Progress 11/01/20 to 10/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Middle and high school formal and informal educators (N=89 directly reached in 4 PD sessions) Tuesday, September 26, 2023, Session #8: Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Virtual Field Experience (Virtual). Description: Participants will explore methods of using these five agriculture virtual reality apps in their classroom with NGSS aligned curriculum. Leave this workshop with curriculum, resources and a participant stipend to integrate these agricultural concepts in your classroom! Impact: 33 educators (28 formal educators, 5 informal). Thursday, October 12, 2023, Session #9: Experience Agriculture through Field Experiences (Redmond, Oregon). Description: Participants will explore methods of using these five agriculture virtual reality apps in their classroom with NGSS aligned curriculum. Leave this workshop with curriculum, resources and a participant stipend to integrate these agricultural concepts in your classroom! Impact: 23 participants (all 23 formal educators). Friday, October 13, 2023, Session #10: Nationwide DIVE4Ag Toolkit Workshop (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Description: Discover how you can use the five agriculture virtual reality apps, hands-on lessons, and capstone virtual challenge in your educational youth programs. Attendees will explore all 5 apps, tour an urban farm in Pittsburgh, and participate in our Agroecology lesson where they plan their own urban/small garden. Impact: 23 educators (10 formal educators, 13 informal). Thursday, November 23, 2022, Session #11: Masters in Agricultural Education Class Demonstration (Corvallis, Oregon). Description: Graduate students studying to become agricultural educators engaged with apps and discussed how they would utilize this resource in their future classrooms. Impact: 10 future educators. Professionals Groups (N = 4,750 directly reached). Informational, recruitment, and update sessions with professional groups: 10/21/22, 4-H Board of Trustees Meeting; General Project and Teens as Teachers overview and demonstration of VR/AR apps; 40 minutes; 24 in-person participants, 4 virtual participants. 10/27/22, Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference, 5,000 at conference, many stopped at the booth. 12/6/22, OSU Extension Annual Conference; Poster session and presentation demonstrating apps and presenting overview of project; 8 participants in poster session, 11 participants in presentation. 3/15/23; OSU Food Science and Technology Faculty meeting; Quick overview and demonstration of project, highlighting Dairy app and OSU Cheese Lab involvement; 15 in-person participants, 5 virtual participants. 3/22/23; Juntos National Convening; Tabletop display giving overview of project and VR/AR app demonstrations; 70 attendees at conference; 15 participants tried VR headsets. 3/19/23; Oregon Dairy Industry Conference; Presentation discussing overview of topic and tabletop display during entire conference; 15 participants in presentation, 15 participants visiting table. 4/6/23; Science Talks 2023, Poster Presentation with VR/AR app demonstrations; 30 participants 6/22/23; National Urban Extension Leaders (NUEL) Western Region Meeting; Virtual Presentation giving overview of project; 15 online participants. 6/26/23 to 6/29/23; National Ag in the Classroom Conference; Added brochures for project in all attendees' bags, tabletop demonstration overviewing project; 550 conference attendees, 150 stopped at table to discuss project. 7/22/23; National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) Conference; Overview of project, Aquaculture app demonstration and lesson plan demonstration; 25 participants. 9/20/23; Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association (PCSGA) conference; Lighting Talk presentation overviewing Aquaculture App development and use; 20 participants. 10/10/23 to 10/12/23; National Association of Extension 4-H Youth Development Professionals (NAE4-HYDP) national Conference; tabletop demonstration of VR/AR apps and project overview, project brochure in each attendee's bag; 500+ conference attendees, 250 stopped at booth. 10/14/23: Oregon Science Teachers Association (OSTA) Annual Conference; Presentation giving overview of project and demonstration of VR/AR apps and tabletop demonstration while not presenting; 9 participants for presentation, 75+ participants visited booth. Youth Learners, Families, and the General public (N=2,267 reached directly) DIVE4Ag Virtual Challenge (N=104): 29 teams registered for the challenge with a total of 104 youth. The challenge consisted of teams of 1-5 youth in grades 6-12 working as a team to develop their own AR app. Teams explored each of the five DIVE4Ag apps, chose one, and created an AR app with the educational focus on how their chosen DIVE4Ag app connected to their life. Teams created AR apps using TimeLooper's XploreLabs software. Virtual learning sessions (recorded) included DIVE4Ag content experts hosting overview/Q&A sessions about each of the 5 topic areas, demonstrations on using Tinkercad to create 3D models, and a walkthrough of software. Youth, Families, and the General Public via Dissemination (N=2,163) 11/8/22; Willamina Math and Science Night, K-12 students and their families explore STEM based hands-on activities, 20 students tried VR headset 11/17/22; Three Rivers & Evergreen Elementary Math and Science Night, K-12 students and their families explored STEM based hands-on activities; 45 students and 8 adults tried VR Headsets 11/17/22; Presentation to 4-H Partner School: Alliance at Joseph Meek High School; Presentation on project and demonstration of VR/AR Apps; 10 High School participants 4/4/23, 4/11/23, and 4/18/23; SMILE Challenge Events; Demonstration Aquaculture App; 184 student participants, 25 teachers 4/8/23; Hatfield Marine Sciences Day; Tabletop demonstration of VR/AR Apps, focusing on Aquaculture; 400 attendees (mainly youth) tried on headsets 4/26/23; OSU Dam Proud Day; Table demonstration of VR/AR Apps; 20 participants 4/29/23 and 4/30/23; Oregon Ag Fest; Tabletop demonstration of VR/AR Apps; 950 youth tried headsets 5/11/23 to 5/23/23; Washington State FFA Convention; Partnered with AgAid Institute partner Jordan Jobe; Tabletop demonstration of VR/AR apps. 2,300 youth attendees at conference + 500 educator chaperones; 279 students stopped at booth 6/9/23 - 6/11/23; Western States Horse Expo; Tabletop project overview and exploration of apps (focusing on horses) via VR Headsets and iPads; 222 attendees stopped at booth Industry Partners (N=24 reached). Industry partners working directly in the production of the VR/AR apps (N=13). We have continued to work with the partners from app development through completion and dissemination. These partners range from small businesses to large farms, from for-profit companies to not-for-profit organizations. Industry partners interested in DIVE4Ag assets and outputs (N=11). As the apps have been completed, other industry partnerships are in various degrees of development to identify opportunities for building additional DIVE4AG assets and outputs. These include: NOAA-funded DIVE4OL (Ocean Literacy) app; submission of USDA FANE application (GRANT14028733); and partnering with Oregon Sea Grant, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service to develop apps on tropical agriculture, off-shore energy, coral restoration, and food security via small-scale fisheries and aquaculture, slated to begin March 2024. DIVE4Ag App Engagement (N=4,027). TimeLooper tracks the views, format used, and language preference of each app. As the Rangeland app and the Spanish translations are the newest additions, we expect the numbers of these apps to increase with time. Total views: Agroecology-English: 1,056 Agroecology-Spanish: 18 Dairy-English: 1,089 Dairy-Spanish: 10 Horse-English: 683 Horse-Spanish: 11 Aquaculture-English: 851 Aquaculture-Spanish: 4 Rangeland-English: 293 Rangeland-Spanish: 12 Changes/Problems:Previous changes and challenges were outlined in prior reports. No changes or problems were experienced in the final year of the project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?See more details on the Target Audience section, above, for Professional Development events offered to our participants. Partially repeated below: Middle and High School Formal and Informal Educators (N=89): We held four professional development sessions between September 26 through November 23, 2023. Director Rowe and core team members participated in various conferences that resulted in increased knowledge of networks and resources for the project team and increased knowledge about DIVE4g efforts for others. These presentations are detailed under the "Target Audience" section above and summarized here: 4-H Partner School - Alliance at Joseph Meek High School, OSU SMILE Challenge Events, Hatfield Marine Sciences Day, Oregon Ag Fest, Washington State FFA Convention, Western States Horse Expo. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All project events/opportunities are archived and available for view on the project website and disseminated through our OSU calendar of events and media platforms, automatically. Additionally, the project team disseminates opportunities via our larger partner networks such as the OSU SMILE Program (over 65 educators) and Precollege Programs networks (multiple educator partner networks, youth programing lists and community partners), Oregon and Washington Agriculture in the Classroom (over 2,000 educators), 4-H educator networks, as well as smaller listservs within our internal and external networks and listservs (e.g. OSU Precollege Education Network - OPEN; Oregon Natural Resource Education Program - ONREP; Oregon Farm to school and School Garden Network; OSU Juntos Program; Portland Public Schools CTE and other school districts; Oregon Food Corps; Oregon STEM Beyond Schools Network; Multnomah SUN schools network; Portland Children Levy community partners network). App information is also disseminated via the TimeLooper platform. All products created as part of the DIVE4g effort are freely available on our website and in the TimeLooper app platform. The partnership with Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom and both Oregon and Washington 4-H allows dissemination and support of educators in the network to utilize the apps and build continuity in their classrooms. The DIVE4Ag website also provides the platform where educators, youth, and families in Oregon, Washington, and beyond can access our products and supplementary materials. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The DIVE4Ag project brings state-of-the-art technology to provide immersive experiences for middle and high school youth and educators to explore agriculture, including virtual reality and online activities that they help create themselves. The project's overall goal is to provide innovative, authentic, and immersive distance agriculture education to middle and high school learners, educators, and trained volunteers in Oregon and Washington, addressing urgent needs and growing demands of these audiences in the aftermath of the COVID-19 health crisis and rapidly changing schooling systems adopting distance education measures. Project activities are designed to help educators, students, and trained volunteers build relevant agriculture knowledge and skills through activities exploring different kinds of agricultural practices. They equip those involved with new communication tools to promote meaningful participation and impactful learning in virtual environments and with innovative technology in the context of teaching about agricultural sciences and careers. The full DIVE4Ag Agricultural Toolkit includes: Virtual/augmented (VR/AR) reality field experiences immersing users in equestrian, urban organic, oyster, dairy farms, and rangeland. All five experiences are complete and have all been translated into Spanish. A project tailored Teens as Teachers training program through which youth work with agricultural scientists and professionals to design and produce elements of the VR/AR field experiences (they became narrators, holograms, etc.). Virtual Ag Science Cafes and workshops led by Teens as Teacher graduates where youth have the opportunity to engage in virtual conversations with agricultural STEM professionals to learn from lively discussions and hands-on activities. Professional development opportunities for educators from formal and informal contexts to incorporate project toolkit components in their teaching and programming. Virtual agricultural sciences challenge event for high school students. Virtual Beaver Hangouts programs where high school classrooms are paired with college students to learn about academic and career pathways in agricultural sciences. (Note: this objective changed over the course of the project.) Accomplishments during the final year of this project: Objective 1: Implement virtual, immersive agriculture curriculum. Major activities during the final year included 1) development of lessons to accompany all five apps; 2) held four professional development opportunities for educators; 3) held 22 informational sessions for professional and public audiences. Objective 2: Develop and launch virtual field trips. Major activities during the final year included 1) completion, testing and full public release of all five virtual/augmented reality field experiences; 2) incorporating subtitles and Spanish translation into all five virtual/augmented reality apps; 3) design and delivery of the DIVE4Ag Virtual Team Challenge. Description of the Virtual Team Challenge: Teams of 1-5 youth in grades 6-12 will work together to create their very own Augmented Reality App! Exploring the DIVE4Ag apps centered around Horses, Dairy, Aquaculture (growing oysters in the water), Agroecology (biodiversity and urban farms), and Sagebrush rangelands, registered teams led by an adult educator will select one of the produced DIVE4Ag apps and build an extension app as a contribution. Teams will present their apps during a Virtual Challenge Presentation. Apps created by the Virtual Team Challenge participants included: how ice cream is made, how to create a pollinator-friendly garden, interviews with multiple generations of family farmers, and accepting a love of horses as an urban teen. Apps are posted on the DIVE4Ag webpage and accessible for viewing for the general public. Objective 3: Integrate the engagement model of Precollege Programs and Oregon's 4-H Teens as Teachers model. These activities were completed and reported during years 1 and 2. Our design, framework and model was accomplished and implemented with the first cohort of teens in year 1, then improved and implemented again with the second cohort in year 2 in conjunction with the development of the fifth and final app. A key outcome of this integrated model is interest from multiple other entities in recreating similar processes and products in their disciplines for similar AR/VR learning experiences for their audiences and continuing to work with youth to co-create materials. The youth voices in the products represent a growing interest for experiential programs with youth for youth. Objective 4: Build in support for educators and youth to participate/collaborate. To date, nine educators and 23 youth have been monetarily supported to participate in the app development. A higher number of educators (210), were also supported through the professional development events and dedicated attention to smaller parts of the project and to utilize the apps and accompanying curriculum. While we originally intended to engage a large number of teens and educators in producing small, individual components, we decided instead to focus on having a small number of youth and educators deeply engaged in all aspects of the project. From this deeper engagement, we learned that educators wanted tools that would lead to long-term impact and use in their communities by their students. Second, we learned from focus groups and pre/post surveys with youth that they highly valued the co-creation experience. Specifically, they felt being immersed as co-creators in a technologically complex development process supported their 1) communication and public speaking skills, 2) teamwork and collaboration skills, 3) leadership skills, 4) building confidence/adaptability skills, 5) presentation skills, and 6) video and media production skills. With these repeated facts in mind, we dedicated year 2 to design and release the apps and engage a second cohort of teens in co-creation via Teens and Teachers, which was not in the proposal original plan. Objective 5. Afterschool programming that will culminate in a virtual agricultural sciences challenge event for high school students. Major activities during the final year included 1) participation in the SMILE Program's Family Math and Science Nights; 2) piloting of lesson plans by SMILE teachers in afterschool programming; 3) refining the lesson plans based on teacher feedback. We partnered with the OSU SMILE Program (Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences), which offers afterschool programming for underserved K-12 learners in rural parts of Oregon and professional development for educators. We took the completed apps and VR sets to SMILE-led Family Math and Science Nights in different communities and brought DIVE4Ag activities to their teacher workshop sessions twice a year, including lesson plans in development to be piloted. The teacher feedback was incorporated into the final lesson plans. Objective 6. Virtual Beaver Hangouts programs where high school classrooms are paired with college students to learn about academic and career pathways in agricultural sciences. As previously reported, the OSU Virtual Beaver Hangouts program was put on pause and the platform could not be utilized. Because of such a shift, we gave higher importance and additional activities for the DIVE4Ag Teens as Teachers. We feel like our Teens as Teachers program, the AgScience Cafes, the intentional participation at SMILE teacher workshops, SMILE family math and science nights, and various additional youth events have given us other avenues to continue impacting our K-12 audiences while producing and delivering state of the art VR/AR materials.
Publications
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Progress 11/01/21 to 10/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:When engaging with our served audiences, recruiting, and disseminating products, we call our public facing effort the DIVE4Ag Project - an acronym for Distance, Immersive, Virtual Education for Agriculture Literacy. Find us at DIVE4Ag https://dive.oregonstate.edu/ DIVE4Ag targets K-14 audiences for distance learning development and distance education opportunities for middle and high school age youth, educators, and volunteers with regional impact in Oregon, directly, and Washington via dissemination through partners. For the 11/01/2021 - 10/31/2022 reporting year, our target audience is detailed below: Middle and high school formal and informal educators (N= 113 directly reached in 5 PD sessions) We continued our Official Virtual Professional Development Series for formal and informal middle and high school-level educators in Oregon, Washington, and beyond. Combined, these professional development sessions reached 113 educators directly. From the total, 63 were formal educators in school classrooms and 50 were informal/4-H educators. 90 were located in Oregon, 7 in Washington, 3 in Idaho, 3 in New York, 2 in California, 2 in Nevada, and 1 in New Mexico. Five participants were international, from three different countries (Indonesia, Philippines, and Egypt). The recorded videos of the sessions were added to our website and YouTube Channel, with a combined total of 148 views. Professionals Groups/Individuals (N = 1,115 directly reached). Informational, recruitment, and update sessions about the DIVE4Ag project have reached a variety of professional groups interested in VR/AR education and the topics of the DIVE4Ag apps in development (1. Dairy farms and milk processing; 2. Agroecology; 3. Aquaculture; 4. Equestrian farm and stables; and 5. Rangeland and cattle raising). 12/5/21, OSU Extension Annual Conference, Keynote session discussing the youth co-creation, 100 participants. 12/8/21, Elevate Extension Virtual Programming, Keynote talk discussing youth co-creation, 25 participants. 2/24/22, Oregon Farm to Table, DIVE4Ag program highlight, 130+ virtually asynchronous, 2 synchronous. 5/24/22, National Urban Extension Conference, Informational session/demonstration, 30 participants. 9/9/22, TimeLooper and Stakeholders meeting - OSU Campus, Sharing the partnership and demonstration of VR/AR apps; 14 virtual, 9 in person. 9/9/22, TimeLooper and Stakeholders meeting - Hatfield Marine Science Center, Sharing the partnership and demonstration of VR/AR app - in particular the Aquaculture app; 10 participants. 9/13/22, University Day, OSU employee resource fair demonstration; 35-40 stopped at table, 5 tried VR headset . 9/17/22, Extension Director's Tailgater, Demonstration of VR/AR apps for donors of OSU Extension programs; 80 participants. 9/29/22, OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center Seminar. 30 virtual participants, 30 in-person participants. 9/2022, ESP National Conference, Project overview and horse app demonstration, 15 participants. 10/1/22, Washington County 4-H Open House, 600 participants. Youth learners, families and the general public (N = 1,066 reached directly) Teens as Teachers via training (N=10): Youth reached directly by Year 2 programming (year 2 cohort). The DIVE4Ag Teens as Teachers attended a set of virtual workshops, in-person field trips for collecting audio and video footage and interviewing agricultural scientists and professionals. A subset participated in a weekend in-person retreat to build content and create holograms for the apps. The teens also served as interviewers for the Ag Science Café professionals (N=2 interview) and presented as part of Ag Science Café workshops (N=2). These activities are tied to the planning, design, and production of our 5th and final DIVE4Ag app on rangelands, recently completed and to be reported in our final report. Youth, families, and the general Public via dissemination (N =1,056): 6/25/22, Oregon 4-H State Summer Conference. A keynote session gave an overview of DIVE4Ag to 150 youth and adult sponsors. 9/29/22, Four Rivers, OR Community School Family Math and Science Night. K-12 students and their families explored STEM based hands-on activities; 120 participants. 10/13/22 - Lebanon Family Math and Science Night, K-12 students and their families explore STEM based hands-on activities, 100 participants. 10/20/22 - Highland Elementary Math and Science Night, K-12 students and their families explored STEM based hands-on activities, 386 participants. 10/27/22 - Monroe Grade School Math and Science Night, K-12 students and their families explore STEM based hands-on activities, 300 participants. Industry Partners (N=22 reached). Industry partners working directly in the production of the VR/AR apps (N=11). These partners were reached in the beginning of the project. We have worked and continued to work with these industry partners to date (from completion to dissemination). They range from small businesses to large farms, from for-profit companies to not-for-profit organizations. Threemile Canyon Farms Arbuthnot Dairy Center Portland Creamery Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery Oregon Oyster Farm Oregon Dulse Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture. Yost Ranch Travis Wigen Performance Horses, LLC TimeLooper Oregon and Washington Agriculture in the Classroom Industry partners interested in DIVE4Ag assets and outputs (N=11). Since a portion of the apps and activities were completed and reported in the last annual report, other industry partnerships were initiated and are in various degrees of development and relationship building to identify and/or establish pathways and opportunities for further work in alignment with and building from DIVE4AG assets and outputs. As a satellite project leveraging and supplementing DIVE4Ag activities, Director Rowe and partner Dr. Sheri Cole, from the Arbuthnot Dairy Center, produced and completed "Relationships in Artisan Cheesemaking," a video for youth audiences highlighting the power of relationships in the artisan cheese industry, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic. The video is listed in the outputs section and included the following industry partners: Oregon Mid-Valley STEM Hub, funder. https://www.midvalleystem.org/ B-Line Urban Delivery https://b-linepdx.com/ Good Company Cheese https://goodcompanycheese.com/ Oregon Dairy and Nutritional Council https://odncouncil.org/ Another project is an online course "K-12 Education, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and Youth Thriving" in co-development by Director Rowe and collaborating authors: Yasmeen Hossain, Ph.D. and Barbara Brody, M.S. This will be completed and included in the next report and includes the following active partners: ARIS, Advancing Research Impact in Society, funder. https://researchinsociety.org/ Oregon Natural Resource Education Program, ONREP - OSU https://extension.oregonstate.edu/onrep Another grant has been secured for development of a new AR/VR application utilizing assets and processes developed for DIVE4Ag on the topic of ocean literacy, coastal community resilience, and disaster preparation. Director Rowe is a Co-Director on this project and the app is currently in development with the following partners: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA, funder. https://www.noaa.gov/ Oregon Sea Grant https://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/ Another grant proposal has been submitted as a result of industry partners' interest in the DIVE4Ag work and collaborations to extend the work in different agriculture areas and with different audiences. Director Rowe will lead the effort with the following partners: Heritage University's First Nations MESA Program https://heritage.edu/student-resources/mesa-first-nations/ Washington State University's AgAID Institute https://agaid.org/ University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez's, Department of Agriculture Education https://www.uprm.edu/oeg/en/home/ Changes/Problems:In the prior report for year 1, we detailed challenges of pandemic and its impact on timing from 2020-2021. Unfortunately, school districts, educators, youth, and families continue to be overwhelmed and in too much distress to fully participate in activities and stay engaged. Youth learners' behavioral issues and continuing distress surrounding going back to classrooms is causing teachers to quit, which impacts programs like this. Educators seem to be more overwhelmed now than last year and unwilling to do anything that is not currently required. COVID protocols are gone but the impacts remain at the forefront of any educational efforts. This resulted in delays in implementation, low attendance at events, and some reluctance to commit to participation in long-term planning. For that reason, instead of being streamed live as had been the case before, Ag Science Cafes and workshops were recorded and made available as videos to address both youth safety concerns with live on-line programming and teacher/audience need for asynchronous programming. This has allowed for easier archiving and greater access as well. As a result, the large amount of dollars allocated to participant stipends in the budget had to be shifted in creative ways. After conversation with the grant program officer, we were encouraged to add Spanish translation costs for our materials and to strengthen our dissemination efforts upon the completion of the five apps. In October 2022, we submitted a re-budget request in year 2 to to provide Spanish translation of existing content and of the fifth app in development, to provide travel both to disseminate the findings and content and to take video/photography of physical locations for the apps, and to underwrite the salary and benefits of the personnel traveling to the new sites. As related in the last report, early in the process, a needs assessment with target teachers, students, and professionals convinced us that there was little interest among audiences for a short-term, band-aid approach that would quickly provide virtual resources. Instead, we were encouraged to develop innovative programming that could be implemented in the long term for improving agricultural education and literacy, especially relative to careers regionally. At the same time, we saw that there would be great value in including youth themselves in all aspects of the program development and implementation. Thus, we focused our efforts to include teenagers in developing the content and look of apps from beginning to end. We also included the same youth in developing all other toolkit components, from Ag Science Cafes to website content. We continued this approach this year with a second youth cohort for this in-depth co-creation work. Although 10 completed phase one of training only a subset continued to the end. This was a larger drop-out than in the previous year, perhaps because sagebrush rangeland topic was not as enticing than the topics for the other apps (dairy, oysters, agroecology, horses). Additionally, challenges with our own team schedules continue to occur, although at a much lesser degree than in year 1. The final app, which was designed to be an urban agriculture app, shifted to become the rangeland app due to shifting personnel in the team. One co-director retired and we onboarded a new co-director amongst said personnel issues. Similar to last year, beyond the simple fact of carrying out a large, distributed project involving many people, most of whom had never worked together during the height of the pandemic, this project has faced a relatively small number of other implementation challenges due to the nature of university business. While this award was for a rapid response program, the university systems are simply not prepared for rapid "set-up." It was a protracted process to get TimeLooper brought on board by OSU, which put significant pressure on being able to produce apps in a timely manner in order to reach project outcomes in year 1. As mentioned in the year 1 report, the Beaver Hangouts program has been put on hold due to low use during the pandemic. Beaver Hangouts will likely be revived in a new iteration, but not in time to integrate in this project. Overall, virtual programming is not very well wanted and attended by educators and youth after the outpouring of virtual education during COVID protocols. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We continued our Official Virtual Professional Development Series on November 29, 2021 with the third training offered to formal and informal middle and high school-level educators in Oregon, Washington, and beyond: 11/29/2021, Session #3: Learning Agriculture Beyond Content. Description: Would you like to explore how to apply Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in your learning sessions? Join this interactive workshop for an introduction to SEL, practical applications in agriculture education, and the social-emotional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the completion of this professional development workshop you will leave with new tools that you can implement tomorrow! Link to recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqQmAZX-QjE Impact: 47 participants, 25 formal educators, 22 informal educators. 38 participants in Oregon, 2 in Washington, 2 in California, 1 in Idaho, 1 in New York, 1 in New Mexico, 1 in Philippines and 1 in Indonesia (As reported in the session registration). The recorded session has received 19 views on YouTube to date. 01/25/2022, Session #4: Virtual Reality Field Experience - Agroecology. Description: In this virtual PD session, educators will explore topics in Agroecology, including biodiversity and sustainability within agroecosystems and how farming decisions can impact the environment and our communities. This content is presented in the DIVE4ag soon to be released Agroecology virtual reality app taking users throughout a virtual, yet immersive learning experience co-created for youth learners with youth voices. We will also give a sneak peek of the app platform and how educators are going to be able to use it. If we build it, they will come! Link to recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLMfuYtp9aQ Impact: 34 participants, 20 formal educators, 14 informal. 27 participants in Oregon, 5 in Washington, 1 in New York, 1 in Nevada. (As reported in the session registration). The recorded session has received 27 views on YouTube to date. 02/15/2022, Session #5: Virtual Reality Field Experience - Dairy Farm and Milk Processing. Description: In this virtual PD session, educators explore topics related to dairy processes and farming decisions driven by sustainability and efficiency, how milk and cheese quality is assessed and maintained, how science promotes animal health and wellbeing, and the community of people involved in the care and production of dairy commodities. This content is presented in the DIVE4Ag soon to be released dairy virtual reality app taking users throughout a virtual, yet immersive learning experience co-created with youth learners and with youth voices. We also give a sneak peek of the dairy app platform and how educators are going to be able to use it. Link to recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRRjIWpHrnI Impact: 19 participants, 12 formal educators, 7 informal. 16 participants in Oregon, 1 in Idaho, 1 in New York, 1 in Indonesia (As reported in the session registration). The recorded session has received 62 views on YouTube to date. 02/22/2022, Session #6: Virtual Reality Field Experience - Aquaculture. Description: In this virtual PD session, educators explore topics in aquaculture and oyster farming. Presenters will talk about the biology of larval and adult oysters, discuss ways that juvenile and adult oysters are produced through aquaculture methods, the influence of market outlets on post-harvest processing, and environmental impacts. This content is presented in the DIVE4Ag soon to be released aquaculture virtual reality app taking users throughout a virtual, yet immersive learning experience created for youth learners. We also give a sneak peek of the app platform and how educators are going to be able to use it. Link to recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH3hPNyG9Gw Impact: 7 participants, 3 formal educators, 4 informal. 5 participants in Oregon, 1 in Idaho, and 1 in Egypt (As reported in the session registration). The recorded session has received 29 views on YouTube to date. 04/27/2022, Session #7: Virtual Reality Field Experience - Equestrian Farm and Stables. Description: In this virtual PD session, educators will explore how the horse industry offers a wide range of services; understand the use of horses for work, sports, and recreation; discuss how modern horse husbandry supports a horse athletically and physiologically while keeping horses and people safe; and reflect on how horses have shaped human history and culture and continue to provide benefits to humans today. This content is presented in the DIVE4Ag soon to be released Equestrian Farms and Stables virtual reality app taking users through a virtual, yet immersive learning experience with youth voices. We will also give a sneak peek of the app platform and how educators are going to be able to use it. Link to recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_PgyU08YSE Impact: 6 participants, 3 formal educators, 3 informal. 4 participants in Oregon, 1 in Nevada, 1 in Indonesia (as reported in the session registration). The recorded session has received 11 views on YouTube to date. Teens as Teachers via training (N=10): Youth reached directly by Year 2 programming (year 2 cohort). While 10 started the training program, 8 finished the first phase (leadership training), 4 chose to continue and finish the second phase (Rangeland and Agroecology topics, production sheets, scripts, and voiceovers). The first phase was the training phase and the second phase was the production phase. While most students received substantial training, only half chose to have their voices heard in the production phase with active roles in production. While that was not what we expected, we understand the more involved phase and the long hours involved in producing apps together. In this iteration of the DIVE4Ag Teens as Teachers co-development of content, high school youth worked alongside agriculture professionals to co-create activities and virtual reality experiences for their peers. Teens had the opportunity to develop leadership and public speaking skills while gaining hands-on experience in different agriculture fields. The DIVE4Ag Teens as Teachers attended a set of virtual workshops, in-person field trips for collecting audio and video footage and interviewing agricultural scientists and professionals. A subset participated in a weekend in-person retreat to build content and create holograms for the apps. The teens also served as interviewers for the Ag Science Café professionals (N=2 interview) and presented as part of Ag Science Café workshops (N=2). These activities are tied to the planning, design, and production of our 5th and final DIVE4Ag app on rangelands, recently completed and to be reported in our final report. Additional Professional Development events (detailed on the Target Audience section, above) included: Sixteen virtual Informational sessions and five professional development workshops for educators: https://dive4ag.oregonstate.edu/educators-professional-development Director Rowe and core team members participated in various conferences that resulted in increased knowledge of networks and resources for the project team and increased knowledge about DIVE4g efforts for others. These presentations are detailed under the "Target Audience" section above and summarized here: Extension Annual Conference Keynote; Elevate Extension Virtual Programming Keynote; Oregon Farm to Table DIVE4Ag program highlight; National Urban Extension Conference Informational session; TimeLooper and Stakeholders meeting - OSU Main Campus and Hatfield Campus; University Day OSU employee resource fair demonstration; OSU Extension Director's Tailgater demonstration; OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center Seminar; ESP National Conference project overview and horse app demonstration; Washington County 4-H Open House. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All project events/opportunities are archived and available for view on the project website and disseminated through our OSU calendar of events and media platforms, automatically. Additionally, the project team disseminates opportunities via our larger partner networks such as the OSU SMILE Program (over 40 educators) and Precollege Programs networks (multiple educator partner networks, youth programing lists and community partners), Oregon and Washington Agriculture in the Classroom (over 2,000 educators), 4-H educator networks, as well as smaller listservs within our internal and external networks and listservs (e.g. OSU Precollege Education Network - OPEN; Oregon Natural Resource Education Program - ONREP; Oregon Farm to school and School Garden Network; OSU Juntos Program; Portland Public Schools CTE and other school districts; Oregon Food Corps; Oregon STEM Beyond Schools Network; Multnomah SUN schools network; Portland Children Levy community partners network). App information is also disseminated via the TimeLooper platform. All products created as part of the DIVE4g effort are freely available on our website and in the TimeLooper app platform. The partnership with Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom and both Oregon and Washington 4-H allows dissemination and support of educators in the network to utilize the apps and build continuity in their classrooms. The DIVE4Ag website also provides the platform where educators, youth, and families in Oregon, Washington, and beyond can access our products andsupplementary materials. Views of Recorded DIVE4Ag Outputs. The available recordings of DIVE4Ag activities covered during this grant report have a combined total of 302 views. The number of individual views represent audiences indirectly reached, to date. DIVE4Ag App Engagement. TimeLooper tracks the number of views of each app both in AR mode and in point of interest (POI) views on each app. Views, to date: Agroecology: 92 (AR), 242 (POI) Dairy: 152 (AR), 359 (POI) Horse: 89 (AR), 185 (POI) Aquaculture: 109 (109), 226 (POI) Total views of the four completed apps: 1,486. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Design and delivery of the DIVE4Ag final activity and event - the Virtual team Challenge. Teams of 1-5 youth in grades 6-12 will work together to create their very own Augmented Reality App! Exploring the DIVE4Ag apps centered around Horses, Dairy, Aquaculture (growing oysters in the water), Agroecology (biodiversity and urban farms), and Sagebrush rangelands, registered teams led by an adult educator will select one of the produced DIVE4Ag apps and build an extension app as a contribution. Teams will present their apps during a Virtual Challenge Presentation. Completion of the fifth application and incorporating subtitles and Spanish translation into all five apps. Offer the final 3+ professional development sessions for educators: Date TBD. Session #8: Virtual Reality Field Experience - Rangeland and Cattle Raising. Date TBD. Session #9: TimeLooper - Xplore Labs Pilot Projects and Educator Features. Date TBD. Session #10: Preparation for DIVE4Ag Virtual Challenge. Date TBD. Sessions for educators and youth in teams participating in the DIVE4Ag Virtual Challenge Continued use of social media and websites to develop audience and partnerships. Offer the final Ag Science Cafe and Ag Science Workshop related to the fifth and last App "Sagebrush Rangelands." Complete Spanish translation for all five apps and possibly lesson plans, if budget allows. Remaining VR Kits put together for distribution in Oregon and Washington through county-based Extension offices and 4-H partners. Finalize and publish all the middle and high school lesson plans and activities that complement the apps for use in classrooms. Conference presentations and further dissemination efforts. Build new partnership and funding structure for satellite projects that spring from this and further app development.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: Implement virtual, immersive agriculture curriculum. Year 2 major activities included 1) Completion, testing and full public release of 4 out of 5 AR/VR apps; 2) Beginning design and development of the fifth virtual/augmented reality field experiences; 3) a six-week Teens as Teachers training program for the 2nd cohort of youth; 3) Virtual Ag Science Cafes and associated expert workshops led by Teens as Teacher graduates; 4) five scheduled professional development opportunities for educators; 5) 16 informational sessions for professional and public audiences. Objective 2: Develop and launch virtual field trips. Four DIVE4Ag apps were fully completed and released. https://dive.oregonstate.edu/virtual-reality-field-experiences The focus of the Teens as Teachers training program was for the youth to work with agricultural scientists, programmers, professionals, communicators, and educators to help co-design the VR/AR field experiences. The process of designing and planning these included identifying learning outcomes, key facts, storyboards to inform media collection in the field sites, writing, directing, and recording components, and conducting interviews and background research. Youth and project staff learned to use new technologies including 360 cameras, drones, and how to build 3D models and holograms through their direct work with TimeLooper. Participants and the project team became comfortable as producers of educational media and programming for youth and educators, mastering technological and content knowledge and skills directly applicable to 21st century agricultural careers. The results are state of the art AR/VR apps accessible to all via mobile units. Objective 3: Integrate the engagement model of Precollege Programs and Oregon's 4-H Teens as Teachers model. This design, framework and model was accomplished and implemented with the first cohort of teens in year 1, then improved and implemented again with the 2nd cohort in year 2 (this report) in conjunction with the development of the fifth and final App. We created an integrated model for program delivery that is immersive, collaborative, and encourages co-creation and is built on two existing models - OSU's Precollege Programs' curriculum co-development and engagement model and 4-H's Teens as Teachers engagement model. A key outcome of this integrated model is of interest to multiple other entities interested in offering similar AR/VR learning experiences for their audiences and continuing to work with youth to co-create materials. The youth voices in the products represent a growing interest for experiential programs with youth for youth. Two unexpected but impactful results materialized from this growing interest: Another grant has been secured to develop another AR/VR app utilizing the assets and processes developed for DIVE4Ag. This new app will focus on ocean literacy, coastal community resilience, and disaster preparation. Director Rowe is a Co-Director on this project. Another grant proposal has been submitted because of industry partners' interest in the DIVE4Ag work. A USDA NIFA- AFRI grant - FANE (under review) was proposed to increase the number of high school youth, educators, and content and/or language experts in Washington, Puerto Rico, and Oregon with access to immersive, distance agriculture education using AR/VR tools and field experiences working directly with Yakama Nation community and youth, and Mayaguez, Puerto Rican youth to develop content, educational activities, and outreach materials designed to enhance youth understanding of agriculture technologies. Objective 4: Build in support for educators and youth to participate/collaborate. Nine educators and 23 youth have been monetarily supported to participate in the app development. A higher number of educators (177) who could not commit to fully becoming a DIVE4Ag educator, due to the negative effects of the pandemic, were also supported through the professional development events and dedicated attention to smaller parts of the project and to utilize the apps and accompanying curriculum once they are publicly released. Additionally, given the large number of OSU 4-H educators and professionals participating in the PD sessions, we are not allowed to pay participant support to those educators as they are OSU employees. While we originally intended to engage a large number of teens and educators in producing small, individual components that might or might not be included in apps or curricula or workshops, we decided instead to focus on having a small number of youth and educators deeply engaged in all aspects of the project. From this deeper engagement, we learned that educators wanted tools that would lead to long-term impact and use in their communities by their students. Second, we learned from focus groups and pre/post surveys with youth that they highly valued the co-creation experience. Specifically, they felt being immersed as co-creators in a technologically complex development process supported their 1) communication and public speaking skills, 2) teamwork and collaboration skills, 3) leadership skills, 4) building confidence/adaptability skills, 5) presentation skills, and 6) video and media production skills. With these findings in mind, we dedicated year 2 to design and release the apps and engage a second cohort of teens in co-creation via Teens and Teachers, which was not in the proposal original plan. To support educators in future use the DIVE4Ag Apps, we have begun to build supplemental curriculum lessons to utilize materials in the classroom in impactful ways with students. The AR/VR Apps are introductory experiences designed to spike interest. DIVE4Ag lesson plans will support application of the Apps content in educational settings. Objective 5. Year two: afterschool programming that will culminate in a virtual agricultural sciences challenge event for high school students. The weekly after school programming was imagined as a series of preparatory sessions offered online and afterschool with educator leaders and student teams to explore one of the five apps, create an additional educational element that could be added to one of the chosen app and showcase their creations. The design of this program and implementation started in the reporting period for year 2 (this report). Results will be posted on the next report. Another approach we took this year was a closer partnership with the OSU SMILE Program (Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences), which offers K-12 activities for underserved learners in rural parts of Oregon and professional development for educators. We took the completed apps and VR sets to SMILE-led Family Math and Science Nights in different communities and brought DIVE4Ag activities to their teacher workshop sessions twice a year, including lesson plans in development to be piloted. Objective 6. Virtual Beaver Hangouts programs where high school classrooms are paired with college students to learn about academic and career pathways in agricultural sciences. As explained in the year 1 report, the OSU Virtual Beaver Hangouts program was put on pause and the platform could not be utilized. We have given higher importance to the Teens as Teachers Training and have tried to develop a more intentional approach to substitute Beaver Hangouts with activities, including Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom. These activities have not proven feasible, due to continued hardship for participants after the pandemic. We feel like our Teens as Teachers program, the Science Cafes, intentional participation at SMILE teacher workshops, family math and science nights, and various youth events have given us other avenues to continue impacting our K-12 audiences while producing and delivering state of the art VR/AR materials.
Publications
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Progress 11/01/20 to 10/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:For the purpose of engaging with our served audiences, recruiting, and disseminating products we call our public facing effort The DIVE4Ag Project - an acronym for Distance, Immersive, Virtual Education for Agriculture Literacy. Finds us at DIVE4Ag https://dive4ag.oregonstate.edu. DIVE4Ag targets K-14 audiences for distance learning development and to deploy distance education programming for middle and high school age youth, educators and volunteers with regional impact in Oregon and Washington. For this reporting year (11/01/2020- 10/31/2021), find the audiences description and reach below: Middle and high school formal and informal educators (N= 73 directly reached) (n=48 participants in 3 info sessions + n=25 participants in 2 PD sessions) The impact of the Pandemic on schools, districts, students, families and educators, severely diminished the educator's capacity to engage in professional development (PD) and other non-essential activities in time of pandemic crisis and during the first year of this grant, despite the fact that this rapid response grant was designed to support them with "rapid" virtual opportunities. Educators were (and still are) completely overwhelmed and in too much distress to jump on board right away to receive curriculum and professional development by the time this project started on 11/01/2020. We delayed the start of our official professional development series to support educators and to increase chances of higher participation. We launched our Official Virtual Professional Development Series on 09/14/21 with the first training in a series of 10 (1.5hour) PD sessions offered to formal and informal middle and high school level educators in Oregon, Washington and beyond. Since the PD series started end of year, there were 2 PD sessions offered within the reporting period: 09/14/2021 Timelooper: Introduction to Xplore VR/AR tools and how you can use them.https://youtu.be/N8WlbodCVWA 10/26/2021 Timelooper: Working together to build AR/VR tools for your learners.https://youtu.be/pGWXM4I_Nqg Combined, these two sessions reached 25 educators directly, 6 of which attended both sessions for total of 3 contact hours each. Although over 45 educators registered to participate, only 25 showed up for these two sessions. From the total, 9 were formal educators in school classrooms, 13 were informal/4-H educators. 17 were located in Oregon, 3 in Washington, 1 in California, and 1 in a nationwide online education effort. 3 participants did not provide background information. Recorded videos of the sessions were added to our website and YouTube Channel (to date they total 37 views combined). Prior to kicking off our official PD series, we offered virtual informational/recruitment sessions that also reached formal and informal educators (see below). 12/2020 Reimagining Virtual reality Fieldtrips. https://youtu.be/wHM_RDHwkUU 01/2021 DIVE4Ag Teacher and student opportunities.https://youtu.be/1_hVsrDicjk 02/2021 DIVE4Ag Professional Development Workshop for 4-H Educators,Washington and Oregon 4-H Program. A total of 48 educators were reached, from those 4 were informal educators in Oregon interested in learning more about our project and the VR/AR opportunities, 14 were 4-H and educators and 30 were middle and high school educators in the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences program (SMILE) at Oregon State University (OSU), who run afterschool STEM clubs for underserved, low income, first generation, and other educationally disadvantaged students in rural school districts in Oregon. Recorded videos of the sessions were added to our website and YouTube Channel (to date they total 58 views combined). Professionals Groups/Individuals (N=75 directly reached). Informational, recruitment and update sessions about the DIVE4Ag project have reached a variety of professional groups interested in VR/AR education and the topics of the DIVE4Ag apps in development (1. Dairy farms and milk processing; 2. Agroecology; 3. Aquaculture; 4. Equestrian farm and stables; and 5. Rangeland and cattle raising). See list below: Oregon Sea Grant Professionals (n=25). OSG faculty and staff attended the Coffee with DIVE4Ag informational session as part at their Coffee with Colleagues series to learn about our DIVE4Ag aquaculture app. These professionals serve as a catalyst to promote discovery, understanding and resilience for Oregon coastal communities and ecosystems. 12/2020 Coffee with DIVE4Ag Oregon Sea Grant Info Session (13 views of recorded video) https://youtu.be/71BOAh6s2OU Larger Extension Professionals (n=10) reached through the North Willamette Region RECAN- Regional Extension Community Advisory Network. 4-H Professionals (n=140) reached through 4-H Monthly Meet-up, Oregon State 4-H Phoenix Coffee, Washington State 4-H Program update, 4-H Program Meeting at OSU Extension Annual Conference. Middle and High School Level Youth learners (N=13 reached directly) Similarly to educators, the Pandemic severely impacted youth learners, diminishing their capacity to engage in out of school education opportunities and presenting issues of accessibility with online learning despite the fact that this rapid response grant was designed to support them with "rapid" virtual opportunities. Teens as Teachers: The 13 youth reached directly by Year 1 programming were the participants in the DIVE4Ag Teens as Teachers codevelopment of content for the apps. In this program, high school youth work alongside agriculture professionals to co-create activities and virtual reality experiences for their peers. Teens have the opportunity to develop leadership and public speaking skills while gaining hands-on experience in different agriculture fields. The 13 DIVE4Ag Teens as Teachers in year 1 attended a set of virtual workshops, in-person field trips for collecting audio and video footage and interviewing agricultural scientists and professionals, and a weekend in-person retreat to build content and create holograms for the apps. The 13 teens also served as interviewers for the Ag Science Café professionals (N=8 interviews) and presented as part of Ag Science Café workshops (N=6). Industry Partners (N=10 reached to date). Industry partners are reached through the work done with project staff and Teens as Teachers in the development of the VR Field Trip Apps. We have worked with 8 industry partners to date ranging from small businesses to large farms, from for-profit companies to not for profit organizations. These include Threemile Canyon Farms Arbuthnot Dairy Center Portland Creamery Whiskey Creek Shellfish Hatchery Oregon Oyster Farms Oregon Dulse Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture. Yost Ranch Travis Wigen Performance Horses, LLC Timelooper Public Audiences (Ag Science Cafes and workshops) Our 14 webinars hosted on YouTube have been viewed a total of 433 times to date. Changes/Problems:It became clear very early on that because of the uncertainty, confusion, and fatigue caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic, school districts, educators, youth, and families were too overwhelmed and in too much distress to jump on board right away. This resulted in delays in implementation, initial low attendance at events, and some reluctance to commit to participation in long-term planning. It also resulted in challenges with scheduling all sites for VR/AR materials collection. In some cases this had to do with ongoing changes to state or local social distancing requirements and in all cases, COVID Protocols for any in-person activities for university personnel including travel caused us to lose some ideal times for filming. Similarly, challenges with our own team schedules due to COVID impact on work and family life were constant in the early parts of the project. Additionally, instead of being streamed live as had been the case before, Ag Science Cafes and workshops were recorded and made available as videos to address both youth safety concerns with live on-line programming and teacher/audience need for asynchronous programming because of the pandemic. This has allowed for easier archiving and greater access as well. Early in the process, needs assessment with target teachers, students, and professionals convinced us that there was little interest among audiences for a short-term, band-aid approach that would quickly provide virtual resources. Instead, we were encouraged to develop innovative programming that could be implemented in the long term for improving agricultural education and literacy, especially relative to careers regionally. At the same time, we saw that there would be great value in including youth themselves in all aspects of the program development and implementation. Thus, we focused our efforts to include teenagers in developing the content and look of apps from beginning to end. We also included the same youth in developing all other toolkit components, from Ag Science Cafes to newsletters and website content. Beyond the simple fact of carrying out a large, distributed project involving many people, most of whom had never worked together during the height of the pandemic, the project has faced a relatively small number of other implementation challenges due to the nature of university business. While this award was for a rapid response program, the university systems are simply not prepared for rapid "set up." It was a protracted process to get Timelooper brought on board by OSU. This put significant pressure on being able to produce apps in a timely manner in order to reach project outcomes in year 1. Additionally, because of delays in starting the teacher professional development, we missed the year 1 window for having their classrooms participate in the 6-week Beaver Hangouts program for 2020-2021. In the meantime, the Beaver Hangouts program has been put on hold due to low use during the pandemic. Since it will likely change in a new iteration, we are working this year with our OAITC/WAITC partners to develop a similar effort with their teacher audiences. Finally, a change not precipitated by a challenge: Our official grant proposal title is "Physically Distant yet Socially Connected: Exploring Agriculture through Immersive Field Experiences and Innovative Solutions", which is a little too long and cumbersome for communications, marketing and branding purposes. For the purpose of engaging with our served audiences, recruiting, and disseminating products we call our public facing effort The DIVE4Ag Project - an acronym for Distance, Immersive, Virtual Education for Agriculture Literacy. Find us at DIVE4Ag @ https://dive4ag.oregonstate.edu. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Six-week Teens as Teachers Training program incorporating field trips to sites for video collection and interviewing and a two-day in-person retreat through which 13 youth workedwith agricultural scientists, programmers, professionals, communicators, and educators to design the VR/AR field experiences by identifying learning outcomes, key facts and topics associated with those, storyboards to inform media collection (videos, photos, animations) in the field sites, and writing, directing and recording components as well as carrying out interviews and background research.agricultural scientists and professionals to design and produce the VR/AR field experiences as well as carrying out interviews and background research. 3 virtual Informational Workshops and 2 professional development opportunities for educators (1.5 hours each out of 10 scheduled) https://dive4ag.oregonstate.edu/educators-professional-development How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project staff were interviewed for radio and website dissemination by the Pacific Northwest Ag Network (https://www.pnwag.net/2021/03/02/ag-distance-toolkit-allows-young-people-to-learn-about-the-farm-during-pandemic/) Presentations were made to Elevate Extension Keynote Talk at the 2021 OSU Annual Extension Conference:Youth Co-Creation: Diving into Immersive Agriculture Virtual Experiences,Dr. Kristen Moore,4-HYouth Development, Campbell Family Small and Companion Animal 4-H Program Faculty, DIVE4Ag 4-H Program Coordinator Oregon Sea Grant staff through their monthly Coffee with Colleagues Seminar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71BOAh6s2OU ) Extension faculty through appearances at one of the monthly conversations with the Vice Provost of Extension and Engagement. Additionally all project events/opportunities are archived and available for view on the project website, disseminate through our OSU calendar of events and media platforms automatically. Additionally, the project team disseminates opportunities via our larger partner networks such asthe OSU SMILE Program (over 40 educators)and Precollege Programs networks (multiple educator partner networks, yourth programing lists and community partners, see thishandout for audience reach),Oregon and Washington Agriculture in the Classroom (over 2,000 educators), 4-H educator networks, as well assmaller listserves within our internal and externalnetwroks and listserves(e.g. OSU Precollege Education Network -OPEN; Oregon Natural Resource Education Program - ONREP; Oregon Farm to school and School Garden Network; OSU Juntos Program; Portland Public Schools CTE and other school districts; Oregon Food Corps; Oregon STEM Beyond Schools Network; Multnomah SUN schools network; Portland Children Levy community partners network). App information is also disseminated via the Timelooper platform. *All products created as part of the DIVE4g effor will be freely available on our website and in the Timelooper app platform. The partnership with Oregon Agroculture in the Classroom and both Oregon and Washington 4-H allows dissemination and support of educators in thenetwrok to ulitize the Apps and build continuity in their classrooms. The DIVE4Ag website also provides the platforl where educators, youth and familiesin Oregon, Washington and beyond can access our products and supplementary materials. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Beta testing of 4 existing apps and development of 5th. 8 remaining professional development sessions. Continued use of social media and website to develop audience and partnerships. Second round of Teens as Teachers Training program completed with associated app development, Ag Science Cafes, and Ag Science Workshops. Develop a subsitute program to replace Beaver Hangouts. VR Kits put together for distribution in Oregon and Washington through County basedExtension offices and 4-H partners. Middle and High School Lesson Plans and Activites that complement the apps for use in classrooms.Development of a food and artisan cheese industry video funded by leveraged sources. Development of virutal day-long challenge event for high school youth. Curated suite of other resources that are copmlementary to the topics of the 5 apps presented on website. Conference presentations of products and findings. Build new partnership and funding structure for sattelite projects that spring from this and further app development.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
DIVE4Agproject brings state-of-the-art technology to agriculture education in the Pacific Northwest to provide immersive experiences for middle and high school Pacific Northwest youth and educators to explore agriculture, including virtual reality and online activities that they help create themselves. Experiences range from half-hour virtual interactive agriculture activities to a full-day, statewide, virtual challenge event in the second year. The full DIVE4Ag Agricultural Toolkit includes six components, the first 4 of which were offered and/or initiatedin year 1 and are outlined in this report: Virtual/augmented (VR/AR) reality field experiences immersing users inequestrian, urban organic, and oyster farms as well as a dairy farm and milk processor. Four out 5 experiences planned, content developed and media materials collected. A project tailored Teens as Teachers training program through which youth work with agricultural scientists and professionals to design and produce elements of the VR/AR field experiences (they became narrators, holograms, etc.). Virtual Ag Science Cafes and workshops led by Teens as Teacher graduates where youth have the opportunity to engage in virtual conversations with agricultural STEM professionals to learn from lively discussions and hands-on activities. Professional development opportunities for educators from formal and informal contexts to incorporate project toolkit components in their teaching and programming. Weekly after school programming in year 2 that will culminate in a virtual agricultural sciences challenge event for high school students. Virtual Beaver Hangouts programs in year 2 where high school classrooms are paired with college students to learn about academic and career pathways in agricultural sciences. In year 1, the project trained 13 youth to work with project staff and partners to develop 4 of the 5 VR/AR field experiences all of which have been built as beta versions. The teens also produced 6 half-hour Ag Science Cafes and an additional 6 Ag Science Cafe Workshops for use at home or in classrooms. 3 informational sessions all delivered virtually for formal (classroom) and informal (4-H) educators in Washington and Oregon (51 attendees) as well as 2 professional development workshops were offered with over 60 educators registering, 25 actually participant, of which asmaller number of those teachers (6-10)have committed to implement the VR/AR experiences as part of their participation in the year 2 virtual challenge activity. Project activities are designed to help educators, students, and trained volunteers build relevant agriculture knowledge and skills through activities exploring different kinds of agricultural practices. They equip those involved with new communication tools to promote meaningful participation and impactful learning in virtual environments and with innovative technology in the context of teaching about agricultural sciences and careers. The project's overall goal is to provide immediate, innovative, authentic and immersive distance agriculture education to middle and high school learners, educators and trained volunteers in Oregon and Washington, addressing urgent needs and growing demands of these audiences in the aftermath of the COVID-19 health crisis and rapidly changing schooling systems adopting distance education measures. Objective 1: Implement virtual, immersive agriculture curriculum.Year 1 major activities included 1) development of 4 of 5 virtual/augmented reality field experiences in equestrian, urban, and oyster farms as well as a dairy farm and milk processor; 2) a six week Teens as Teachers training program incorporating field trips to sites for video collection and interviewing and a two-day in-person retreat through which 13 youth worked with agricultural scientists and professionals to design and produce the VR/AR field experiences; 3) Virtual Ag Science Cafes and workshops led by Teens as Teacher graduates recorded and posted on the project website; 4) 3 informational sessions and 2 out of 10 scheduledprofessional development opportunities for educators. Objective 2: Develop and launch virtual field trips.The focus of the Teens as Teachers training program was for the 13 youth to work with agricultural scientists, programmers, professionals, communicators, and educators to help co-design the VR/AR field experiences. The long process of designing and planning these AR/VR experiences (the DIVE4Ag apps) includedidentifying learning outcomes, key facts and topics associated with those, storyboards to inform media collection (videos, photos, animations) in the field sites, and writing, directing and recording components as well as carrying out interviews and background research. Youth and project staff learned to use new technologies including 360 cameras, drones, and how to build 3D models and holograms through their direct work with Timelooper. Through this process, participating youth and theproject teambecame comfortable as producers of educational media and programming for youth and educators, mastering technological and content knowledge and skills directly applicable to 21st century agricultural careers. The result are state of the art AR/VR apps accessible to all. A key finding from year 1 was that the project timeline, budget, and deliverables needed to be flexible to incorporate technological possibilities as the field (VR/AR) rapidly advances. Early in year 1, we learned that delivery of the apps via handheld devices was a much more sustainable model of delivery and maintenance as opposed to use of Oculus VR gear as the primary delivery mechanism. Objective 3: Integrate the engagement model of Precollege Programs and Oregon's 4-H Teens as Teachers model.Major activities completed: We created an integrated model for program delivery that is immersive, collaborative, and encourages co-creation and is built on two existing models - OSU's Precollege Programs' curriculum co-development and engagement model and 4-H's Teens as Teachers engagement model. A key outcome of this integrated model is interest from multiple other entities in recreating similar processes and products in their disciplines for similar AR/VR learning experiences for their audiences and continue to work with youth to co-create materials. The youth voices in the products represent a growing interest for experiential programs with youth for youth. Objective 4: Build in support for educators and youth to participate/collaborate.To date, 6 educators and 13 youth have been monetarily supported to participate in the app development. A higher number of educators who could not commit to fully become a DIVE4Ag educator, were also supported through the PDs and dedicated attention to smaller parts of the project and to utilize the apps and accompanying curriculumonce they are publicly released.Whereas we originally intended to engage a large number of teens and educators in producing small, individual components that might or might not be included in apps or curricula or workshops, we decided instead to focus on having a small number of youth and educators deeply engaged in all aspects of the project. From this deeper engagement, we learned that educators were not interested in "band-aids" to support them as educators through the pandemic via a plethora of virtual programing options. Instead, they wanted tools that would lead to long term impact and use in their communities by their students. Second, we learned from focus groups and pre/post surveys with youth that they highly valued the co-creation experience. Specifically, they felt being immersed as co-creators in a technologically complex development process supported their 1) communication and public speaking skills, 2) teamwork and collaboration skills, 3) leadership skills, 4) building confidence/adaptability skills, 5) presentation skills, and 6). video and media production skills.
Publications
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