Recipient Organization
CARTERET COMMUNITY COLLEGE
3505 ARENDELL ST
MOREHEAD CITY,NC 285572905
Performing Department
Aquaculture
Non Technical Summary
The goal of Carteret Community College's project is to increase the number of people entering the workforce with education and training in the field of aquaculture and improve the preparedness of Carteret Community College Aquaculture program graduates. This project is necessary, because aquaculture is the fastest growing sector of food production in the world. With industry growth comes an increased demand for a skilled workforce. This project will teach educators about the aquaculture field, provide access to beginning-level aquaculture courses to local high school students, provide valuable commercial industry experience to students, and improve the Carteret Community College curriculum.Many people in the community don't understand what aquaculture is, what is involved in aquaculture education, and the employment opportunities available in the field. The College will offer a hands-on professional development opportunity that will target high school guidance counselors, administrators and teachers. The College will work with the Carteret County Public School administration to identify key staff to participate in the professional development opportunity. The individuals who participate in the event will be able to provide students with an authentic description of the program and the career opportunities it can provide.This project will allow the College to hire an instructor to teach beginning level aquaculture courses on the campuses of two local high schools, East Carteret High School and Croatan High School. By teaching on the campus of the high schools, the College will remove all barriers for the students such as transportation, scheduling conflicts and after-school activities. It will offer students the opportunity to earn college credits tuition-free and will allow them to enter the aquaculture workforce at a younger age .In addition, this grant will offer paid apprenticeships for Carteret Community College Aquaculture at local businesses. Not only will the students gain valuable experirence, but the apprenticeships will offer local businesses additional help at no charge. Lastly, the project will add advanced technologies for automation and monitoring to the Carteret Community College Aquaculture Technology curriculum.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Goal: Increase the number of people entering the workforce with education and training in thefield of aquaculture and improve the preparedness of Carteret Community College (CCC)Aquaculture program graduates.Project objectives:Improve the awareness of Aquaculture education and training opportunities among highschool guidance counselors, administrators, and teachers.Remove barriers to Carteret County Public School students wishing to begin the college-levelaquaculture program through dual-enrollment.Provide paid apprenticeships in the commercial sector to aquaculture students.Add advanced technologies for automation and monitoring to the Carteret CommunityCollege Aquaculture Technology curriculum.
Project Methods
Objective 1 Improve the awareness of Aquaculture education and training opportunities among high school guidance counselors, administrators, and teachers.To facilitate the enrollment of more students into an aquaculture career pipeline, CCC proposes to offer "Splash into Aquaculture" (Splash) professional development sessions specifically geared toward high school and college counselors, advisors, instructors, and staff- the gatekeepers who help connect students to college and career programs. The primary purpose of Splash is to introduce CCC's Aquaculture Technology program to these key staff by allowing them to do some of the hands-on learning activities that students experience. The Splash program will:Familiarize participants with the learning environments and lessons typical to the Aquaculture program.Develop relationships between participants and CCC Aquaculture program staff.Build momentum in connecting high school students to CCC Aquaculture and increase program enrollment and completers.Because the target audience is well defined, the investigator can work with the senior administration at CCC and each of the three county high schools to identify the participants who have the greatest potential impact on student recruitment to the CCC Aquaculture program. Ten participants will participate in each session. CCC will hold these workshops twice a year during days designated by Carteret County Public Schools for professional development or during summer break when a large number of participants are available. The CCC Corporate and Community Education Division's website will house the course registration form and track enrollment and attendance. A stipend paid to participants will increase the percentage of the gatekeeper staff to attend a session.At each session, participants will take a preliminary survey to assess their understanding of the CCC Aquaculture program curriculum, credentials, and employment opportunities in the field as well as gather information about how they advise students. At the end of the session, they will be asked similar questions and provide feedback on the parts of the workshop that were most beneficial and where there is room for improvement. Additional data will be gathered from student applications to the college where students are asked "where did you hear about this program?". Each year, we will compare the data to the three years prior to the start of the Splash program to see if an increased number of students mention that they learned about CCC Aquaculture from one of the gatekeeper positions targeted by this program.Objective 2 Remove barriers to Carteret County Public School students wishing to begin college-level aquaculture program through dual-enrollment.Carteret County Public School students can participate in the Career and College Promise (CCP) dual-enrollment program, which allows high school students to enroll in community college courses and earn high school and college credits simultaneously tuition-free. During the project period, the College will develop the facilities and teach Aquaculture I: Introduction to Aquaculture and Aquaculture Practicum I, the companion hands-on skills training during course at Croatan High School in Newport, NC and East Carteret High School in Beaufort, NC. Providing introductory Aquaculture courses directly in the high schools will:Remove logistical barriers for students interested in taking Aquaculture classesRecruit students into the CCC Aquaculture Program and aquaculture career pipelineAllow students to enter the aquaculture workforce at a younger age.The College will hire an additional faculty member to focus on the instruction of introductory courses. Instructor will have duties as an academic advisor and be a strong liaison at the high school so that students can recruit into the degree, diploma, and certificate programs. The instructor, with the assistance of the PI and high school staff, will set up and outfit the lab for teaching Aquaculture Practicum I. Once established, this course can be taught regularly at the school every year or every semester based on the demand. We will evaluate student learning with the assessments built into the course. We will evaluate instructor performance and course content and structure using the course evaluation delivered to students toward the end of each course. We will also meet with administrators before and after each course offering to assess how well we are meeting the needs of students in regards to scheduling and continuity with the high schools and we will evaluate enrollment numbers to determine the optimal frequency and number of sections to offer at each location.Objective 3Provide paid apprenticeships in the commercial sector to aquaculture students.Utilizing established connections with the industry, CCC will administer a paid apprenticeship program that will:Allow students to gain real world experience at an aquaculture facilityEstablish relationships between students and commercial producersEarn students credit towards an Associate's degree in Aquaculture TechnologyProvide labor assistance to the farmers at no cost during the training period.Within the CCC Aquaculture curriculum students take a two-credit course for work experience or an independent project. At the start of a semester, a student will be paired with an employer. They will meet and both will be required to sign an agreement that lists the expectations of the apprenticeship. The student will work with the farmer (a minimum of 100 hours for the semester) and a timesheet will be signed by student and employer. The employer will be asked to complete an evaluation. Once the department chair receives these documents, a $1500 stipend will be dispersed to the student through the College Business Office (cashier). Individual student performance evaluations completed by employers will assess each student's ability to be effective in the workplace. Course evaluations completed by students will assess the structure and functionality of the apprenticeship program. The PI will also gather data on the process of placement and selection of apprentices and the tracking of hours.Objective 4Add advanced technologies for automation and monitoring to the CCC Aquaculture Technology curriculum.CCC Information Technology faculty will help develop course modules that can provide Aquaculture students the technical skills needed to design, build, and operate automated systems. These systems will be incorporated into the CCC Aquaculture facility and systems so that students will gain experience with automated system operation and be exposed to some applications for the technology. The modules developed will prepare students to:Build and operate water-quality sensors that can be monitored remotelyInstall and operate automated-system components such as mechanical valves controlled by microcomputersThe funds provided in this grant will be used to provide a stipend to CCC IT Faculty to develop a theory module for students enrolled in the Aquaculture Facilities course that introduces students to the following concepts:Different types of hardware available for automating and monitoring aquaculture systemsBasic electrical theory and signalingProcess control logisticsApplications for the technology in aquacultureAdditional project funds will be used to purchase the supplies to create kits for teachers and students in the Aquaculture Practicum III course. The kit will include the boards, controllers, sensors, and equipment to complete two automation projects during the semester: one for automating a process, the other assembling a remote monitoring platform using pre-developed scripts. The curriculum modules will include assessments in the form of written assignments as well as graded projects involving assembly of products. The kits and the curriculum modules will be assessed by CCC Aquaculture staff to improve the modules.