Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Our project overall serves two target audiences, educators and youth in rural communities in Virginia. Educators reached through project efforts include middle school agriscience teachers, 4-H youth development agents, and agriculture and natural resources agents who work with youth. The primary youth audiences reached through project efforts are middle-school aged youth in rural localities in Virginia who participate in either formal or non-formal educational programs. Educational materials developed through project efforts target middle-school aged girls to encourage their participation and prolonged engagement in cyberbiosecurity educational opportunities. Changes/Problems:Our project timeline and activities were significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as we wrote the proposal prior to COVID-19 and had a project start date of September 2020. Impacts of the pandemic on the structure of education, limitations on in-person programming, and the capacity of educators to engage in extra projects caused the most challenges. Our ability to recruit educators to serve as Ambassadors was hindered, resulting in a smaller cohort than initially planned. The Design Summit was delayed by 6 months due to uncertainties about in-person events and it was limited to a 1-day Saturday event because the substitute teacher shortage prevented school-based Ambassadors from getting approval for leave. This limited participation from some Ambassadors and scientists due to weekend family obligations. Our original timetable to publish the Open Educational Resources (OER) produced by the Ambassadors and scientists was set for Summer 2022. This was not met due to this initial delay and subsequent lack of piloting opportunities for the ambassadors due to ongoing constraints. Opportunities to pilot activities and ideas at youth-facing outreach events were also limited as large gatherings (such as the Virginia Tech Science Festival) were either not held or were held in a virtual format not conducive to our needs. Despite these setbacks, we were still able to produce resources and the OER were completed in Summer 2023. We developed youth and facilitator guides for 4 hands-on activities that were piloted by Ambassadors during Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 and developed additional durable resources (9 Cyberbiosecurity Fact Sheets) that can support cyberbiosecurity education efforts in the future. The limited opportunities for prolonged engagement of educators in continuing professional education (CPE) in the last year of the project due to the attenuated timeline led us to focus on developing a Cybersecurity Education Resource Guide for facilitators instead of modular CPE OER. Our aim was to retain the focus on developing resources that Ambassadors and other educators can use into the future to learn about cyberbiosecurity concepts, incorporate them into their educational programs, and help additional colleagues get started in this work. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The primary training activity we conducted was the Design Summit in February 2022. The Cyberbiosecurity Education Ambassadors were invited to Virginia Tech's campus and 6 of the 7 ambassadors were able to attend. The cohort spent one full day along with 6 project team members, 6 scientists working in cyberbiosecurity, and 3 advisory board members exploring different aspects of cyberbiosecurity and developing strategies for integrating cyberbiosecurity into their curriculum. Support networks were developed during this in-person event for the Ambassadors to refer to if any questions arise. Subsequently, online meetings were held to solidify activity development teams, address any questions and resource concerns, support the development of the activities as Open Educational Resources, and continue to help Ambassadors in their efforts to use cyberbiosecurity as an instructional tool. Informal opportunities for professional development for project team members arose throughout the life of the project. Through collaboration on project activities, our interdisciplinary project team was able to learn from each other and gain expertise in key areas such as developmental strategies for middle school girls in STEM, cyberbiosecurity, and development of Open Educational Resources. Advisory Board meetings provided multiple opportunities for project team members to learn from Advisory Board members about the cybersecurity education landscape, current priorities for agricultural education at the Virginia Department of Education, and cybersecurity education and workforce development needs. Through these engagement opportunities, we were able to deepen our expertise and strengthen the products that were developed. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A core group of 7 educators (called Cyberbiosecurity Education Ambassadors) was recruited from rural localities in Virginia. Ambassadors were identified based on the following criteria: serve youth in a rural locality, conduct formal or non-formal agricultural education programs, and reach middle school aged girls engaged in their programs. Ambassadors participated in the Design Summit, virtual planning meetings, and the final curriculum writing session; these activities provided opportunities for them to learn about cyberbiosecurity concepts, identify ways that these concepts could be incorporated into their educational programs, and collaborate with scientists to develop hands-on activities. Ambassadors then reached middle school aged youth in their programs through pilot testing the hands-on lessons and resources. Agricultural educators in Virginia were reached through professional development opportunities co-led by project team members and Cyberbiosecurity Education Ambassadors. Each workshop was tailored to the specific audience, but all addressed basic concepts behind cyberbiosecurity, identifying ways in which cyberbiosecurity aligns with existing STEM/agricultural education programming and/or local needs, and an introduction to educational resources developed in this project.We held workshops at three relevant conferences in February 2023: Virginia Early Career Agricultural Educators' Conference, Virginia Association of Agricultural Educators Winter In-Service, and Virginia Cooperative Extension Winter In-Service. Additional youth and educator audiences are served by the Open Educational Resources that have been published to GoOpenVA.com. These are available to all individuals who have an account. GoOpenVA was selected as our content platform for its established audience and wide adoption among Virginia educators. We utilized the connections that our Advisory Board members have within the broader agricultural and cybersecurity education communities to disseminate information about these resources, including a presentation to the national Cybersecurity Networking Group in January 2023. Beyond our primary audiences, we had several scholarly presentations at local (university), state, and national conferences to provide visibility to professionals who work directly and indirectly with the target audience. These included the Virginia Tech Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture Big Event, the Virginia Ag Expo, and the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Annual Conference What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Our domestic agriculture and food system relies extensively on biological data, technology, and computerized systems for making timely and wise decisions. This leaves our seed and plant/crop agribusinesses, animal breeding and production enterprises, food processing, and retail industries, and the associated supply chain vulnerable to cyber-attack. Our agriculture and food system needs a workforce that is trained at the interface of life sciences and biosecurity, physical systems, and cybersecurity: cyberbiosecurity. Simultaneously, while the number of women in cybersecurity is growing, women only represent 20% of the workforce. We utilized rural agricultural education programs as a starting point to address gender parity and spark interest in the emerging cyberbiosecurity field. We partnered with scientists and educators to develop educational resources to help middle-school aged youth consider the role of cyberbiosecurity in agriculture. We utilized strategies that encourage middle school girls to consider cyberbiosecurity careers, such as developing a connection with the topic and presenting role models. This project resulted in a robust, comprehensive suite of educational resources designed to support formal and non-formal agricultural educators in integrating cyberbiosecurity topics and research-based strategies for engaging middle-school aged girls in STEM into their educational programs. Educators are prepared to use them, and they are freely available through open access platforms. Objective 1: Prepare a cohort of formal and nonformal agricultural educators to teach cyberbiosecurity topics and lead continuing professional education (CPE)programs for their peers. The cohort of 7 Cyberbiosecurity Education Ambassadors had4-15 years of professional education experience, served youth in rural communities, and had at least 40% girls in their educational programs. They were interested in this role because of the relevance to their programs, previous successes introducing cybersecurity concepts to their learners, and wanting to learn new ideas for the youth they work with. For example, one Ambassador stated "I teach a very diverse group of students...I do my best to expose them to as many facets of agriculture as I can and feel as though this would be an excellent addition to my curriculum." Training for the Ambassadors occurred at the Design Summit and subsequent virtual meetings. After the Design Summit, ambassadors reported learning about the definition of cyberbiosecurity, open educational resources, and reaching female audiences. Ambassadors then collaborated with scientists to develop and pilot activities for youth in their educational programs. This led to new knowledge about how to engage middle school aged youth in learning about cyberbiosecurity, such as the need for hands-on engagement, helping youth see uses of technology beyond consumption, and breaking down a complex topic. At the end of the project, Ambassadors that completed an exit survey (n=5) noted that they appreciated having open access to the materials and that they made modifications to the materials to engage their specific populations without issue. Objective 2: Produce cyberbiosecurity open educational resources (OER) for youth that implement developmental strategies to engage middle school girls in STEM. We produced 13 OER for youth. We partnered with the Open Education Initiative, a program of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech, to develop OER templates that are engaging for middle school audiences and signal inclusion of girls in STEM through graphic elements. The 9 youth Fact Sheets are each 3-5 pages in length and include a glossary of key terms, images, content at a 6th grade reading level, career connections, and a scientist spotlight. All of the scientists in the spotlights are female-identifying researchers, supporting the need for girls to see role models in STEM fields. To support readers developing a personal connection with the topic, the Fact Sheets include a "hook" to connect the topic to something accessible to the audience. For example, the Biotechnology Fact Sheet emphasizes applications that improve human health and food production. The Youth Activity Guides support each of the 4 activities that connect foundational agricultural education topics with new cyberbiosecurity concepts. The youth activity guides provide an overview of the activity, connections to standards of learning, learning objectives, vocabulary, materials needed, and safety concerns. They outline the steps of the activity, providing space for youth to record their work, and include processing questions to support experiential learning. All activities employ strategies for engaging middle school girls in STEM by being situated in real-world contexts and encouraging youth to see themselves as part of the future cyberbiosecurity workforce. Ambassadors reported that youth who participated in the pilot were "interested and involved the entire time" and that they "liked that it was realistic and not so outdated," while some struggled with the complex concept of cyberbiosecurity. Objective 3: Produce modular cyberbiosecurity OERs for educators to use in delivering CPE programs. We produced a Cyberbiosecurity Education Reference Guide, 9 informational "Fact Sheets," and 4 Facilitators' Guides that are freely available to educators to support their professional learning and implementation of cyberbiosecurity activities and concepts into their educational programs. The resources can be used as the basis of CPE programs by providing foundational knowledge of key cyberbiosecurity concepts and fully developed activities that can be modeled in CPE sessions and then implemented by educators. Educator resources were shared with participants during professional development workshops and these were identified in the exit survey as highly valuable to several participants. Objective 4: Increase agricultural educators' knowledge of and intention to use cyberbiosecurity topics and developmental strategies that engage middle school girls in STEM in their programs. Professional development workshops were held to introduce the wider agricultural education community in Virginia to cyberbiosecurity education and our resources. 17 workshop participants completed the exit survey, including 3 Middle School Agricultural Education Teachers, 1 High School Agricultural Education Teacher, 11 4-H agents, & 2 other Extension professionals. Overall, there was an increase in both the level of knowledge and the level of confidence in teaching and incorporating cyberbiosecurity topics after participation in the workshop. 11 workshop participants indicated that they would like to try and implement the activities in their program, but none were able to do so as of June 2023. Objective 5: Build new and strengthen existing cooperative linkages to related cybersecurity education initiatives. A multi-institutional and diverse Advisory Board was assembled, with 14 members who represented land-grant institutions, industry, and agricultural educators. Members of the board were from Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, Dell Technologies, Virginia Association of Agricultural Educators, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia CyberRange, Virginia Tech, Virginia State University and QUALCOMM. The board met on a quarterly basis throughout the project and was updated monthly on project developments via a newsletter. At the end of the project, members of the advisory board (n=5) shared their perspectives and reasons for participating in the project; they had a background in cyber related fields, were looking to provide guidance on an emerging field and felt this was a meaningful way to contribute. They cited that expanding their own network was the most tangible outcome for them, with additional outcomes including building knowledge of curricula and other educational resources and opportunities for school aged youth.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Smilnak, D., Scherer, H. H., Vines, K., Westfall-Rudd, D., Simpson, J., & Drape, T. (2023). Participatory Program Development: Addressing the Gender Gap in Agriculture and STEM [Oral Presentation]. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture National Conference, Las Cruces, NM. https://julnet.swoogo.com/nacta23
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Our project overall serves two target audiences, educators and youth; educators are the focus for this reporting period. Educators reached through project efforts include middle school agriscience teachers, 4-H youth development agents, and agriculture and natural resources agents who work with youth. A core group of educators (called Cyberbiosecurity Ambassadors) was recruited from rural localities in Virginia. This group will then engage their peers from across the state. The primary youth audiences reached through project efforts are middle-school aged youth in rural localities in Virginia who participate in either formal or non-formal educational programs. Educational materials and recruitment strategies developed through project efforts will target middle-school aged girls to encourage their participation and prolonged engagement in cyberbiosecurity educational opportunities. ? Changes/Problems:Our original timetable to publish the OER produced by the ambassadors was set for Summer 2022. This was not met due to initial delays in forming the ambassador cohort brought on by COVID. Subsequently, a lack of piloting opportunities for the ambassadors over the Summer slowed progress. ? What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The largest training session we held for our cohort was the Design Summit. The ambassadors were invited to Virginia Tech's campus. 6 of the 7 ambassadors were available and spent one full day along with project team members and scientists working in cyberbiosecurity exploring different aspects of cyberbiosecurity and developing strategies for integrating cyberbiosecurity into their curriculum. Additionally, support networks were developed for the ambassadors to refer to if any questions arise. Subsequently, online meetings have been held to address any questions and resource concerns as the ambassadors develop OER and begin using cyberbiosecurity as an instructional tool. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?OER that have been published to GoOpenVA.com are available to all individuals who have an account. GoOpenVA was selected as our content platform for its established audience and wide adoption among Virginia educators. Additionally, scholarly presentations at local as well as national conferences provide visibility to professionals who work directly and indirectly with the target audience. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The Sept. 1st, 2022 to Aug. 31st, 2023 reporting period will include content development and dissemination. The ambassadors and scientists will continue to continue work on OER production and piloting. Consistent with objective 2 the resources will continue to be published on GoOpenVa, an open-access repository, and VTechWorks on a rolling basis. Once piloting of the youth-oriented OER is completed, the ambassadors will pivot to developing professional development OER for their peers. This is consistent with objective 3. Consistent with objectives 1, 4, and 5, meetings and other forms of communication will be used as needed to address the needs of the ambassadors and scientists, while developing and strengthening collaborative networks.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Cyberbiosecurity is an emerging field that focuses on securing life sciences data, including in food and agriculture systems. This simply means creating security measures for digital aspects of our food and agriculture systems, creating a structure and opportunity for a safe food system that can meet the large needs of a growing population and world. Our agriculture and food system needs a workforce that is trained in cyberbiosecurity. Simultaneously, while the number of women in cybersecurity is growing, women only represent 20% of the cybersecurity workforce. We have a unique opportunity to address gender parity as the emerging cyberbiosecurity workforce is developed. Agricultural education, through 4-H and secondary classes, helps create interest and a "pipeline" into agricultural careers, but cybersecurity is not a topic that most programs have focused on currently or in the past. In this project, we will partner with scientists, middle school teachers, and Extension agents to develop educational resources to help middle-school aged youth learn about the opportunities that exist in cyberbiosecurity. For objective 1, we have established a cohort of 7 agricultural educators (5 from the public school system, and 2 from Cooperative Extension), referred to as ambassadors, and provided training on cyberbiosecuirty topics. The largest training session we held for our cohort was the Design Summit. The ambassadors were invited to Virginia Tech's campus. 6 of the 7 ambassadors were available and spent one full day along with project team members and scientists working in cyberbiosecurity exploring different aspects of cyberbiosecurity and developing strategies for integrating cyberbiosecurity into their curriculum. Additionally, support networks were developed for the ambassadors to refer to if any questions arise. Subsequently, meetings have been held to address any questions and resource concerns as the ambassadors develop OER and begin using cyberbiosecurity as an instructional tool. For objective 2, Open Educational Resources (OER) production has begun. As the ambassadors explore cyberbiosecurity as an instructional tool, they have been tasked with developing cyberbiosecuirty OER tailored to engage with middle school audiences, using developmental strategies to target girls. To accomplish this, the ambassadors are developing new or adapting old educational activities which introduce cyberbiosecurity topics like precision agriculture, hydroponics, and data management while explicitly highlighting the role of women in STEM jobs. This is done to provide visibility of women in the field as well as role models with which middle school girls can identify. Additionally, the scientists lending their expertise to these activities are primarily women. The scientists, as well as the ambassadors, have been asked to provide an "author blurb" to explain who they are. This is one of many ways in which we highlight women in the field through the OER produced. There are two OER published on our GoOpenVA and we have fifteen others at various stages of completion. To help make sure the OER stays true to the project's guiding principles, a peer review form was developed to allow our ambassadors and scientists to provide feedback before piloting. As progress is made on the ongoing OER, they will be checked for references to female role models, inclusive language, and accessibility. Plans have also been to store the OER on VTechWorks to provide a stable, open, and reliable backup link for any resources developed. This way, we can ensure the OER reach the broadest possible audience while staying active for as long as possible. Objective 3 focuses on the production of professional development materials for ambassadors' peers. The professional development piece of this project will begin later in the project timeline. For objective 4, ambassadors were surveyed at the end of the Design Summit day to assess their knowledge of and intention to use cyberbiosecurity topics and developmental strategies that engage middle school girls in STEM in their programs. Also, ambassadors were asked to share any other feedback for the team. Ambassadors mentioned some lessons learned from the Design Summit, such as the definition of cyberbiosecurity, copywriting rules, open resources, collaboration establishment, and increasing girl students' accessibilities. Other questions were revealed by ambassadors to understand the next steps of the project (i.e., directions, timelines, expectations, required skills, and incorporating cyberbiosecurity in lessons). The overall feedback about the full-day Design Summit was satisfactory, highlighting some suggestions from ambassadors for enhancing more in-depth team collaboration (i.e., more time needed to build and implement the lessons and preferences for weekday meetings). Moreover, to ensure ambassadors have intentionally used developmental strategies that engage middle school girls in STEM in their programs, the OER peer review form was used to double-check each other's work. While ensuring the OER meets the guiding principles of the project, this also helps to reinforce strategies to engage middle school girls. For objective 5, a multi-institutional and diverse advisory board continues to meet quarterly. Members represent land-grant institutions, industry, and agricultural educators. Members of the board represent; Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, Dell Technologies, Virginia Association of Agricultural Educators, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia CyberRange, Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, and QUALCOMM. The advisory board is updated monthly on project developments via a newsletter. Meetings are held as needed to encourage collaboration among the ambassadors, the scientists, and advisory board members. The first of which was the Design Summit, where everyone was encouraged to identify members of the project to work with more in the future. Since then, meetings between the groups have been scheduled to discuss topics of interest including open-access licenses, piloting opportunities, and troubleshooting.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Smilnak, D., Scherer, S., Bonnett, E., Vines, K.,Westfall-Rudd, D., Duncan, S., Simpson, J., & Drape, T. (2022, March). Initiating the Rural Cyberbiosecurity Workforce Pipeline Through Empowering Agricultural Educators and Supporting Middle School Girls [Poster presentation] Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture (CAIA) Big Event, Blacksburg, VA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Smilnak, D., Scherer, S., Bonnett, E., Vines, K.,Westfall-Rudd, D., Duncan, S., Simpson, J., & Drape, T. (2022, June 20-24). Initiating the Rural Cyberbiosecurity Workforce Pipeline Through Empowering Agricultural Educators and Supporting Middle School Girls [Poster presentation] North American Colleges and Teachers of Agricultural National Conference, Wooster, OH. https://julnet.swoogo.com/nacta22/poster-abstracts
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Our project overall serves two target audiences, educators and youth; educators are the focus for this reporting period. Educators reached through project efforts include middle school agriscience teachers, 4-H youth development agents, and agriculture and natural resources agents who work with youth. A core group of 12 educators (called Cyberbiosecurity Ambassadors) will be recruited from rural localities in Virginia. Changes/Problems:COVID-19 has slowed our progress in recruiting educators and has impacted planning of the Design Summit that was to be held in Fall 2021 due to uncertainty about hosting an in-person event. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The Sept. 1st, 2021 to Aug. 31st, 2022 reporting period will include content and ambassador development. A publishing platform will be identified and content will begin preparation for publication. Consistent with objective 2 and 3, the platform will be an open-resource platform. Branding decisions including potential thumbnail logos, institutional affiliation, and project author name for the chosen platform will be agreed upon by the advisory board. The ambassador group will be recruited and the design summit will be held consistent with objective 1. The design summit is projected to be held in Spring 2022. Prior that, a meeting for the ambassadors will be organized and held in November to continue engagement and work on objectives 4 and 5. Consistent with objectives 3, 4, and 5, the design summit will inform cyberbiosecurity activities and resources for youth that will begin development after the design summit is held. Once development on the open educational resources has started, activities will be piloted with youth.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Cyberbiosecurity is an emerging field that focuses on securing life sciences data, including in food and agriculture systems. This simply means creating security measures for digital aspects of our food and agriculture systems, creating a structure and opportunity for a safe food system that can meet the large needs of a growing population and world. Our agriculture and food system needs a workforce that is trained in cyberbiosecurity. Simultaneously, while the number of women in cybersecurity is growing, women only represent 20% of the cybersecurity workforce. We have a unique opportunity to address gender parity as the emerging cyberbiosecurity workforce is developed. Agricultural education, through 4-H and secondary classes, helps create interest and a "pipeline" into agricultural careers, but cybersecurity is not a topic that most programs have focused on currently or in the past. In this project, we will partner with scientists, middle school teachers, and Extension agents to develop educational resources to help middle-school aged youth learn about the opportunities that exist in cyberbiosecurity. Our efforts in this initial year of the project were centered on Objectives 1 and 5. For Objective 1, we focused on identifying and recruiting our cohort of educators, called Cyberbiosecurity Education Ambassadors. We developed recruiting materials for educators that explain the overall goals of the project, this role, and how to apply. We also created an application survey in which potential Ambassadors are asked to outline their interest in the role, current programming, and participant demographics to ensure that they are reaching the target audience, middle-school aged girls. Members of the Advisory Board that represent educator stakeholder groups provided input into the development of these resources. This information was disseminated to target audiences through listservs, Advisory Board members, project team emails and phone calls to individual contacts, and at the Virginia Association of Agricultural Educators annual summer in-service conference. 2 applications were received during this reporting period. For objective 5, a multi-institutional and diverse advisory board was assembled. Members represent land-grant institutions, industry, and agricultural educators. Members of the board represent; Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, Dell Technologies, Virginia Association of Agricultural Educators, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia CyberRange, Virginia Tech, Virginia State University and QUALCOMM. The advisory board meets on a quarterly basis. Initial meetings were used to inform participants about the project and build connections. The advisory board is updated monthly on project developments via a newsletter. Our efforts during this reporting period set the stage for successful completion of the project through establishing a highly-qualified advisory board and making progress on recruiting Cyberbiosecurity Education Ambassadors. Additionally, we recruited and hired a Graduate Assistant for the project who began work in August, 2021. These efforts will ensure that we have the right expertise and experience as we move into the next stages of the project.
Publications
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