Progress 12/01/20 to 11/30/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The "Gearing Up Youth Education and Development for Employment in Agriculture" project is designed to provide educational opportunities that will enable youth, ages 12 to 20, to safely be employed in agriculture. The COVID pandemic changed the way in which we provide educational opportunities to youth. Even as the COVID pandemic lessens, we still are facing situations where youth are absent from our educational system for multiple days due to contacting the COVID-19 virus. This project is providing itstargeted audiences, youth educators and young and beginning workers, with the tools to learn in both face-to-face and distanced-based learning environments. To further this effort during year 2 of the project, the project staff engaged with county extension educators/agents, high school agricultural science teachers, homeschool educators/parents, and middle and high school-aged youth. The county extension educators/agents, high school agricultural science teachers, and homeschool educators/parents were provided with a rich assortment of educational resources focused on the most significant agricultural safety and health issues. During year 1 of the project the following resources were developed and provided: 15 high quality PowerPoint lessons designed for a 50-minute classroom presentation. Student worksheets, in PDF format, for each of the program's 15 lessons. Each lesson has a minimum of two engaging and educational worksheets. Suggested teaching aids/demonstrations. Content outlines for each of the 15 lessons A 10-question review quiz for each of the 15 lessons A collection of more than 100 farm injury case studies to illustrate the impact of these incidents. A glossary containing over 400 agricultural terms with pictures. During year 2, significant efforts were undertaken to further develop new resources and to make county extension agents and high school agriculture science teachers aware of the Gearing Up program and its available resources. Year activities included: Development and evaluation of three new lessons onGeneral Disease Prevention for Young Agriculture Workers, Biosecurity in Agriculture Operations, and Farm Youth Stress Management.All lessons contained a PowerPoint presentation, student worksheets, suggested teaching aids/demonstrations, content outlines, and 10-question review quiz. Development of 14 high quality videos of experts using the PowerPoints to teach seven of the core lessons. Each PowerPoint was divided in half, to provide two 20-25 minutes per lesson. With the 14 new videos, each of the core 15 lessons is not equipped with two instructional videos. Distribution of 14,500 instructional packages (flash drive containing all the PowerPoints and educational resources, promotional brochures, and cover letter) to 1,1000 high school agriculture science teachers and 3,500 county extension agents/educators. Development of two educational learning games for youth using the Jeopardy format. In year 3 with the relaxation of travel restrictions that had severely limited the project's intended outreach efforts, a greater focus was centered on connecting with the project's key stakeholders of professional educators (county extension agents and high school agricultural science teachers), and farm/ranch owners and operators. During year 3 the following initiatives to benefit the project's target audience of young and beginning workers were conducted. Conducted outreach efforts- Outreach efforts to reach the project's key stakeholders and targeted audience were initiated through the establishment of consultant agreements with agricultural safety and health professionals in distributed through the U.S. These agreements resulted in the Gearing Up for Safety curriculum being utilized with underrepresented audiences in Montana, Idaho, and Washington, with youth in an agricultural safety and health camps in North Dakota, through the 4-H program in Georgia, with high school agricultural students in Alaska, and through the state-sponsored tractor certification program in Wisconsin. Throughworkshops, professional training sessions, and trade show exhibits at conferences, the project succeeded in engaging key stakeholders across various states including Washington, Montana, Wisconsin, North Dakota, California, Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Florida, and Idaho. Supplemental Lessons:The following supplement lessons (included PowerPoint with extensive instructor notes, student activity sheets, learning competencies, teacher demonstrations, 10-question quiz, and case studies) were developed and released through the project's website (www.agsafety4youth.info) General Disease Prevention for Young Agriculture Workers Preventing Fire and Burn Injuries on Farms and Ranches Biosecurity in Agriculture Operations Farm Youth Stress Management Green Industry - General Landscape and Lawncare Safety Overview Green Industry - Hand Tools Green Industry - Large Powered Equipment Agricultural Waste Storage, Handling, and Transport Trailer and Towing Safety Comparative evaluationof an in-person version to an independent video-based version of the biosecurity lesson. The in-person version was taught to 504 students in 10 high school agricultural classrooms. The independent video-based version was delivered to 229 students in nine classrooms. A pre-test/post-test analysis revealed that both educational delivery formats provided students with a significantknowledge gain. Educational Game:Develop an educational learning game using the "I Want to be a Millionaire" format. QR-based learning system developed for tractor components. A significant aspect of understanding tractor operation is knowing the different components of a tractor, the function/purpose of those components, basic maintenance procedures for each component, and potential hazards that might be encountered. QR codes were developed for key components found on agricultural tractors. For each component a short 2-to-3-minute video was produced that becomes accessible when the respective QR code is scanned with a smartphone. Changes/Problems:While asignificant numberof the project's objectives and specific aims were met, the COVID pandemic significantly limited the ability of project staff to conduct the numberof outreach initiatives desired and needed. With the limitations on outreach-based activities as a result of the unexpected length of the COVID pandemic, project leadership focused more time and energy on creating additional high quality project resources that would benefit the project's target audience of young and beginning workers. Changes implemented included: Decrease the focus on in-person training opportunities- Travel limitations imposed by the COVID pandemic necessitated a reduction in the number of planned in-person training programs.Project staff were not able to travel freely untilthe last half of the project's second year and even then, travel was challenging. Even with the limitations forced by the COVID pandemic the project team was still able to conduct several outreach efforts and in-service trainings. To thoroughly implement this objective additional project time would have been necessary. Increase the focus on curriculum development-With staff travel restricted the project team increased their focus on development of new lessons to enhance the Gearing Up for Safety program. The new lessons developed were based on feedback from members of the project's key stakeholder groups. In addition to the core 15 lessons planned as part of the project, the team was able to develop and deploy an additional nine lessons, as noted below. The addition of these lessons greatly enhances the Gearing Up for Safety program, providing key education materials geared for the project's targeted audience of young and beginning workers. Additionally, feedback from stakeholders noted a need for lessons in six additional areas, which were not developed due to limited project staff time. The requested six additional lessons are also noted below. Supplemental lessons developed and deployed. General Disease Prevention for Young Agriculture Workers Preventing Fire and Burn Injuries on Farms and Ranches Biosecurity in Agriculture Operations Farm Youth Stress Management Green Industry - General Landscape and Lawncare Safety Overview Green Industry - Hand Tools Green Industry - Large Powered Equipment Agricultural Waste Storage, Handling, and Transport Trailer and Towing Safety Requested supplemental lessons to develop. Shop safety - Best practices Shop safety - Hand tools Greenhouse safety Emergency planning General occupational and environmental health Livestock handling What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?With the grant funding ending, we expect the number of in-person trainings to decrease. Although, the project team is committed to continue to promote the Gearing Up for Safety program through development of new educational resources, providing trainings using distance-based technologies (i.e.,Zoom), conducting in-person training when resources permit, and developing and implementing webinar-basedin-person trainings. Trainingsconducted during 2023 included: Georgia Conducted a one-hour Zoom-based introductory training in May 2023 followed by an 8-hour in-person training held in Perry, GA in August 2023. Thirty-four county extension agents participated in the in-person training. Indiana Conducted a 3-hour training with Indiana's 4-H tractor leaders in February 2023. (22 leaders in attendance) Texas Conducted aone-hour introductory training with 27 agricultural teachers as part of their summer professional development conference (July 2023). New York Provided a two-hour training for county Extension agents and high school agriculture teachers (July 2023) How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The project's two key communities of interest are the county Cooperative Extension agents/educators and the high school agricultural science teachers. To reach these two key stakeholder audiences, project personnel staffed displays and conducted face-to-face trainings at the following events: Georgia Extension Agents Training Conducted a one-hour Zoom-based introductory training in May 2023 followed by an 8-hour in-person training held in Perry, GA in August 2023. Thirty-four county extension agents participated in the in-person training. Indiana 4-H Tractor Leaders Training Conducted a 3-hour training with Indiana's 4-H tractor leaders in February 2023. (22 leaders in attendance) Texas High Agricultural Science Teachers In-Service Conducted a one-hour introductory training with 27 agricultural teachers as part of their summer professional development conference (July 2023). New York Extension Agents and High School Agricultural Science Teachers Provided a two-hour training for county Extension agents and high school agriculture teachers (July 2023) National FFA Convention Over 70,000 FFA members, FFA advisors/teachers and parents attended the National FFA Convention held November 2023 in Indianapolis, IN. Project personnel staffed an interactive Jeopardy-based display during the 3-day convention reaching nearly 4,000 individuals. Two-hundredflash drives containing the Gearing Up for Safety curriculum and associated resources were distributed to high school agricultural science teachers. National Association of County Agricultural Agents Over 1,000 county agriculture and natural resources agents attend the National Association of County Agricultural Agents professional development conference held in Des Moines, IA in July 2023. California FFA Leadership Conference Over 2,000 high school agricultural science teachers and FFA membersin attendance, Anaheim, CA (March 2023) Illinois Agricultural Teachers Summer In-service Conference Over 800 high school science teacher and FFA members in attendance, Peoria, IL (June 2023) Wisconsin secondary agricultureteachers' professional development conference Over 300 high school agricultural science teachers in attendance), Green Bay, WI (June 2023) Indiana Agricultural Teachers Winner In-service Training Over 200 high school agricultural science teachersin attendance, Trafalgar, IN (January 2023) North Dakota Agricultural Teachers professional in-service Over 100 high school agricultural science teachers in attendance, North Dakota (June2023) Washington State Agriculture Teachers conference Over 200 high school agricultural science teachers in attendance, Spokane, WA (June 2023) What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is the last year of the USDA/NIFA funded project. However, the Purdue team is committed to continue developing and supporting the Gearing Up for Safety program. As resources/funds are available the project team fully intends to continue to: Develop new lessons and associated educational resources as identified through feedback from stakeholders. Plans are currently underway for lesson development on: Agro-security Trailer safety Green industry General Landscape and Lawncare Safety Overview Hand tool safety Large powered equipment General occupational safety and health Shop safety Arthritis Ag tourism Conduct professional development trainings and staff displays at Extension agent and high school agriculture science teacher-focused trade shows. Develop a much-needed Spanish version of the curriculum (PowerPoints with instructor notes, student activity sheets, teaching aides, case studies, self-study videos, etc.)
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplishments - Specific Aim #1 -A projects' directors meeting was not held during 2023. Project updates were shared with the following national level advisory groups. USDA/NIFA funded SAY project- Professor Tormoehlen shared an update on the project with the advisory board for the USDA/NIFA funded SAY project. NCRA 197- Professors Field and Tormoehlen reported on the Gearing Up for Safety project during the annual meeting of the North Central Research Advisory Committee meeting on Agricultural Safety and Health. ASABE Committee on Agricultural Safety and Health- Professor Field gave an update on the project during the Annual International Meeting of the American Association of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. ISASH International Meeting- Project staff provided papers and updates on the Gearing Up for Safety project during the International Society for Agricultural Safety and Health's Annual Meeting. Accomplishments - Specific Aim #2 -To provide additional direction to the project's leader team, additional members were added to the team. Members were added based on their content expertise,educational design expertise, and geographical location. Individual added included: Angie Johnson - Agricultural Safety and Health Specialist, North Dakota State University Jim Versyeyveld - Agricultural Safety and Healthexpert, University of Wisconsin Extension Marty Frick - Agricultural Education Expert (retired), Montana State University Jim Hafer - Agricultural Education Expert,Little Big Horn College, Montana Tom Daugherty - High School Agricultural Science Teacher (retired), Indiana Tammie Kovalenko - High School Agricultural Science Teacher, Alaska Allen Furrer - CEO, Good Days Work - A private agricultural safety and health company, Accomplishments - Specific Aim #3- State implementation team members added in 2023, their state, and a brief summary of what they accomplishedfollows: Tammie Kovalenko - Alaska- Shared the Gearing Up for Safety program with fellow Alaskan high school agricultural science teachers, utilized the curriculum in her courses, and developed video footage for the ATV/UTV lesson. Kasey Bozeman - Georgia- Organized a one-day in-person training for county Extension agents conducted by Professor Tormoehlen. The hope is that the Gearing Up program will become the recommended curriculum for Georgia's 4-H tractor program. Angie Johnson - North Dakota- Organized two 3-day agricultural safety and health camps for youth using the Gearing Up for Safety curriculum. Three camps will be heldin 2024. Karen Funkenbusch - Missouri- Initiated contact with the Missouri State Department of Labor to suggest the implementation of the "Gearing Up for Safety" curriculum for agricultural safety and health programs statewide. The "Gearing Up for Safety" program is featured onMissouri's Department of Labor'swebsite. JimVersyeyveld - Wisconsin-The University of Wisconsin oversees implementation of Wisconsin's youth tractor safety certification program, which mandates that all youth at least 12 years old must be certified to operate a tractor on public roads. Under Jim's guidance, the Gearing Up for Safety program has been established as the required curriculum. Accomplishments - Specific Aim #4 Two-hundred copies of the Gearing Up packetwere distributed to high school agricultureteachers attending the 2023National FFA Convention. Promoted the Gearing Up program at the following events: California FFA Leadership Conference, (Over 2,000 in attendance), Anaheim, CA Illinois Agricultural Teachers Summer In-service Conference (over 800 in attendance), Peoria, IL Georgia Professional Development Conference for county Extension Agents - Perry, GA Texas secondary agricultureteachers' professional development conference (over 2,500 teachers in attendance), Dallas, TX National AssociationCounty Agricultural Agents conference (over 1,000 in attendance), Des Moines, IA National FFA Convention (over 70,000 in attendance), Indianapolis, IN National Farm Progress Show, Illinois Wisconsin secondary agricultureteachers' professional development conference (over 300 in attendance), Green Bay, WI National ASABE Convention, Omaha, NE National Farm Machinery Show, Louisville, KY International Society of Agricultural Safety and Health, Tampa, FL Huntington University, Agricultural Education students, Huntington, IN Various high school agricultural science programs in Montana, including several tribal schools. Montana Ag Expo, Bozeman, MT Indiana Agricultural Teachers Winner In-service Training (over 200 in attendance), Trafalgar, IN North Dakota Agricultural Teachers professional in-service, North Dakota National Black Farmers Conference, Natchez, MS World Dairy Exp, Madison, WI World Food Prize Conference - Des Moines, IA North American Manure Expo - Madison, WI Wyoming State Fair, Douglas, WY Montana State Fair, Great Falls, MT Ag Insurers Conference - Indianapolis, IN Washington State Agriculture Teachers conference, Spokane, WA Accomplishments - Specific Aim #5- In-person trainings conducted during 2023 included: Georgia -Conducted a one-hour Zoom-based introductory training in May 2023 followed by an 8-hour in-person training held in Perry, GA in August 2023. Thirty-four county extension agents participated. Indiana-Conducted a 3-hour training with Indiana's 4-H tractor leaders in February 2023. (22 leaders in attendance) Texas-Conducted a one-hour introductory training with 27 agricultural teachers as part of their summer professional development conference (July 2023). New York-Provided a two-hour training for county Extension agents and high school agriculture teachers (July 2023) Accomplishments - Specific Aim #6-A Good Day's Work, a commercial provider of agricultural safety curriculum, has developed a prototype for Lesson 1 of the Gearing Up for Safety course, designed for delivery through their learning management system. This system would allow homeschoolers and other independent learners to access the curriculum and associated learning resources for a nominal fee. Upon completing the course, learners would receive a certificate of completion. Although only a prototype for one lesson was developed due to time constraints, the project team remains dedicated to finding the necessary resources to complete the conversion of the remaining Gearing Up lessons for online delivery. Accomplishments - Specific Aim #7 Jim Hafer, a faculty member with Little Big Horn College in Montana and Marty Frick, a retired agricultural education professor with Montana State University conducted multiple outreachinitiatives to promote the Gearing Upprogram with tribal youth during 2023. Ed Sheldon, a project staff member, presented a workshop on the Gearing Upproject at the 1890 Workshop held at South Carolina University in July 2023 Accomplishments - Specific Aim #8 -The Gearing Up for Safety website (www.agsafety4youth.info)has been totally revamped to incorporate new web-based technologies and design features. In2023the push was to enhance the secureinstructor sectionreleased in 2022. As the project continues beyond the scope of this grant, efforts will focus on creating an interactive database of test questions to allow instructors to create examinations on-the-fly. Accomplishments - Specific Aim #9-The www.agsafety4youth.info website has been updated and expanded to include all the newly developed resources (including some developed following the completion of the grant period). News releases were distributed to promote the site. Over the past year of the project, an average of 2,500 to 3,000 users have accessed the website monthly (around 80 to 100users per day). The number of users continues to increase with the latest data showing over 100 users accessing the site daily. With the new resources coming online and those that the team hopes to add, we expect the number of daily users to continue to increase.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Morris, G.C., Ehlers, S.G., Tormoehlen, R.L. & Field, W.E. (2024). Pre-/post-test evaluations of in-person and virtual agricultural biosecurity lesson. Journal of Agromedicine
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Morris, G.C, Ehlers, S.G, Field, W.E., & Tormoehlen, R.L. (2022). A review of agricultural academic safety and biosecurity curriculum standards. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, (doi: 10.13031/aea.15184).
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Morris, G.C., Ehlers, S.G., Tormoehlen, R.L., Field, W.E. & Aaltonen, P. (2022). Review of Large-Scale Livestock Biosecurity to Small-Scale Farms. Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Morris, G.C., Ehlers, S.G., Aaltonen, P., Sheldon, E., & Johnson, A (2023) Review of livestock biosecurity resources and trainings: Local, state, federal, and international organizations. Journal of Biosafety and Biosecurity, 5(4), (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobb.2023.12.001).
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Gearing Up for Safety website at www.agsafety4youth.info
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Progress 12/01/21 to 11/30/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The "Gearing Up Youth Education and Development for Employment in Agriculture" project is designed to provide educational opportunities that will enable youth, ages 12 to 20, to safely be employed in agriculture. The COVID pandemic changed the way in which we provide educational opportunities to youth. Even as the COVID pandemic lessens, we still are facing situations where youth are absent from our educational system for multiple days due to contacting the COVID-19 virus. This project is providing its targeted audiences, youth educators and young and beginning workers, with the tools to learn in both face-to-face and distanced-based learning environments. To further this effort during year 2 of the project, the project staff engaged with county extension educators/agents, high school agricultural science teachers, homeschool educators/parents, and middle and high school-aged youth. The county extension educators/agents, high school agricultural science teachers, and homeschool educators/parents were provided with a rich assortment of educational resources focused on the most significant agricultural safety and health issues. During year 1 of the project the following resources were developed and provided: 15 high quality PowerPoint lessons designed for a 50-minute classroom presentation Student worksheets, in PDF format, for each of the program's 15 lessons. Each lesson has a minimum of two engaging and educational worksheets. Suggested teaching aids/demonstrations. Content outlines for each of the 15 lessons A 10-question review quiz for each of the 15 lessons A collection of more than 100 farm injury case studies to illustrate the impact of these incidents A glossary containing over 400 agricultural terms with pictures. During year 2, significant efforts were undertaken to further develop new resources and to make county extension agents and high school agriculture science teachers aware of the Gearing Up program and its available resources. Year activities included: Development and evaluation of three new lessons on General Disease Prevention for Young Agriculture Workers, Biosecurity in Agriculture Operations, and Farm Youth Stress Management. All lessons contained a PowerPoint presentation, student worksheets, suggested teaching aids/demonstrations, content outlines, and 10-question review quiz. Development of 14 high quality videos of experts teaching the PowerPoints in for seven of the core lessons. Each PowerPoint was divided in half, to provide two 20-25 minutes per lesson. With the 14 new videos, each of the core 15 lessons is not equipped with two instructional videos. Distribution of 14,500 instructional packages (flash drive containing all the PowerPoints and educational resources, promotional brochures, and cover letter) to 1,1000 high school agriculture science teachers and 3,500 county extension agents/educators. Develop of two educational learning games for youth using the Jeopardy format. Changes/Problems:The supply chain limitations delayed the distribution of the project's professionally developed marketing piece by a year. The marketing piece was a critical component of the project's efforts to reach county extension agents and high school agricultural science teachers. The marketing piece was initially planned to be distributed late in year 1 of the project. Due to limitations in securing the marketing piece's flash drive the mailing of the marketing piece to high school agricultural science teachers (11,000 nationally) was not completed until October of the project's second year. As a result, the project staff's efforts to conduct face-to-face professional development trainings weresignificantly hindered. Within the last six months the project staff have been able to move forward with the implementation of professional development training opportunities. The team expects to conduct several trainings in 2023 and hopes to be able to do so in 2024 provided funding can be secured. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Even though the COVID pandemic was somewhat less problematic during 2022, the opportunity for face-to-face trainings were still limited. The project team worked on the development of three one-hour webinars that will be implemented in 2023. Additionally, the project team focused on outreach efforts through trade shows and conventions and on the creation of face-to-face training opportunities in 2023. Currently the team has plans for face-to-face trainings as follows: Texas Agricultural Teachers Professional Development Conference - The Gearing Up Team will provide a hands-on one-hour workshop and staff a display as part of the event's trade show. Huntington College's Pre-Service Agricultural Education Program - In 2022, project staff offered an eight-week course for students working to obtain a degree that would enable them to teach agricultural sciences at the middle and high school level. The same eight-week course will be offered in 2023. Regional extension agent's training: Project staff conducted a 3-hour training in July 2022 for county extension agents and high school agriculture teachers in upstate New York County Extension Agents Training - The Gearing Up Team will be conducting two-events in Georgia to provide training on the Gearing Up for Safety program. The first event will be a one-hour awareness webinar and the second event will be an all-day face-to-face training. Missouri Department of Labor - The Gearing Up team will conduct a one-day training sponsored by the Missouri State Department of Labor. The program will be targeted to Labor Department employees, county extension agents and high school agricultural science teachers. The project team expects additional professional development opportunities will be identified providing for more hands-on trainings throughout 2023. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The project's two key communities of interest are the county Cooperative Extension agents/educators and the high school agricultural science teachers. To reach these two audiences, the project worked with a company that specializes in the development and dissemination of educational/promotional materials. A high quality professional marketing package containing a flash drive of educational content, two educational brochures and a cover letter was mailed to 11,000 high school agricultural science departments and 3,500 county extension offices. The package reached every county extension office and every high school agricultural science department in the United States. During the project's second year, project personnel staffed displays and conducted face-to-face trainings at the following events to reach these key communities of interest: Indiana State FFA Convention:Staffed a display at the convention with approximately 2,000 FFA members and 200 high school agricultural science teachers in attendance. (June 2022) National FFA Convention:Nearly 70,000 FFA members, FFA advisors/teacher and parents attended the National FFA Convention held October 26 to 28, 2022 in Indianapolis, IN. Project personnel staffed an interactive Jeopardy-based display during the 3-day convention reaching nearly 4,200 individuals. Over 200 flash drives containing the Gearing Up for Safety curriculum and associated resources were distributed to high school agricultural science teachers. National Association of County Agricultural Agents - Over 1,000 county agriculture and natural resources agents attend the National Association of County Agricultural Agents professional development conference held in Orlando, FL in July. National Association of Agricultural Educators - Staffed a display as part of the trade show held as part of the National Association of Agricultural Educators convention. Over 3,000 high school agricultural science teachers attended the convention. Texas Agriculture Teachers Professional Development Conference - Staffed a display as part of the trade show. Over 2,500 agricultural science teachers attended the conference which was held in Corpus Christi, TX in July. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is technically the last year of the project. However, as funds are available the project team fully intends to continue to: Develop new lessons and associated educational resources as identified through feedback from stakeholders. Plans are currently underway for lesson development on: Agro-security Trailer safety Green industry General Landscape and Lawncare Safety Overview Hand tool safety Large powered equipment General occupational safety and health Shop safety Arthritis Ag tourism Conduct professional development trainings and staff displays at extension agent and high school agriculture science teacher-focused trade shows.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Specific Aim #1:Contribute to the overall success of the Educational and Workforce Development initiative through participation in the projects' directors meeting Accomplishments - Specific Aim #1 -Professor Tormoehlen has shared updates on the Gearing Up project when the project directors for theSARS-COV-2 Digital Learning Resources program have met. Specific Aim #2:Confirm the national level program implementation advisory team:An, 8 to 10-member group of key individuals who are directly involved in delivering hands-on Ag Ed training programs for youth grades 6 to 14 will be established. The implementation advisory team would meet once face-to-face during the first 2-months of year 1 and 2 to achieve successful implementation of the strategies and activities. Accomplishment: - Specific Aim #2The project national level program advisory team did not meet face-to-face during year 2 of the project. However, the project's advisory team received monthly email newsletter updates during which time their feedback on the project was sought. The project's advisory team will meet face-to-face in the project no-cost extension year. Specific Aim #3:Train and equip a team of state program implementation consultants.A state/region level program implementor will be identified for approximately 12 states/regions. These individuals will be key to ensuring awareness and adoption of the curricula by local educators who are the direct connections to the project's targeted end users of youth in grades 6 to 14. Accomplishment: - Specific Aim #3 -To enhance the reason of the project, five new state implementation members were identified during year 2 of the project. The new state implementation team members represent the states of Alaska, Georgia, South Dakota, Missouri and Wisconsin. Each state implementor began the process of identifying a plan to share the Gearing Up resources with key groups in their state. Specific Aim #4:Distribute complimentary copies of the curricula nationally to key education-focused groups Accomplishment: - Specific Aim #4 Create a promotional package that included:a high-quality mailer that containeda "credit card" style flash drive, a promotional tri-fold brochure, a larger brochure in poster format and a cover letter. The professionally developed package was mailed in May 2022 to every county Cooperative Extension Office in the United States (3,500) and in October to every middle and high school agricultural science program in the country (10,000). Additional copies of the promotional package were distributed at the National FFA Convention and the Texas Ag Teachers Professional Development Conference. Promoted the Gearing Up for Safety program at the following events: Texas secondary agricultureteachers' professional development conference (over 2,500 teachers in attendance) National AssociationCounty Agricultural Agents conference (over 1,000 in attendance) National Association of 4-H Youth Development Professionals conference (over 1,000 in attendance) National FFA Convention (over 65,000 in attendance) National Farm Progress Show Wisconsin secondary agricultureteachers' professional development conference (over 300 in attendance) National Association for Career and Technical Educators conference (over 5,000 in attendance) National Association of Agriculture Teachers annual conference (over 1,000 in attendance) National ASABE Convention, Houston, TX National Farm Machinery Show, Louisville, KY International Society of Agricultural Safety and Health, Logan, UT Huntington University, Agricultural Education students, Huntington, IN Alaska Farm Bureau Convention, Anchorage, AK Various high school agricultural science programs in Montana, including several tribal schools. Montana Ag Expo, Bozeman, MT Specific Aim #5: Provide in-service training to key educational groups Accomplishment: - Specific Aim #5- Even though the COVID pandemic was somewhat less problematic during the 2022, the opportunity for face-to-face trainings were still limited. The project team focused on outreach efforts through trade shows dan conventions and on the creation of face-to-face training opportunities in 2023. Currently the team has plans for face-to-face trainings in Texas, Indiana, New York, Georgia, and Missouri with additional ones in the discussion stage.. Additionally, a series of three webinars were outlined. Three webinars will be offered during 2023. Specific Aim #6:Adapt theGearing UpandAgro-Securitycurricula for distributed via an established commercial online training provider. Accomplishment: - Specific Aim #6 -A Good Days Work, a commercial provider of agricultural safety curriculum, has begun the process of adapting the Gearing Up for Safety curriculum for delivery via there learning management system. There system would enable homeschoolers and other independent learners to access the curriculum and other associated learning resources for a nominal charge. Upon completion of the course, the learner would be provided with a certificate of completion. The system is expected to go online in 2023. Specific Aim #7:Collaborate with 1890 and 1994 Land-Grant Institutional partners to reach underserved and underrepresented youth in the project's targeted grade range. Accomplishment - Specific Aim #7-: Jim Hafer, a faculty member with Little Big Horn College in Montana conducted multiple outreachinitiatives to promote the Gearing Up for Safety program with tribal youth during 2022. Specific Aim #8:Maintain a national up-to-date project website Accomplishment - Specific Aim #8 -The Gearing Up for Safety website (www.agsafety4youth.info()has been totally revamped to incorporate new web-based technologies and design features. In2022 the push per the website has been the addition of a secure instructor section, which was released in the fall of 2022. Specific Aim #9:Document the impact of the project's impact on youth education and workforce development in agricultural settings Accomplishment - Specific Aim #9 -The www.agsafety4youth.info has been updated and expanded to include all the newly developed resources. News releases were distributed to promote the site. Over the past year of the project, over 210,000 hits were received from around 18,000 users. At present the site is averaging about 2,000 visitors per month.
Publications
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Progress 12/01/20 to 11/30/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The "Gearing Up Youth Education and Development for Employment in Agriculture" project is designed to provide educational opportunities that will enable youth, ages 12 to 20,to safely be employed in agriculture. With the COVID pandemic and the necessary shift from face-to-face learning to distanced-based learning, this project is providing it targeted audiences, youth educators and young and beginning workers, with the tools to learn in a distanced-based learning environment. To accomplish the goals of the project, the project engaged with county extension educators/agents, high school agricultural science teachers, homeschool educators/parents, and middle and high school-aged youth. The county extension educators/agents, high school agricultural science teachers, and homeschool educators/parents were provided with a rich assortment of educational resources focused on the most significant agricultural safety and health issues. The resources developed and provided included: 15 high quality PowerPoint lessons designed for a 50-minute classroom presentation Student worksheets, in PDF format, for each of the program's 15 lessons. Each lesson has a minimum of two engaging and educational worksheets. Suggested teaching aids/demonstrations Content outlines for each of the 15 lessons A 10-question review quiz for each of the 15 lessons A collection of more than 100 farm injury case studies to illustrate the impact of these incidents A glossary containing over 400 agricultural terms with pictures As the COVID pandemic hit, it became clear that new learning methodologies were needed to meet the needs of educators and youth learners. While the PowerPoint-based lessons could be delivered via Zoom or some other synchronous-based technology to youth learning at home, it was recognized that this may not be ideal given the challenges associated with internet connectivity in many rural areas of the country. Consequently, an initiative was started to develop self-study videos for the PowerPoint lessons. The expert-led videos are roughly 20 to 25 minutes in length with two videos (part A and part B) for each of the PowerPoint lessons. The videos are designed to provide an alternative educational methodology for students in distance-based learning settings, including students who are homeschooled. NOTE: The videos are currently under production with videos developed for approximately 10 of the 15 lessons. Changes/Problems:The most significant problems during the 2020-21 project year were the restrictions on travel and the disruption in the supply chain caused by the COVID pandemic. While the pandemic limited travel and prevented the project's staff from conducting face-to-face instructor trainings and promotional activities, it did cause project staff to re-evaluate how best to accomplished stated goals given the restrictions. As a result, the project staff implemented the following changes/additions: Development of a series of webinars for promotion of the program to the project's targeted audiences of county extension agents and high school agriculture science teachers. Development of a video-based version of the PowerPoints for use by independent learners or by use of an instructor as supplemental material. The supply chain delayed the project's efforts to conduct a nationwide promotional campaign to every county cooperative Extension office and high school agriculture program. The promotional mailing, while delayed, is on track to be implemented during March and April of 2022. As travel restrictions are being eased, the project staff expect to accomplish the project's original stated goals. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?TheCOVID pandemic severely limited the opportunity to provide face-to-face trainings during the 2020-21 project year. With the limited travel restrictions, the project team devoted its energy to the development of a series of webinars to be implemented during the 2021-22 project year. A series of approximately 8 webinars oriented to instructors (county extension agents, high school agricultural science teachers and 4-H volunteer leaders) have been developed and will be delivered during 2022. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The project's two key communities of interest are the county Cooperative Extension agents/educators and the high school agricultural science teachers. During the project's first year, project personnel staffed displays at the following events to reach these key communities of interest: Indiana State FFA Convention:Staffed a display at the convention with approximately 2,000 FFA members and 200 high school agricultural science teachers in attendance. (June 2021) National FFA Convention:Nearly 60,000 FFA members, FFA advisors/teacher and parents attended the National FFA Convention held October 27 to 29, 2021 in Indianapolis, IN. Project personnel staffed an interactive Jeopardy-based display during the 3-day convention reaching nearly 4,200 individuals. One-hundred and eighty flash drives containing the Gearing Up for Safety curriculum and associated resources were distributed to high school agricultural science teachers. National 4-H Agents Conference.Nearly 1,000 county extension 4-H agents attended the National Extension 4-H Agents conference held in Memphis, TN from November 17 to 19, 2021. Project staff distributed Gearing Up brochures and flash drives to over 800 individuals. In addition to the outreach events noted, the Gearing Up for Safety curriculum has been utilized as a basis for two college level courses. All students in Purdue University's Agricultural Systems Management major are required to take an agricultural safety and health class. The Gearing Up for Safety curriculum has served as the foundational curriculum for this course for the past two year. Students in the agricultural sciences program at Huntington University were required in 2021 to take an agricultural safety and health class with the Gearing Up for Safety program as the required curriculum. Over 65students were involved in the three courses. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?To meet the project's goals and deliverables, the following activities will be conducted in 2021-22 project year: The project advisory team will meet in the spring/summer of 2022. The primary focus of this meeting will be to reflect on the project's goals and activities and to create a set of specific program recommendations to further enhance the Gearing Up for Safety program A series of approximately 8 webinars oriented to instructors (county extension agents, high school agricultural science teachers and 4-H volunteer leaders) have been developed and will be delivered during 2022. A copy of Gearing Up for Safety promotional package, containing an introductory letter promoting the Gearing Up for Safety program and how to access the available resources, acredit-card flash containing the Gearing Up for Safety curriculum, the Gearing Up for Safety promotional brochure, and the Gearing Up for Safety poster,will be mailed to the 3,163 county extension offices, and 12,900 high school agricultural science programs in 2022. The partnership with an online content provider will be finalized and the course using the video-based version of the Gearing up for Safety program will be implemented. During the 2021-2022 project year, the Gearing Up for Safety website will be enhanced to support an instructor site. The instructor site will allow Gearing Up for Safety instructor to create a profile and access instructor-only resources. The project's special populations expert will work with the project's 1890 and 1994 land-grant institutions to develop targeted programs to meet the needs of their clientele Displays to promote and disseminate the Gearing Up for Safety curriculum to the project's target audiences will be staffed at, but not limited to: National FFA Convention National Association of Extension 4-H Agents Conference National Association of Agriculture Teachers National Association of County Agriculture Agents National Homeschooling Association Convention
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Specific Aim #1: Contribute to the overall success of the Educational and Workforce Development initiative through participation in the projects' directors meeting. Accomplishment: Project Director Tormoehlen and Co-Director Field participated in the two-day distance-based director's meeting on October 14 and 15, 2021. Prof, Tormoehlen provided and update on the project's stated initiatives. Specific aim #2: Confirm the national level program implementation advisory team Accomplishment: The project'sadvisory team met on September 8 and 9, 2021 atPurdue University in West Lafayette, IN. Twenty-four individuals including members of the project team participated in the meeting. The meeting focused on: 1) review of the website, 2) assessment of the teaching resources (lesson quizzes, student worksheets, teaching aids, etc.), 3) brainstorming on use of the curriculum with independent learners, 4) strategies for implementing the curriculum as a credited high school course, and 5) ideas on how best to promote the curriculum to the targeted audiences. Two significant recommendationswere: Green industry educational resources.The advisory committee suggested that a series of lessons focused on safety and health in the Green Industry was needed. Based on this recommendation, the project team has begun development of a 3 lesson series focused on issues such as lawn mower safety, powered hand-held lawn care tool safety, utility and compact tractor safety, and lawn care chemical and fertilizer application safety. Credentialing of the Gearing Up for Safety program.The advisory committee suggested that "credentialing" of the Gearing Up program by an organization such as AEM or ASABE would enhance utilization of the curriculum by high school agricultural science programs. Credentialing is currently being explored. Specific Aim #3: Train and equip a team of state program implementation consultants. Accomplishment: The September 8 and 9, 2021 Implementation Advisory Team meeting also served as a training for key individuals. COVID-19 has hampered this group in their efforts to engage more effectively with the project's clientele in their respective states. While limited, some success has occurred. For example, Jim Hafer and Marty Frick have successfully conducted outreach awareness activities at two major farm shows and ag teacher in-service trainings in the state of Montana, reaching over 300 teachers and ranchers. In addition, one of the team members presented components of the curriculum to over 500 students in 12 secondary agricultural education programs. Specific Aim #4: Distribute complimentary copies of the curricula nationally to key education-focused groups. Accomplishment: A comprehensive list of county Cooperative Extension offices (3,163) for all 50 states and U.S. territories with mailing addresses was created. A comprehensive list of high school agricultural science programs (12,900) with mailing addresses for all 50 states and U.S. territories was obtained. A contract was established with a professional marketing company to create a professional package for mailing to every county extension office and high school agricultural science program. The promotional package includes a high-quality mailer that contains a "credit card" style flash drive, a promotional tri-fold brochure, a larger brochure in poster format and a cover letter. It should be noted that problems with the supply chain for the "credit card" flash drive delayed mailing of the package. The first mailing of 3,163 to county extension offices is expected in March 2022. The second mailing of nearly 13,000 to high school agricultural science teachers is expected in April 2022. The purpose of the mailing is to introduce the program, provide a copy of the content on a flash drive and direct the educators to the Gearing Up for Safety website. Promoted the Gearing Up for Safety program at the following events. Homeschool Conventions:Project staff participated through a staffed display at homeschool conventions in Cincinnati, OH and Ontario, CA with over2,000 homeschool families in attendance. (July 2021) Indiana State FFA Convention:Staffed a display at the convention with approximately 2,000 FFA members and 200 high school agricultural science teachers in attendance. (June 2021) Farm Progress Show.The 2021 Farm Progress Show was held in Illinois in August 2020. The Gearing Up for Safety display emphasized the importance of safety training for youth when engaged in farm and ranch activities. National FFA Convention: Nearly 60,000 FFA members, FFA advisors/teacher and parents attended the National FFA Convention held October 27 to 29, 2021 in Indianapolis, IN. Project personnel staffed an interactive Jeopardy-based display during the 3-day convention reaching nearly 4,200 individuals. One-hundred and eighty flash drives containing the Gearing Up for Safety curriculum and associated resources were distributed to high school agricultural science teachers. National 4-H Agents Conference. Nearly 1,000 county extension 4-H agents attended the National Extension 4-H Agents conference held in Memphis, TN from November 17 to 19, 2021. Project staff distributed Gearing Up brochures and flash drives to over 800 individuals. Specific Aim #5: Provide in-service training to key educational groups Accomplishment: The COVID pandemic severely limited the opportunity to provide face-to-face trainings during the 2020-21 project year. The project team devoted it energy to the development of a series of webinars to be implemented. A series of approximately 8 webinars oriented to instructors (county extension agents, high school agricultural science teachers and 4-H volunteer leaders) have been developed and will be delivered during 2022. Specific Aim #6: Adapt the Gearing Up and Agro-Security curricula for distributed via an established commercial online training provider Accomplishment: During the project's first year, significant efforts were focused on developing a high-quality video-based instructional version for each of the Gearing Up for Safety 15 core lessons. The video-based instructional lessons are laying the foundation for ongoing discussions with a commercial online agricultural safety and health company to provide the program to key clientele. The online version is anticipated to go live in 2022. Specific Aim #7: Collaborate with 1890 and 1994 Land-Grant Institutional partners to reach underserved and underrepresented youth in the project's targeted grade range. Accomplishment: Jim Hafer, a faculty member with Little Big Horn College in Montana conducted two outreach initiatives to promote the Gearing Up for Safety program with his clientele. A presentation was made at Florida A&M to students adn staff regarding the curriculum. Specific Aim #8: Maintain a national up-to-date project website Accomplishment:The Gearing Up for Safety website (www.agsafety4youth.info()has been totally revamped to incorporate new web-based technologies and design features. This was a significant push during the 2020, 2021 and 2022. Plans are underway to further enhance the website in 2022 with the addition of a secure instructor section.Statistics for the website include: (June 2021 to January 2022) Daily visitors to the site: averaging 41per day, witha total of 10,505 visitors Total page hits = 116,329 Top states with visitors to the site were California, Virginia, Michigan and Indiana Specific Aim #9: Document the impact of the project's impact on youth education and workforce development in agricultural settings: Accomplishment: Several of the supplemental lessons being developed (Stress of Farm Youth, General Disease Prevention for Young Agriculture Workers, and Biosecurity in Agriculture Operations) were tested with high school agricultural science students for educational effectiveness. Additional evaluation is planned.
Publications
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