesson is that individual kits need to be produced in order for them to be distributed to students at home and the best way to distribute them to students is using existing systems that districts have put in place. This is even more important with the rural school districts where we have SMILE clubs where students routinely live far away from school. 12/07/2020 - TMK Creamery Virtual Farm Field Trip (Middle/High School). The virtual field trip lasted 45 minutes via Zoom webinar and had opportunities for questions throughout. There were 44 middle/high school classes with 286 students registered for the event and 76 live attendees. However, as some attendees were teachers sharing their screen with their classrooms, the estimated middle/high school student impact was 101 students. Feedback: six educators completed the post field-trip evaluation. 100% indicated they would like to participate in similar experiences in the future. Lessons learned: The management of questions based on feedback from previous field trips went well. Previous feedback has indicated the desire to make it more personal by asking as many questions as possible. Due to the smaller group of participants and plenty of time for questions- tour hosts were able to answer a vast majority of the questions asked. Students asked over 100 questions during the event. Unfortunately, due to a technical issue on the part of Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom, the field trip was not recorded or broadcast to YouTube. The cause of the issue was identified, and steps will be taken to avoid this in the future. 01/30/2021--Virtual Winter Teacher Professional Development Workshop We ran a virtual teacher PD workshop of all SMILE teachers on January 30, 2021. In coordination with this workshop, we sent kits out to all SMILE clubs and teachers. These kits connected to the existing lessons that we had developed over the course of this grant with OSU Agricultural Science Ambassadors, OAITC, and our partners in the food science department. SMILE teachers had requested more individualized kits to distribute to their SMILE students to be used in conjunction with virtual SMILE club meetings and in their classrooms. We sent out over 500 more kits to ES, MS, HS SMILE teachers. Feedback: We tracked student feedback from online SMILE teacher logs. These lessons where run in different ways--SMILE teacher facilitated through a virtual SMILE club meeting, asynchronously with students discussing results at virtual SMILE club meetings, or virtually in their classroom. Teachers reported that they liked the hands-on nature of the lessons and that kits were easy to distribute to students since they were individually packed with all materials included. Lessons learned: Lesson plans could be updated to be clearer and translated into Spanish to provide more resources for parents who are helping to deliver the lessons in many cases. 02/24/2021 - Live Local Organics Aquaponics (Elementary School, 3-5 Grades). The virtual field trip was 30 minutes long. There were 77 elementary classes with 1,760 students registered for the event and 694 live attendees. As some attendees were teachers sharing their screens with their classrooms, the full student impact is difficult to calculate. Additionally, the recording of the event has 456 views, to date. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ClQPACIDXU Feedback: 22 participants completed a survey after the field trip, 19 elementary teachers, 1 informal educator, and 3 "other." Pre-Event Communication: 86% Excellent, 14% Pretty Good Length of the Presentation: 95% Excellent, 5% Pretty Good Content in the Presentation: 100% Excellent Likely to participate in a similar tour in the future: 86% Strongly Agree, 5% Agree, 9% Strongly Disagree Lessons learned: There were complaints about the camera work, from panning and close-ups to adjusting the sharpness of the image, which we will improve on future events. Some participants had difficulties with the chat feature, which will be covered in more detail on future virtual events. 03/16/2021 - Willamette Egg Farms (Elementary School, Kindergarten-5th Grades). There were two field trips held on the same day: one was for K - 2nd, the second for 3rd - 5th grades. Combined, the two events had 47 elementary classrooms with 838 students registered. As some teachers shared their screens with classroom, actual attendee numbers are difficult to calculate. Kindergarten-2nd Grades: The virtual field trip was 19 minutes long, with 120 live attendees, and 34 additional views. Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndjIKa9MmY0 3rd -5th Grades: The virtual field trip was 26 minutes long, with 449 live attendees, and 121 additional views. Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I6fu8ARTeo Feedback: 21 participants completed a survey after the field trip, 20 elementary teachers and 1 homeschool teacher. Pre-Event Communication: 86% Excellent, 14% Pretty Good Length of the Presentation: 81% Excellent, 14% Pretty Good, 5% Neutral Content in the Presentation: 52% Excellent, 18% Pretty Good, 29% Neutral Likely to participate in a similar tour in the future: 57% Strongly Agree, 33% Agree, 5% Neutral, 5% Strongly Disagree Lessons learned: Critiques included: too much talking for the ages of students, not having any examples or real-world applications to go with the topics discussed, and a lack of an actual tour of the space. This feedback is being incorporated to improve future field trips. Virtual Field Days: April 27, 28, 20 and May 5, 6, 2021. We provided schools with materials for four virtual activities each day. Activities included: teaching students to build their own edible soil profiles, tasting different varieties of honey while learning about pollination, and the agricultural origins of everyday favorites like potato chips. 53 schools participated with 1,009 students.

      Publications


        Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20

        Outputs
        Target Audience:The foundation for reaching a diverse target audience is SMILE's 26 afterschool STEM clubs (16 MS10 HS) serving over 400 students, in grades 6-12 from populations historically underrepresented and underserved in STEM through weekly, after afterschool club meetings, and annual events including community-based Family Math and Science Nights and a College Connection Challenge that brings students onto campus. Demographics for the 2019-20 school year: Middle School: 260 students, 54% female, 90% low-income, 81% first-generation, 32% Latino, 43% White, 12% American Indian/Native American, 13% Multiracial and 2% Other. High School:146 students, 67% female, 95% low-income, 80% first-generation, 45% Latino, 28% White, 10% American Indian/Native American, and 1% Other. Changes/Problems: The major changes are in response to the Covid 19 virus global pandemic and the resulting shut down of K-12 schools and the University. We were able to adapt to provide virtual professional development but not direct delivery to K-12 students. We have developed plans to deliver direct programming to K-12 students virtually in the fall. Virtual professional development sessions for teachers in the fall. We will ask for a no cost-extension for the planned spring programs. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Due to the global pandemic, the planned spring events that would have brought the SMILE students and teachers to campus were canceled. We were, however, able to deliver curriculum to teachers in a virtual professional development session. Link to Professional Development: https://precollege.oregonstate.edu/virtual-professional-development-teachers How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? As noted previously all spring events were canceled due to the global pandemic, the planned spring events that would bring K-12 students, Ag Science undergraduates, Ag Scientists, and teachers together was not possible. We had submitted a proposal to NACTA for the June 2020 conference in New Mexico that was accepted but the conference was canceled. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Dr. Zhenglun Li (Food Sciences and Technology), Dr. Haley Traini (Assistant Professor and Director of the College of Agricultural Leaders Fellows), and Jessica Jansen (Executive Director of Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom) have identified the themes for the next round of lessons and virtual field trips. We are meeting with our school partners and planning for virtual teacher workshops in the fall as well as virtual delivery of content to K-12 students by OSU food science undergraduates through our virtual platform, Beaver Hangouts. We have a teacher workshops scheduled for January 2021. We are planning (tentatively) to hold spring events that bring K-12 students and OSU undergraduates together in the spring of 2021.

        Impacts
        What was accomplished under these goals? Collaborated with Dr. Zhenglun Li and undergraduates in his FST 385 Communicating Food and Fermentation Science who designed and delivered three food science lessons to teachers in a virtual professional development for teachers titled, Exploring Food Science, Safety and Nutrition: https://precollege.oregonstate.edu/virtual-professional-development-teachers Designed and facilitated one virtual field trip: https://youtu.be/IGWdGYkR7gc Total number of students: 498 ? Total number of classrooms: 20 ? Participating Schools: Chiloquin Elementary School, Tom McCall Elementary School, St. Mary's Academy, Territorial Elementary School, Helix School, Luckiamute Valley Charter School, Falls City Elementary School, Annex Charter School, Portland Christian Elementary School, Chehalem Elementary School, Yankton Arthur Academy, North Albany Elementary School, Powell Valley Elementary School, West Union Elementary School, Central Linn Elementary School, Creslane Elementary School, Homeschool (Glide, OR), Monroe Grade School, Morning Star Christian School o Towns/Cities: Chiloquin, Redmond, The Dalles, Junction City, Helix, Dallas, Falls City, Ontario, Portland, Beaverton, St. Helens, Tangent, Gresham, Hillsboro, Halsey, Creswell, Glide, Monroe, Bend o Counties: Klamath, Deschutes, Wasco, Lane, Umatilla, Polk, Malheur, Multnomah, Washington, Columbia, Linn, Douglas, Benton The curriculum is accessible on OSU's Precollege Programs website: https://precollege.oregonstate.edu/virtual-professional-development-teachers and Oregon Agriculture in the Classrooms website: https://oregonaitc.org/programs/virtual-farm-field-trips/

        Publications