Progress 10/30/20 to 04/29/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience The target audience represent stakeholders, faculty, researchers, students, community leaders and political supporter of nutrition, food security, and chronic disease prevention primarily in New York, as well as, academic institutions interested in GeoAg research, and mainstream institutions BCC students conducted research to identify ideal guests to attend the conference. The first step was to source those in leadership at the listed organizations to develop the BCC GeoAg conference stakeholder list. The 5 categories of stakeholders below generated engagement stakeholders list of invitees. The BCC GeoAg intern outreach team concentrated on the following institutional target audience subsets, identifying institutions and individuals likely interested in GeoAg nutrition security research: The BCC/CUNY faculty are targeted to provide a diverse set of minority faculty, directly knowledgeable of minority community circumstances, and broad research disciplines throughout New York for which to refine GeoAg research for use in disadvantaged communities in the Bronx and in other boroughs. Method: BCC communications outreach emails to 15,000+ recipients in the CUNY faculty system and Intern outreach to 139 identified faculty. Bronx K-12 school principals and non-profits of minority communities are targeted to provide direct access to minority leaders capable of sharing GeoAg applications to all school aged families within the Bronx. Method: Student interns outreach emails to 21 organizations. New York politicians and state universities of mainstream communities targeted to assist minority communities in developing refined programs for broader impact. Method: Student interns outreach emails to 29 contacts. Mainstream American institutions were targeted to request collaboration opportunities to advance the research conducted to date. Method: Student interns outreach emails to 298 PhDs at institutions like Yale, Purdue, Stanford, and Harvard GeoAg Affiliate academic institutions and volunteers were targeted to enhance local efforts of GeoAg outreach and foster collaboration with BCC/CUNY. This audience is primary minority academic researchers from HBCUs, inner-city non-profits and community colleges. Method: GeoAg email outreach emails to 1325 GeoAg knowledgeable persons and researchers. Outreach Communications Schedule January 6, 2021 - GeoAg Outreach Email January 21, 2021 - Intern Stakeholder Eventbrite Email January 23, 2021 - GeoAg Press Release January 26, 2021 - BCC Outreach Email Changes/Problems:Changes/Problems NIFA announcement delay - The initial planning announcement came on Oct 28 but we were asked to do conduct public outreach until Dec 28th. The original plan was to start marketing before Thanksgiving but the delay caused us to begin marketing after the New Year, affecting attendance. Technical difficulties - The event was marketed on Eventbrite and via email. An email was sent to all who registered with the zoom link. However, Eventbrite notifications did not include the zoom link but kept popping up in participant emails, causing confusion and limiting some from attending. Those who missed the zoom link sent on the Friday before the Monday conference got confused when they say Eventbrite reminders on Sunday and Monday. VIP Kit Mailing Delay - The delay in announcing also meant a delay in receiving and processing addresses for the VIP mailing. Originally, we wanted people to received the kits over the Christmas break so they have 2 to 3 weeks of growth experience. With the delay, we sent the kits in mid January leading to only 5 days of growth experience before the conference. Several participants noted that germination had already begun in the 5-days. Interns - Due to the school semester ending in December and with the program beginning in November, there was some student loss due to graduation. Consequently, we had 8 of the 10 interns working on the grant before the conference and 2 working on the grant after the conference developing a final student video in Spanish What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This conference project resulted in the following professional development and training outcomes where we denote when the training began, the audience being trained and the number of faculty, students or professionals trained or mentored as a result of the conference grant: Weekly Starting February 5th to Present - Einstein College of Medicine - 2 faculty, The primary product from this professional development training is the integration of GeoAg at ECM and the submission of a USDA grant to look at GeoAg lentils and Type 2 diabetes in the South Bronx, where rates are at 16% of the population. Tuesdays Starting February 9th to Present - New Student to Garden Club - 12 students participating in weekly home gardening webinars. Saturdays Starting February 13 to Present - New GeoAg Private Lesson on Saturdays - 6 Professional entrepreneurs seeking to start GeoAg in their cities of 1 person in Mobile, AL; 1 person in Los Angeles, CA; 1 person in Maine; 1 person from Atlanta; and 3 people in England. The GeoAg private lesson began on Saturday February 13, 2021. February 26 - Bronx Community College - 60 GeoAg Kits or donated to a Bronx Community College faculty for her students in her geology and environmental science classes. The students took the geological agriculture experiment kids home Anne observed the geological agriculture plant lifecycle watching kidney beans roll to full term in their containers. Two geology students participated on the BBB Earth Day geological agriculture showcase. The chair of the biology Department posted the student growing experience on the University social media platform. March 15 - May 7 - Tuskegee University - 65 Plant Science Students - sophomores, juniors, and seniors of the plant science lab were the first in the world to conduct an official plant science lab as part of their main plant science lecture. This outcome included students witnessing the growth of 6 plant types including Dutch Iris, wheatgrass, lentils, beans, broccoli sprouts and pea shoot microgreens. Students track performance daily across 13 categories of observation and took and custom designed final exam on April 26 and submitting their final paper on April 30th. Grades are due on May 7th for this course. A publishable paper based on student engagement is due on May 17th as the GeoAg team had observers on to assess the evolving student engagement behavior with a GeoAg lab intervention. Products developed for this engagement include: GeoAg Lab Curriculum for 6-weeks GeoAg Pre-Test - 20 questions about GeoAg GeoAg Plant Observation Tracking Grid GeoAg Student Engagement Assessment Questionnaire GeoAg Final Exam - 40 questions about GeoAg 6 Recordings of the School hosted webinars Publishable paper for peer review April 20 - Educating Participants at MSG GeoAg Conference - 55 participants at time of BCC presentation heard the BCC 30-minute presentation on GeoAg Nutrition Security research and 30 minutes on The Geo of GeoAg. April 22 - Educating Viewers of the Better Business Bureau video - 26 views on YouTube as of this report. The video opens with Brooks Community College dietitian followed by several students. The Bronx Community College geologist and chair of the biology Department also bring greetings at the onset of this video. Mobile, Alabama GeoAg Superintendent Relationship Development - New Mobile, AL GeoAg trained health professional learned about GeoAg at the conference and pressured to have the GeoAg Private Lesson. She has now established a relationship with GeoAg and the Mobile Public School System to launch a GeoAg pilot for the summer of 2021. The superintendent has set up 3 GeoAg zoom info sessions for relevant faculty of the school system: May 4th for Elementary Schools; May 5th for Middle Schools; and May 6th for Middle Schools. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Outreach Marketing Efforts to over 15,000 faculty members, student and professional notifying them of the existence of GeoAg research. Presenting the GeoAg research on February 1, 2021. Developing post conference extension activities as listed. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplishments / Goals are delineated into 6 Accomplishment Areas, number below: 1 - BCC Institutional Problems Being Solved - Lack of new multidisciplinary strategic research, grants and programming to advance enrollment. Low faculty and student engagement and need to improve school reputation as a community college. What did your project do about this issue/problem during this reporting period? Team GeoAg collaborated with BCC for research; education and extension. First grant from USDA to BCC/CUNY, representing a breakthrough in urban agriculture research for multi-disciplinary student and faculty research showcase Reputation Enhancement - Einstein College of Medicine requested to join BCC on a USDA grant Morgan State University requested BCC faculty present at Conference Tuskegee University decided to integrate GeoAg into their Plant Science 2 - Faculty Problems Being Solved - Lack of ways to engage students with new content and lack of collaborations amongst faculty at BCC and faculty elsewhere in the United States and abroad. What did your project do about this issue/problem during this reporting period? Introduce BCC to GeoAg research, education and extension activities. Novel Student Experience for 10 student interns BCC Faculty Development -Training of 13 BCC staff 3- Student Problems Being Solved - Lack of ways to engage students with new sustainable multi-disciplinary home-based experiments that addresses education and food security What did your project do about this issue/problem during this reporting period? The project provided the students with the necessary hands-on weekly training of GeoAg 10 Student Interns - 8 students growing plants and developing videos with 2 building stakeholder database. 4 - Diverse Speaker Problems Being Solved - There is a lack of academic collaborations amongst faculty with a given university and within the overall academic community, What did your project do about this issue/problem during this reporting period? Align BCC faculty to national GeoAg research team. 10 Speaker Demographic Diversity - 2 Haitians, 3 Indians, 1 West Indian, and 4 African Americans. 10 Academic Fields Diversity - 1 Nutritionist; 1 Geologist; 1 Animal Scientist; 1 Chemist; 1 Agriculture Scientist; 1 Horticulturalist; 1 Architect; 1 K-12 Expert; 1 Community Trainer; and 1) Politician that supports food security. 5 - Live Experience Problems Being Solved - Lack of conference interface during COVID. What did your project do about this issue/problem during this reporting period? Provide guest the GeoAg grow system at home prior to the conference to experience GeoAg 45 institutions / organizations received 2 conference kits each with a hard copy of the book River Stones Grow Plants and a GeoAg Kit to showcase at the virtual conference Part 6- Research Accomplishments Problems Being Solved - There is a lack of suitable, practical, implementable, and sustainable solutions and techniques that can help address nutrition. What did your project do about this issue/problem during this reporting period? Introduce GeoAg nutrition security program to BCC faculty and students Changes in Economics - For the faculty and students who participated in the program now have access to high-cost microgreens and sprouts Changes in Community Dynamics - students are teaching other students about GeoAg at home. Changes in Environmental Conditions - New easy access greenspace for apartments in the Bronx Changes in Agriculture Norms - Prior to the conference guest were unaware of GeoAg research. Now all participants are aware of a likely change in agriculture norms. Changes in Knowledge - Where participants now know: How to grow plants from seed in rocks in their apartments and micro-farm How to test rocks and plants. How to recycle plastic for GeoAg use How to achieve nutrition security Change in Action: 12 Participants now eating GeoAg grown foods at home and telling others about it. An increase in the consumption of nutrition was observed by all participants Students chose to organize themselves into a club to advance the research. Participants are recycling clear plastic containers more PI grew over 100 cups of microgreen at home, testing both the plant and rocks at the USDA lab in Raleigh, NC for full nutritional knowledge Change in Condition: Students are creating a self-managed edible greenspace environments at home K-12 students can add GeoAg experiments to their STEM classrooms
Publications
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