Source: UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE submitted to
4-H NORTHEAST COLLABORATIVE: CLOSING THE GAP
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1024992
Grant No.
2021-67037-33475
Project No.
110376
Proposal No.
2020-09648
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
A7701
Project Start Date
Jan 1, 2021
Project End Date
Dec 31, 2023
Grant Year
2021
Project Director
Guerdat, K.
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
51 COLLEGE RD SERVICE BLDG 107
DURHAM,NH 03824
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
It is widely understood that access to technologies for learning, including high speed internet, is not equitably distributed. The 'Digital Divide' between minority, poor and underserved students and their peers has been studied at least since 1998. These challenges have been exacerbated by remote learning and the heightened anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Closing the Gap aims to address the double-barrier of low-income levels and local infrastructure issues that rural students regularly face.Rural elementary educators, who also face issues of connectivity, are now tasked with addressing existing issues (i.e., implementing effective science curriculum with challenged learners) in unfamiliar remote delivery methods. As it is, science is often the most difficult subject for many elementary educators to deliver effectively. As the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shift to remote learning have caused losses in academic and SEL development for students around the world, younger students in vulnerable or underserved rural populations have been disproportionately affected. Issues such as learning loss and mental health issues caused by social isolation and home-based trauma (increased depression, anxiety; decreased engagement and self-motivation) have deepened the disparity gaps (Brown, et. al., 2020). As a result, rural youth are falling farther behind their more privileged peers.To address the academic and social issues stemming from the Covid 19 pandemic, the 4-H NEC proposes a unique model that infuses SEL and trauma-informed teaching practices to build resilience through a Whole Child approach to virtual learning. the 4-H NEC proposes a unique model that takes into account three specific COVID-related needs: (1) student participation impacted by inequitable internet access, (2) teacher instructional challenges caused by rapid transitions to distance learning, and (3) youth social-emotional health dependent on whole-child belonging-oriented experiences.Through a 'flipped' 4-H school enrichment approach, 4-H Agri-STEM professionals will work alongside educators, utilizing a 'just in time' training model to address challenges caused by the move to virtual learning. The 4-H NEC project will provide educators with distance education curriculum and training as well as Agri-STEM Mentors to assist with distance, in-class lessons based on AFRI's food and agriculture priority areas.In addition, in response to these academic and SEL needs of rural youth, the Closing the Gap Initiative will rapidly deploy "E-mentorship" strategies, combining innovative E-mentorship methods with engaging educational content in agriscience. Through the use of Agri-STEM Mentors, students will experience a greater sense of belonging in their virtual educational space and support for their future academic and career pathways.The 4-H NEC 's Closing the Gap initiative will enhance educators capacity to support student outcomes during a time when youth are being challenged academically, socially, and emotionally. Through innovative distance active learning models, youth will not only get to interact virtually with peers and their educators, but will develop life skills essential for building resilient youth and thriving communities. During this time of Covid-enforced isolation, 4-H is positioned to reach into families' homes to support home-based youth development. Even more important than the learning experiences themselves, is the sense of belonging that comes from relationships with positive adult and peer mentors, which truly moves the needle on addressing the negative impacts of COVID -19 on children's mental and physical health and wellbeing.As a gateway to future opportunities within the agriscience field, Closing the Gap will engage industry partners to help forge the connection between youth and businesses while introducing corporate leaders to their future workforce. From reading stories to creating videos, agriscience organizational leaders will be asked to help support lessons designed to tie classrooms to the food and agriculture systems industry.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
80660990001100%
Knowledge Area
806 - Youth Development;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
0001 - Administration;
Goals / Objectives
The overarching goal of this project is to address the negative impacts stemming from COVID-19 on rural educators and students through the use of enriched 4-H active learning experiences combined with handheld technology for enhanced connectedness.The 4-H NEC's macro objective is to address the educational challenges stemming from COVID-19 through the expansion of the traditional 4-H school enrichment model to a 100% remote learning support system for educators. The micro-objectives designed to support the overarching goal and macro objective are:Increase rural educator capacity for delivering 100% remote AgriSTEM learning experiences through training, volunteer support, and classroom resources.Increase equity and access to educational technology for rural youth and educators through the development of local Tablet loan programs.Enhanced connectedness and sense of belonging for students through the use of remote, hands-on educational experiences.Build resiliency in youth through an intentional 'whole child' centered program design.Provide rural youth with classroom mentors who are able to consistently support them in managing their online learning and life skill development.Increased local Agricultural industry partners to help forge the connection between businesses and their community youth as evidenced by increased participation of business leaders in local classrooms
Project Methods
Through an enhanced 4-H school enrichment distance learning model, the 4-H NEC will provide curricular support and training to rural educators throughout NH, VT, and ME. The collaborative will support educators through innovative, flipped, educational approaches complete with student tablets, experiential curriculum, and virtual mentoring from 4-H Agri-STEM Mentors.Through the use of Samsung tablets equipped with various synchronous and asynchronous learning tools (i.e. Photovoice, Flipgrid, Seesaw, etc.) the 4-H NEC will connect youth through the virtual classroom to their educators, peers, and larger community. Enhanced connectedness will emerge from student use of integrated technology and a suite of apps designed to facilitate collecting, processing and sharing of information. Tablets will bridge the gap created by classrooms that do not allow in person collaboration or sharing of materials. Using apps such as Google Science Journal, Google Classroom, See Saw and others, students can quickly snap and share photos of their work, video recordings of their ideas and even their written observations of phenomena.The 4-H NEC initiative will enhance existing and newly developed curriculum to include a 100% distance-based support option. While the 4-H NEC team has already begun this process with two programs (4-H: Food Systems Feed Us and 4-H: Cultivating Roots- An Introduction to Hydroponics andFood Systems Feed Us) project efforts will be to further adapt additional 4-H curriculum for the distance learning environment including STEMgineering, Ag in a Box, and Growing a Pizza Garden. Each of these programs have been piloted and will be strengthened by infusing virtual, active learning principles to encourage youth's independent, at-home, learning.The 4-H NEC efforts will enable them to work alongside rural educators to deliver hands-on, distance learning for students in grades 2nd -6th, pairing them with 4-H Agri-STEM mentors who will help facilitate the distance learning experience. Mentors will hold zoom sessions weekly during which students and educators will engage in agriscience lessons designed to connect 4-H Agri-STEM Mentors with educators AND students. Each student will receive a curriculum kit at their home containing all necessary materials for each lesson's active learning component. The 'in-home' experience supports content skill and knowledge development, but also creates a mechanism for discourse, enhancing essential future 21st Century workforce skills such as critical thinking, communication, and time management.As many rural school districts do not have access to technology devices for all of their students, the 4-H NEC has established a community- based tablet loan program for student use during the 4-H experience. As some youth may not have consistent access to the internet, all lessons will be pre-loaded with instructional videos and required applications for youth to remotely participate. Local 4-H professionals will work with the families to help upload reflections (photos and journals) as needed as well as help establish hotspots at the local 4-H program offices.Educators who engage in the project will attend a virtual training with 4-H Curriculum specialists and 4-H Agri-STEM Mentors one month prior to implementation. 4-H Agri-STEM Mentors will use zoom classroom sessions to model best practices for educators on how to establish belonging in the distance learning space. The mentors will meet with the educators periodically to measure progress and to provide additional support. While additional training on curriculum kits and technical assistance is provided at no-cost by the local 4-H program, educators will be limited to only 1 fully grant supported curriculum kit experience per academic year. Limiting participation to new educators each semester helps to ensure as many educators will be trained and the most youth reached as possible. In order to sustain the mentor relationship beyond the curriculum experience, each educator will also be paired with a Agri-STEM Mentor volunteer for future 4-H curriculum implementation. Trained by 4-H Curriculum specialists and 4-H Agri-STEM Mentor leads, 4-H Agri-STEM Volunteers are matched to educator needs as appropriate.Evaluation:The 4-H NEC will use both formative and summative assessment processes and tools to help inform future implementations of the remote delivery of school enrichment support. For educator impact assessment, a pre-post survey will be used to determine knowledge and skill development, providing both formative and summative information. Educators will complete the pre- survey during initial curriculum training. Post 4-H school enrichment experience, educators will report on level of self-perceived skill and knowledge gained, future training needs and overall satisfaction with the 4-H remote School Enrichment experience. NH 4-H Agri-STEM professionals currently use an educator impact survey which will be modified to capture educators skill and knowledge change within distance teaching techniques.The assessment of youth (student) outcomes will include a pre-post survey model and 'in-class' observations recorded by 4-H STEM Mentors and educators. As with the educator survey process, the pre-post survey tools will be utilized to indicate change needed for future implementation as well as to capture the overall semester experience of the youth. Classroom educators and 4-H Agri-STEM Mentors will meet weekly post zoom sessions to discuss observations of student engagement and learning throughout the experience. Final curriculum project grade will be used as a summative tool to highlight areas of student knowledge and skill development as well as aspirational change.

Progress 01/01/21 to 12/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the Northeast Collaborative 'Closing the Gap' initiative were youth in rural communities that were initially remote learners due to the Covid pandemic in early 2021. In addition the audience included educators with limited skill and knowledge in teaching the principles of AgriScience in 4th-8th grade classrooms. During the summer months the NEC targeted underserved migrant populations throughout Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. In an effort to futher reach remote populations, the New Hampshire contingent of the NEC collaborated with the NH Virtual Learning Academy (VLAC) to provide support to virtual formal classrooms. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The 4-H NEC 'Closing the Gap' initiative established a model for training and engaging educators in AgriScience literacy teaching modalities in both virtual and traditional learning environments. The New Hampshire 4-H Youth Development utilized the lessons learned from this experience and have created additional Agricultural literacy educator trainings as a result, specifically in the areas of Sugaring and Pollinators. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results of the 4-H Closing the Gap initiative were shared with Extension professionals nationally through the National 4-H Professional Association conference as well as the Northeast Regional communication channels. Final publications will be developed by Summer 2024 with results being disseminated to School Systems throughout the New England, Extension partners nationally, as well as USDA partners. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? In the final year of the 4-H NEC 'Closing the Gap' initiative over 470 youth reached, with the total project period serving over 1,200 underserved, rural students. As a result, we were able to enhance the connectedness and sense of belonging for students to their adult mentors (educators) as well as expose them to the field of Agriculture as a future career path. Over the course of the grant period the 4-H NEC supported the development of over 100 educators, collaborating with new partners such as the Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE) and offered teacher interns AgriScience curriculum, training, and the materials. In addition, the New Hampshire Virtual Learning Academy engaged with the project as a way to expand virtual, hands-on offerings specifically in the area that is lacking- Agriculture Science. The 'whole child' centered approach has been replicated throughout other 4-H programming as a result of the grant, bringing together positive adults with youth to grow their spark and passion in AgriScience. To increase reach and access the Collaborative expanded the non-english curriculum offerings translating learning materials into not only Spanish but also Zimbabwe to support the influx of refugees youth coming to the Northeast. The addition of the handheld technology was challenging at the onset of the project as the school systems were beginning to return to traditional classrooms and tablets were not seen as necessary. The 4-H NEC team pivoted and instead focused heavily on using the tablets within teacher trainings and to enhance the agriscience experience for youth.

Publications


    Progress 01/01/22 to 12/31/22

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Over the past year, the 4-H NEC Collaborative continued to reach thetargeted audience of rural youth within grades 2nd through 6th and began to expand to middle school grades of 6th-8ththroughout the states of New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. The initiative reached 475 youth during the 2022-2023 program year. Of the 475 youth, the initiative reached 90migrant youth within the designated rural communities during the summer of 2022. In addition to the targeted youth population, the 4-H NEC initiative reached 38educators in the targeted rural audience. Changes/Problems:No major changes at this time. All efforts have aligned with initial proposed project What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The past year project impact metrics have been shared with the school districts supporting the 4-H NEC initiative as well as Cooperative Extension leadership teams. Due to the unforeseen delay in project start date (delayed funding) final results will be provided and disseminated 1-3 months post final session implementation (December 2023). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The 4-H NEC team intends to continue to provide support to the targeted audiences by reaching new classrooms and identifying new AgriScience Mentor volutneers to support the 4-H AgriScience learning experiences. Additional marketing materials will be developed to increase engagement from industry partners for voluntneer opportunites as well as resource identification and growth. Curriculum will be continually reviewed and adapted with student and educator feedback to ensure a quality postiive youth development experience is provided and supported by the 4-H NEC team.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? The residualimpacts stemming from COVID-19 on rural educators and students were addressed through the use of continued enriched 4-H active learning experiences as volunteers were recruited to enter classrooms to enhance connectedness within the space and curricular experience.Rural educator capacity for delivering AgriSTEM learning experiences overall continued to be suported through the support of in-class AgriSTEM mentors and volunteers who delivered the curriculum experience to classroom youth. As with the first year of implementation, training was provided to all educators and volunteers on the curriculum as well as best practices for delivering agri-science experiential learning experiences. The 'whole child' centered approach continued to be the central focus of the learning experience and further unfused into the previouslyestablished and newly created 4-H AgriScience curriculum which included the best practices of social-emotional learning as well as utilizing project-based learning models that supports all student learning modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic). The initiatives continues to develop local Agricultural industry partners to help forge the connection between businesses and their community youth as the 3rd and final year of implementation will be heavily focused on recruiting additional classroom volunteers.

    Publications


      Progress 01/01/21 to 12/31/21

      Outputs
      Target Audience:Over the past year, the 4-H NEC Collaborative reached over 820 youth in the targeted audience of rural youth within grades 2nd through 6th throughout the states of New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. Of the 820 youth, the initiative reached 151 migrant youth within the designated rural communitiesduring the summer of 2021. In addition to the targeted youth population, the 4-H NEC initiative reached 30 educators in the targetedrural audience. Changes/Problems:No major changes at this time. All efforts have aligned with initial proposed project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?All classroom educators, AgriScience mentors, and volunteers received training in support of the project. Training was provided on the curricularcontent and supportive learning kits, best practicesin social-emotional learning, utilization of educational technology,as well as overall introduction to 4-H positive development school enrichment. Training was provided at the onset for all of the above mentioned project members as well as offered throughout the spring, summer, and fall sessions. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?At this time, results have been shared with the school districts supporting the 4-H NEC initiative as well as Cooperative Extension leadership teams as results are preliminary and continually being assessed. Final results will be provided and disseminated 1-3 months post final session implementation (December 2022). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The 4-H NEC team intends to continue to provide support to the targeted audiences by reaching new classrooms and identifying new AgriScience Mentor volutneers to support the 4-H AgriScience learning experiences. Additional marketing materials will be developed to increase engagement from industry partners for voluntneer opportunites as well as resource identification and growth. Curriculum will be continually reviewed and adapted with student and educator feedback to ensure a quality postiive youth development experience is provided and supported by the 4-H NEC team.

      Impacts
      What was accomplished under these goals? Major accomplishments of the 4-H NEC initiative during this reporting period included the following. The negative impacts stemming from COVID-19 on rural educators and students were addressed through the use of enriched 4-H active learning experiences combined with handheld technology for enhanced connectedness.Rural educator capacity for deliveringremote AgriSTEM learning experiences was enhanced through the support of in-class AgriSTEM mentors and volunteers who delivered the curriculum experience to classroom youth. Training was provided to all educators and volunteers on the curriculum as well as best practices for delivering agri-science experiential learning experiences. Samsung tablets loaded with the 4-HAgriScience lessons were provided (on loan) to all students to Increase equity and access to educational technology. the tablets improvedconnectedness and sense of belonging for students as they provided opportunities for remote, hands-on educational experiences. The 'whole child' centered approach was established through the use of the newly developed 4-H AgriScience curriculum which included the best practicesof social-emotional learningas well as utilizing project-based learning models that supports all student learning modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic). The initiatives continues to develop local Agricultural industry partners to help forge the connection between businesses and their community youth as the 2nd year of implementation will be heavily focused on recruiting industry partners as classroom volunteers.

      Publications