Progress 04/01/23 to 03/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Six teachers participated in the project. One high school agriculture teacher, one animal science teacher, two biology teachers, one integrated chemistry teacher, and one business education teacher. The students were in grades 9, 10, 11, and 12, respectively. The total number of high school students who participated in the projects was approximately 270. Changes/Problems:Some of the teachers in the project left the teaching profession posing a challenge to the project. Recruiting new teachers has equally been a challenge for the project because of the uniqueness of the scope of the project. Hence, collaborating with other high schools whose curriculum fits into the goal of the program is one way in which this challenge has been managed. Additionally, the IN-VISION project has another graduate student who was recruited to join the team. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In the Fall of 2023, PPHS teachers across the three campuses (Englewood, Broad Ripple, and South Bend) visited the Purdue University College of Agriculture for professional development in various labs of interest, they specifically visited the food science lab, hydroponics, and the ag. robotics laboratory. This professional development was aimed at improving the capacity of the teachers to design activities that meet the teachers' project goals. The hands-on activities that the teachers undergo during this visit, provided them with the knowledge and expertise to better teach the students in their classroom. It also exposed the teachers to opportunities to reach out to faculty and scientists when the need arises at different stages of their school projects. Additionally, teachers participated in online food fraud and biodiesel professional development. Teachers on the project have been trained in place-based education as a learner-centered model of teaching where the focus is more on the students than on the teacher. Online modules on STEM integrated through AFNR are also available for teachers to utilize in their classrooms. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been made available across communities both as presentations and publications at multiple conferences such as the Indiana STEM Conference, the American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference, the Association of International Agricultural Education and Extension, and the American Educational Research Association. The videos and other materials are made available to the general public locally and internationally through the IN-VISION website. The project recently connected with the University of Ilorin Secondary School in Kwara, Nigeria who are interested in piloting the integrated STEM curriculum to engage their students. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?From 2024 to 2025, the project will continue working with PPHS in developing agricultural pathways tracks by designing curriculums that integrate STEM and hands-on activities. In addition, the IN-VISION project will be collaborating with Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, an Urban high school. This collaboration will improve the curriculum design, projects, and activities of the PPHS agricultural pathway. Another focus will be to provide opportunities for students from both Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences and PPHS to have various activities and projects that will allow students the opportunity to interact with each other at different levels, this will bring about motivation for agricultural careers in PPHS students.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: Develop a year-long teacher professional development program to increase rural high school STEM teachers' agricultural literacy and teaching capacity. Ten modules were developed for teachers in agricultural STEM-related classes with assignments and worksheets serving as teaching aids for the STEM in the agricultural food systems: Scientific Reasoning modules 1 to 4 with reflections for each module, food fraud modules 1 to 4 with reflections for each module. Place-based education module, and citizen science module. Teachers engaged in professional development both online and onsite at the most convenient time. This flexibility allows the teachers to undergo professional development and use the knowledge gained to plan their teaching materials. For the 2023-2024 academic session, 70 lesson plans were distinctively developed by 6 teachers across the 3 high schools. The lesson plans were taught in subject areas such as food science, biodiesel, aquaponics and hydroponics, animal science, and agricultural engineering. Thirty-six unique project activities were developed and carried out by 270 students across the 5 high school (Tri-County, LaPorte, PPHS Broad Ripple, PPHS Englewood, and PPHS South Bend) campuses. Students selected the projects so, they passionately took ownership of the projects from start to finish while the teachers supervised. Objective 2: Create a small learning community for rural high school teachers to co-develop iSTEM and AFNR educational materials that are solidly grounded in agroecosystem thinking. Teachers worked together to develop learning materials and projects that students across the PPHS campuses (Broad Ripple and South Bend) implemented. For instance, one of the teachers in the South Bend campus visited the Broad Ripple campus and discovered that they were using hydroponics grow towers for gardening. She returned to her school upon learning the techniques and usage of the grow towers and implemented the same project. Through the grow towers for gardening at the South Bend campus, students are learning the usage of the towers for urban gardening, cost analysis, and harvesting. Through this technology, the diet and nutrition of students' households have improved by making healthy vegetables available to them. Objective 3: Provide scientists opportunities to collaborate with teachers to disseminate their research data and results through Extension/educational events. High school teachers visited the College of Agriculture at Purdue University for professional development led by scientists in different labs. These visits provided teachers with project ideas for their students, before introducing the projects in their high schools, the teachers brought their students to Puesuw campus for an immersive learning experience which spurred the students' interest. Students from two high schools (Tri-County High School and PPHS Broad Ripple) participated in two field trips on Purdue's campus. During the trip, the students toured different labs in the College of Agriculture: the labs visited were hydroponics, food safety, bug zoo, AgRobotics, wood products, and phenotyping. The process of meeting with scientists and learning about their Labs provides the students with pre-college experiences. The tour was also an avenue for the students to learn about the different research work of the faculty. A field trip entails that the students visit different departments such as Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Food Science, Forestry and Natural Resources, Entomology, and Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Students were able to experience different research laboratories in the College of Agriculture and learn about new career opportunities in agriculture and STEM. Objective 4: Equip rural high school students with critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are essential to success in the 21st-century workforce. The high school teachers on our project learn effective teaching strategies from faculty at Purdue College of Agriculture, and they utilized this relationship to collaborate with faculty on project-based learning on different activities, thereby equipping the teachers with the needed skills to train high school students to be agents of change who can solve identified problems in their community. Through the food science class, the PPHS (Broad Ripple) students and their teachers carried out activities on food quality nutrition testing, and water testing. As a result of these activities, students discovered they were served school lunches with low nutritional composition, they reported and actions were taken for the students to be served better lunch. Moreover, the hands-on activities that students carry out in their school projects spur their interest in various agricultural career opportunities and narrow their choices for college courses of study. Precollege experiences: Three teachers and 31 students, who were from the PPHS and Tri-County high schools participated in a pre-college experience where they visited the Purdue University College of Agriculture and toured various Labs to learn about different research been carried out by professors in the labs. After the tour students were asked to give Based on the students' feedback, eighteen of them agreed, and thirteen of them strongly agreed, that the field trip provided them with an overview of the College of Agriculture's career opportunities in terms of the courses offered, what needs to be studied, and how to study it. As per the students' feedback, their favorite and most enjoyable experiences were in the AgBot and Robotic lab, followed by the forestry, bug zoo, greenhouse/hydroponics, and food safety, in that order.
Publications
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Thies, S. L. J. (2023). Urban High School Students Motivation in Food Systems STEM Projects (Masters thesis, Purdue University).
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Wang, H. H., & Knobloch, N. A. (2023). K-12 teachers beliefs and practices in STEM integration.
In R. J. Tierney, F. Rizvi, & K. Erkican, K. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education (Vol. 11,
pp. 251-259).Elsevier. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.13070-2. ISBN:
9780128186305
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Wang, H. H., & Knobloch, N. A. (2024). Exploring interdisciplinary pedagogical content knowledge in teaching energy by using food system. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference, Philadelphia, PA
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Knobloch, N. A., Wang, H. H., Homan, D. & Weinert, G. (in press). Making learning relevant for urban students. The Agricultural Education Magazine.
|
Progress 04/01/22 to 03/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Total teacher participants were 7. Teachers in 9-12 settings including one high school math teacher, one high school integrated chemistry and physics teacher, one agriculture teacher, and two biology teachers, one family and consumer science teacher, and one business education teacher. A majority of the students are in grades 9, 10, and 11, with some students being in grade 12. There were approximatly 350 high school students participanted in the project. Changes/Problems:Teachers most often ran into challenges when finding time to collaborate with one another. It was easy for them to teach their own components to their individual classrooms but ran into problems when wanting to collaborate with one another. Other challenges faced by the researchers were getting timely responses from participants and recruitment of participants. The project leadership team often found that teachers felt that didn't "want to add another thing to their plate" and passed on the opportunity.After COVID-19, teachers are more inclined to participate online professional development. A virtual professional develop programhas itsadvantages, but also disadvantages. For example, teacher participants like the flexibilities of the online professional developemt. Yet, it created some challenges for the project leadership team to follow up with the teachers about their plan. We also faced challenges to recruit new teachers to join the project. The project leadership team found in the past two years, it was difficult to recruit teachers to participated in the project, even with the existingparticipants. Not only have we had problems to recruit new teachers successfully, but also we had lost existing teacher participants in the past two years. The reasons were not clear to us. However, some teachers shared with us that they were too busy to do anything more, or could not find other teachers who are interested in collaborating with them to co-develop integrated STEM lessons. Therefore, in the no cost extension year, we decided to focus on existing teacher participatns to build a more strong connection and collaborationwith them. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Teachers were provided 10 hours professional development through online modules and an additional 20 hours through classroom and synchronous sessions. The sessions were tailored to the teachers to address their personal goals and desires for the project.Teachers virtually engaged with a hydroponics expert to learn more about building and maintaining a hydroponics system. Educators were able to share pictures of their systems and discuss options for growing mediums, the best lighting options, and the easiest hydroponic systems to build. In addition to the project participants, the leadership team also presented the iSTEM through AFNR learning modules through different events and conferences, such as Indiana STEM conference. Teachers, who are interested in addingmore integrated STEM through AFNR into their teaching, could use the modules and experienced the professional development experience as the project participants. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to various communities include the American Association of Agricultural Educators at multiple conferences and pending journal articles, STEM educator communities which include publication and presentations and the Indiana STEM Conference, and presentations at both the American Educational Research Association and the Association of International Agricultural Education and Extension. The videos have been published on the project website for those outside of the project to view which has reached international audiences. In addition, the IN-VISION also has successfully reached out participants outside of Indiana. Currently, we also work with Beechwood high school from Kentucky. The Beechwood high school is interested in developing integrated STEM through AFNR teaching curriculum (Ag + STEM track). The goal is similar asPPHS. Through the project, in 2022, IN-VISION leadershipconnected the Beechwoood high school with PPHS. A team of the Beechwood high school teachers will visit PPHS to explore opportunities to collaborate in 2023. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Between 2023 to 2024, we plan to focus our efforts with teachers who we are currently work with and few new middle school teachers. In addition, we will place more supports to PPHS teachers, who are developing Agriculture Pathway track, for their students. The Agriculture Pathway is a 3 years curriculum design. Because of the existing collaboration, the IN-VISION leadrship are involved in developing the curriculum to bring in integrated STEM elements into the curriculum. It is a great opportunity to expend what we currently are doing to reach out to more educators and students.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: Develop a year-long teacher professonal development program to increase rural high school STEM teachers' agricultural literacy and teaching capacity. In total, we have developmented over 18 online modules with accompanying assignments to guide high school STEM and agricultureteachers through STEM integration at a distance. Professional development was conducted both asynchronously and synchronously which allowed for more participation from teachers as it allowed them to be more flexible while still being engaged in the project. There were over 20 unique lesson plans that had a range in topics including biofuels, aquaponics, apple production and use, ecology, and hydroponics. Many of the projects took multiple weeks to complete and students had ownership and freedom to investigate and research ideas of their choosing. Objective 2: Create a small learning community for rural high school teachers to co-develop iSTEM and AFNR educational materials that is solidy grounded in agro-ecosystem thinking Teachers collaborated with their peers to co-develop the iSTEM trhough AFNR educational matierlas. For example, the project collaborate withPurdue PolytechnicHigh School (PPHS) Englewood and North campus. The teachers who participated in the project were agriculture, engineering and science teachers. Their students explore several AFNR topics including bio immersion that relate to epidemologists, enviornment (constructed samll terrarium from pop bottles), and hidroponics and aquaponics solutions. For example, in the Bioimmerson project, students explored the impact of nutrition on their health and what happens when macromolecules are not available. Students completed the unit by creating a brochure for people their age. The brochure had to explain two diseases that could result from or are encouraged by poor eating habits and the symptoms of the disease. The brochure had to explain the caloric needs of a teen and suggest healthy foods and a meal plan. Students also explored the challenges of eating in a food desert and how a person could make healthy eating choices within a food desert. Lastly, students included a person a reflection piece within the brochure.In another high school, a biology teacher collaborate with a family and consumer science teacher and a business education teacher. They co-develpped a apple production unit. Each teacher took 1 week to develop their portion. the biology teacher focused on genetics and crossbreeding. The familiy and consumer science teacher focused on the process of cooking apples to make different products, such as apple pie and source toexten the shelf life. The business teacher focus on how to market the apple product and make profit. Objective 3: Provide scientists opportunities to collaborate with teachers to disseminate their research data and results through Extension/educational events Field trip:Purdue PolytechnicHigh School (PPHS) visited Purdue University to engage scientists.Students meetwith faculty from departments including the Bio-Engineering department, Agricultural Science Education and Communication, and the College of Education. Students learned about the different opportunities at Purdue and unique facts about the agricultural industry. Students concluded their time on campus by touring the College of Agriculture's facilities and different departments led by a College of Agriculture ambassador. The student presentations were open to Purdue faculty and staff on campus as well as Purdue affiliates virtually via zoom. Objective 4: Equip rural high school students with critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are essential to success in the 21st century Showcaseevent:Students from Tri-County High School and Purdue PolytechnicHigh School (PPHS) Englewood participated in the showcase event. Two teams from PPHS created presentations about their construction of hydroponics systems. Students took an engineering design approach to their projects. They built an ebb and flow system and an upright hydroponics system with a fish tank.Tri-County students presented their hydroponic systems in person and focused on a scientific inquiry approach. Students in a high school AP biology class completed a "Caffeine and Plants" project. They researched the effects of different increments of caffeine given to plants. The students built 4 hydroponic systems from pop bottles. The top half was filled with soil, the plant, and a wick to move the water mixture. Each bottle was assigned a measurementof caffeine. Caffeine pills were dissolved into the water and added whenever the water was changed. The high schoolers learned that too much caffeine can kill the plant but the right amount, 300 mg, can serve as a fertilizer for the plants. The plant growth was measured weekly, and the data showed that 300 mg was the point at which caffeine was a fertilizer without killing the plant. They identified that people should know there are different options for plant fertilizers and caffeine tablets are accessible and financially sustainable to most consumers. The students learned how to problem solve the design of the bottle hydroponic system and design an experiment that could be monitored and controlled. The event served as an venue that highschool students were able to shared their project with other school students and networking with other students.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Nelson, B.J., Wang, H.H., Knobloch, N.A., Thies, S.L.J. (2023) Enriching STEM with Scientific Reasoning and Place-Based Education. Workshop presented at the Annual Indiana STEM Conference, West Lafayette, IN.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Wang., H.H., Knobloch, N.A., Nelson, B.J., Smith, M., & Thies, S.L.J. (2022) Integrated STEM through AFNR. Workshop presented at the Annual Indiana Agriculture Teachers Conference, West Lafayette, IN.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Wang, H. H., & Knobloch, N. A. (2022). Preservice educators interpretations and pedagogical benefits of a STEM integration through agriculture, food and natural resources rubric. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 6(2), 4-28. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPR.202213513
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Wang, H. H., Knobloch, N. A., Nelson, B. J., Thies, L. J. (In Review). Exploring Interdisciplinary Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teaching Energy by Using Food Systems. Instructional Science.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Nelson, B. J., Wang, H. H., Hains, B. A case study of place-based education in practice using philosophical perspectives.
Cultural Studies of Science Education
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Wang, H. H., & Knobloch, N.A., (2023). K-12 teachers beliefs and practices in STEM integration (p. 251-259). In: Tierney, R.J., Rizvi, F., Erkican, K. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education, vol. 11. Elsevier. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.13070-2.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Thies, S. L. J., Knobloch, N. A., Wang, H. H., & Nelson, B. (in review). High School Student Perceptions and Motivations Regarding a Food System Integrated STEM Project. Research paper presented at the American Association of Agricultural Education Conference, Raleigh, NC.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Thies, S. L. J., Knobloch, N. A., Wang, H. H., Nelson, B. J. (2022). High School Student Perceptions of a Food System Integrated STEM Project. Presentation at the North Central American Association of Agricultural Education Conference, Columbia, MO, Acknowledged NIFA
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Knobloch N. A., Thies, S., Wang, H. H., & Nelson, B. J. High School Students Motivation Regarding an Integrated STEM Food System Project. The North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA).
|
Progress 04/01/21 to 03/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:In 2021, seven high schools (Tri-county, LaPorte, Portage, West Washington, Riley, and Purdue Polytechnic High School Englewood and Purdue Polytechnic High School North ) and 21 high school teachers from STEM disciplinary (including Agriculture, Family, Consumer Science, Technology, Business, Biology, Integrated Physics and Chemistry, and Mathematics) participated in the project. At the end of 2021, eleven high school teachers from four high schools in Indiana benefited from the project. Collectively, 44 high school students benefited from the project, with an additional, 220 estimated students that will benefit in the spring semester of 2022. Changes/Problems:We changed the teacher professional development to be online and virtual due to COVID-19. Based on the evaluation, we learned that teachers enjoyed the online training better than face to face training. Therefore, we will continue to use hybrid professional development format in 2022 and 2023. During the unexpected circumstances, two teachers from LaPort high school dropped the project after Mid-check in. The project recruited Purdue Polytechnic High School Englewood and Polytechnic High School North to participate in the project. These are two urban high schools and have very high diversity student population. The project will continually recruit new high schools and teachers into the project. There are learning curves regarding using Swivl. Both the project leadership team and teachers needed to learn and overcome the technical challenges. Therefore, the process was not as smooth as what the leadership team expected. The project leadership team has documented the feedback from teachers and will make improvements in the year of 2022 and 2023. We hosted a field trip on Purdue's campus for Purdue Polytechnic High School North students. The Purdue Polytechnic High School was one of the few high schools that still allowed field trips during the COVID-19. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?2021 Professional Development (two parts: asynchronous and synchronous sections) The project leadership team developed six online modules as asynchronous professional development components in April/May 2021. The leadership team used Google Classroom as a platform to structure the asynchronous professional development components. Google Classroom was developed for teachers to work through the assignments to develop teaching plans to support integrated STEM learning using the food system incubation design challenges. Six online modules included : (1) introduction to STEM integration; (2) STEM and Ag disciplines; (3) role of culture, community, and careers; (4) levels of integration in STEM and AFNR; (5) agroecosystem thinking and STEM through AFNR model; and (6) assessing integrated STEM outcomes. In addition to the six online modules, the Google Classroom also had a resources section from the three scientists to help teachers dive into more technical skills and knowledge about hydroponics, ag robotics/sensors, and food science and safety. We provided a mock-up Google Classroom link (not the actual link that teachers used to complete their assignments) in the report to show teachers' learning experience through online modules. (https://classroom.google.com/u/0/w/NDAzOTQ0ODEzNjc5/t/all). In July 2021, after teachers completed the six online modules, the project leadership team and scientists hosted a two-half day online synchronous sections. The synchronous sections included debriefing online modules, scientists presentations and breakout sections, teamwork time, and post evaluation. During the synchronous sections, teachers had opportunities to learn more about hydroponics, food science and technology, and sensors from scientists. In addition, they had opportunities to ask questions regarding the specific areas that they like to work on to structure their IDCs. Teachers also had an opportunity to work with their peers, as an interdisciplinary team, to brainstorm their lessons and align their curricula with each other. Evaluation was conducted of the professional development. Two out of three teachers agreed they were interested in implementing teaching strategies that create integrated learning experiences for students in my classroom and they were more confident in their abilities to explain ways to make learning authentic by making connections beyond the classroom. Finally, eight out of ten teachers were confident in their abilities to collaborate with other teachers regarding the incubation design challenges. Between September 2021 to May 2022, teachers work with their peers as an interdisciplinary team to co-develop and co-teach integrated STEM through AFNR lessons. Due to COVID-19, it was difficult to visit schools. Project leadership team members met virtually with teachers who provided progress reports and feedback on how their incubation design challenges were planned and implemented between December 2021 to January 2022. During the check in in December 2021, one school had implemented their IDC (Riley), and two schools (Purdue Polytechnic High School Englewood and North) had completed their first six-weeks of design challenges. The project also provided Swivl cameras for teachers to record their classroom implementation. The video recording also helped the project leadership team to check in with teachers regarding their progress. At the end of March, 2022, 22 videos have been reviewed and observations were conducted to provide feedback to teachers. In addition to professional development, the project leadership team (Dr. Neil Knobloch and Miss Sarah Thies, who is the graduate assistant) hosted a field trip for 26 Purdue Polytechnic High School North students and 3 teachers on Purdue's campus in March 2022. Students learned about agricultural robotics, food sensory testing, entomology, the forestry industry, hydroponics, and summer camp opportunities on Purdue's campus. From the student evaluations, there was complete agreement of students' responses that they enjoyed their experience, and they learned more about the agriculture, food and natural resources system. From the survey, students reported they agree that the field trip gave them ideas for their industry projects. Student comments detailed their enjoyment of hands-on experience in the Bug Zoo. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Iyakaremye, J. P, & Wang, H., H. (2021). Exploration of Indiana Home Growers' Willingness to Participate in Citizen Science Project [Poster Presentation]. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Conference, Virtual. Iyakaremye, J. P., & Wang, H. H. (2021). Applying learner centered approach in an inquiry-based homemade hydroponics program with Master Gardener Educators. Workshop presented at Learner-Centered Teaching conference, Columbus, OH. Nelson, B., Wang, H. H., Knobloch, N. A. (2022). Integrated STEM online modules for innovative Incubation Design Challenges. Workshop presented at Indiana STEM Conference, West Lafayette, IN. Wang, H. H. (2021). Panel Presentation: Careers that address global challenges in agriculture. The Global Learning in Agriculture (#FLAG21) Virtual Conference. Wang, H. H. (2021). Leveraging agriculture, food, and nature resources to facilitate STEM collaboration. Roundtable session paper presented for the Promoting Equity through Effective Informal STEM Learning Environment at the virtual American Educational Research Association International Conference. Wang, H. H., Nelson, B., Knobloch, N. A. (2021). Industry driven integrated STEM and system approach to innovative incubation. Workshop presented at Learner-Centered Teaching conference, Columbus, OH. Wang, H. H., & Knobloch, N. A. (in press). Teacher beliefs and practices in STEM integration. In X. F. Liu & L. Wang (Eds.). International Encyclopedia of Education, 4th Edition. Elsevier. Nelson, B., & Thies, S. (2022) Student Incubated Design Challenge Presentation Evaluation [Rubric]. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals 1. Online learning modules that focus on Place-based learning and scientific thinking and reasoning. 2. Host virtual showcase event 3. 2 half day summer virutal professional development with teachers 4. School visit to conduct interview with students and teachers 5. Conduct student evaluation at the end of project 6. Sumbit a journal article about integrated pedagogical content knowledge
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Develop a year-long teacher professional development program to increase rural high school STEM teachers' agricultural literacy and teaching capacity 1. In 2021, the project started with three scientists structured a letter that focuses on their specific areas to frame the food system challenges from pre and post harvest process. The following text showed a portion of the letter that the project leadership team, Drs. Hui-Hui Wang and Neil Knobloch, and the graduate assistant (Ms. Bryanna Nelson), used to introduce theIncubation Design Challenges(IDC) in which teachers worked as a team to solve a complex food system problem. The challenge will be addressed by teams working in three specific areas: hydroponics, food science & safety, and agricultural robotics (sensors). Your team will be responsible for one area of the project and led by a scientist and industry professional. Your scientist will give your team problems and tasks to help with these challenges and will help you when you are stuck or have questions. The hydroponics team will be led by Dr. Petrus Langenhoven, an expert in horticulture and hydroponic crops. The food safety and science team will be led by Dr. Yaohua Feng, an expert in microbial safety of foods. And the ag bot team will be led by Dr. Roger Tormoehlen, an expert in agricultural safety & health and agricultural robotics. Your team leader and industry professional will send you a letter detailing your tasks and assignments related to problems they see in their respective fields. After the letters were developed, we gave the letters to the teacher participants for them to recruit students to participated in the project. 2. During Spring 2021 to Summer 2021, we developed the online learning modules by using Google Classroom. As mentioned in the next section, the modules included six 25 minutes' videos that focused on STEM integration through AFNR and culture, community, and careers. In the Google Classroom, other resources, such as hydroponics, food safety and technology, and sensors, are also provided by the scientists. Besides the online learning modules, we hosted 2 half day virtual trainings with the teacher participants. Create a small learning community for rural high school teachers to co-develop iSTEM and AFNR educational materials that is solidly grounded in agro-ecosystem thinking 3. In fall 2021, teachers worked together with their peers to co-develop and co-teach their integrated STEM through AFNR Incubated Design Challenge that focuses on energy and food system.Scientists served as consultants when teachers had problems regarding hydroponics, food safety and technology, and sensors. Although agro-ecosystem thinking was emphasized in the online modules, teachers were adjusting how they could work together in the first year. So far, we did not see too many cases that agro-ecosystem was successfully embedded in the lessons. Provide scientists opportunities to collaborate with teachers to disseminate their research data and result through Extension/education events 4. Scientists participated in the summer two days trainings and served as consultants after the training. They shared the Extension/educational materials that they had developed with teachers. Teachers could adapt their materials/ask for support to work with them to develop their lessons and activities. Equip rural high school students with critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are essential to success in the 21st century workforce. 5. Until 03/2022 we have two schools completed the implementation. For these two schools, we send the evaluation for teachers to distribute to students. We surveyed 44 students and overall, we have students enjoyed the project and see the value of agricultural and STEM, and be awared the career opportunities in agriculture and STEM fields. Additionally, we also visited schools to check their progress and conduct interviews in fall 2021 and spring 2022.Teachers also shared how their students enjoyed the project. Teachers at the Riley high school told the leadership team that students were really engaged and excited about the learning opportunities.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Iyakaremye, J. P, & Wang, H., H. (2021). Exploration of Indiana Home Growers Willingness to Participate in Citizen Science Project [Poster Presentation]. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Conference, Virtual.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Iyakaremye, J. P., & Wang, H. H. (2021). Applying learner centered approach in an inquiry-based homemade hydroponics program with Master Gardener Educators. Workshop presented at Learner-Centered Teaching conference, Columbus, OH.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Nelson, B., Wang, H. H., Knobloch, N. A. (2022). Integrated STEM online modules for innovative Incubation Design Challenges. Workshop presented at Indiana STEM Conference, West Lafayette, IN.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Wang, H. H. (2021). Panel Presentation: Careers that address global challenges in agriculture. The Global Learning in Agriculture (#FLAG21) Virtual Conference
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Wang, H. H. (2021). Leveraging agriculture, food, and nature resources to facilitate STEM collaboration. Roundtable session paper presented for the Promoting Equity through Effective Informal STEM Learning Environment at the virtual American Educational Research Association International Conference.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Wang, H. H., Nelson, B., Knobloch, N. A. (2021). Industry driven integrated STEM and system approach to innovative incubation. Workshop presented at Learner-Centered Teaching conference, Columbus, OH.
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Wang, H. H., & Knobloch, N. A. (in press). Teacher beliefs and practices in STEM integration. In X. F. Liu & L. Wang (Eds.). International Encyclopedia of Education, 4th Edition. Elsevier.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
https://www.asec.purdue.edu/BoilerSteAm/index.cfm
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Progress 04/01/20 to 03/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Due to COVID-19, unfortunately, we had to pospone the project start date until 2021. We have reproted to NIFA in May 2020 about the situation and we got an one year extension with no cost. 18 participants signed up the project in 2021 IN-VISION project. They were teachers from seven high schools (LaPorte, Westville, Riley, TriCounty, Purdue Polytechnic, West Washington, and Seymour high schools). There are 8 agriculture teachers, and 10 STEM teachers participated in the project, 2021. Changes/Problems:Due to COVID-19, we pushed the project timeline starts from 2021 to 2024. The COVID-19 is still a big challenge in 2021. Four high schools indicated that they will not be able to join the project in 2021 due to COVID-19. Although these schools decided to not participate in the project in 2021, they want the project leadership team keeps them in the loop and check in with them in 2022. We created online integrated STEM through AFNR modules to accomdiate the need for virtual training due to COVID 19. It was a challenge to switch our PD strucutre from face to face professional development to virtual professional development. We will learn how the virtual training work for our participants by conducting evaluation in the late summer 2021. We will report our finding in 2022. Due to delay starting the project, we were not able to collect any data for teachers and students at this period. We will have more to report in the following year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Although we did not officially start the project in 2020, we still try our best to keep teachers updated about the project. On the individual level, few teachers also reached out to seek resources to help them think about how to add more science/mathematics into their lessons. In 2021, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer professional development is transitioned to an at-home, online learning environment (Google Classroom). The event is divided into two parts, an asynchronous session and two synchronous sessions. Participants will complet six modules, including videos and assignments, about general integrated STEM teaching approaches, and three modules from scientists to describe the food systems design challenges in June and July 2021. The synchronous session will be structured as two, half-day trainings that focused on helping teachers co-develop their integrated STEM through AFNR lessons. The synchronous sessions will be implemented on the July 13th and 24th 2021. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We were not able to collect data through the project in 2020. We will be able to collect data and disseminate results in 2021. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Unfortunately, we lost some schools due to the pandemtic is still going. After we talked to schools, we have recruited seven high schools and 18 teachers agreed to participated in the 2021 PD. We have created an online professional development program in May 2021. To serve broader audiences, we will develop a IN-VISION website and upload all the online professional development materials and pilot the website in late summer 2021. The website will open to all teachers who are interested in doing iSTEM through AFNR teaching in their classrooms. Although we plan to rejoin for in-person professional development in 2022, based on the data that we collected in 2021, we might structure the future professional development both in-person and online professional training. COVID-19 created some challenges for our project, and we took a different approach to structure the professional development.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Although we had the professional development date set up in July 2020, we had to cancled it due to COVID-19. It was a really challenging year for both teachers and project leadership team. NIFA had gaven us one year no cost extension. In 2020, we did not use any funding from the project. Although we did not start the IN-VISION project in 2020, we published the project pre-work in the Agricultural Education Magazine. The IN-VISION project is an extension for a USDA/NIFA project, LOCAL STEM. Therefore, the article that we published in the Agricultural Education Magazine was also considering as transition from LOCAL STEM to IN-VISION. We also shared the project with an undergraduate course, EPICS. EPICS is a service-learning design program in which teams of students partner with local and global community organizations to address human, community, and environmental needs. One student team took the hydroponics curriculum that we developped for the IN-VISION project and used it in Ghana. We want to follow up with this group to get more inforamtion about how they used the curricuilum in the future. Develop a year-long teacher professional development program to increase rural high school STEM teachers' agricultural literacy and teaching capacity In 2021, a Google Classroom online professional development has been developed. Six modules (Introduction to STEM Integration, STEM & Ag Disciplines, Role of Culture, Community, and Careers, Level of Integration in STEM & AFNR, Agroecosystem Thinking Model vs. STEM through AFNR, and Assessing Integrated STEM Outcomes) were created, and three videos, hydroponics, Ag robotics/sensors, and Food Science & Safety, were created by the collaborated scientists. Create a small learning community for rural high school teachers to co-develop iSTEM and AFNR educational materials that is solidly grounded in agro-ecosystem thinking After the participants complete the onine module, we set up two, half-day synchronous sessions in July 13th and 24th to help teachers collaborate and co-create their integrated STEM through AFNR lessons. Additionally, as the words go out, we were contacted by Dr. Marcelo Ruiz Araya, who is the Director Academico at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María Campus San Joaquín, Chile. Dr. Ruiz Araya is very interested in discussing more about integrated STEM through AFNR with us. We also provided him all the resources that we developed for IN-VISION project. Provide scientists opportunities to collaborate with teachers to disseminate their research data and results through Extension/educational event Three Scientists created videos about Hydroponics, Ag robotics/sensors, and Food Science & Safety for the online-module. Scientists also will participate the synchronous sessions in July 13th and 24th to share their research/extension activities, and provide support and resources to teachers in the areas of Hydroponics, Ag Robotics/sensors, and Food Science & Safety. Equip rural high school students with critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are essential to success in the 21st century workforce. At this period of report, teachers are still at the stage of developing their lessons plan. No report about students' learning so far.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Wang, H. H., Nelson, J. B., Knobloch, N. A., Langenhoven, P., Feng, Y. H., & Tormoehlen, R. L. (2020, July/August). Leveraging agricultural technologies to facilitate integrated STEM collaboration. The Agricultural Education Magazine, 93(1), 49-51
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