Source: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA submitted to
SEEDS4LIFE: STUDENT LEARNING COMMUNITIES ON FOOD SYSTEMS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1028135
Grant No.
2022-67037-36614
Cumulative Award Amt.
$696,737.00
Proposal No.
2021-10339
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jan 1, 2022
Project End Date
Dec 31, 2026
Grant Year
2022
Program Code
[A7401]- Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates
Project Director
Andrade, J. M.
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
G022 MCCARTY HALL
GAINESVILLE,FL 32611
Performing Department
Food Science & Human Nutrition
Non Technical Summary
The Seeds4Life program aims at educating the next generation offood systemsleaders byenhancingstudents' (n=60) technical and interpersonal skillsand knowledge about food systems.Each year we will 1) recruit 10 diverse students (UF = 5; FAMU = 5) to cultivate a student learning environment to address challenges within the food systems in an effort to improve health, 2) provide students with foundational knowledge and experiential domestic and international opportunities to foster collaboration and transdisciplinary approaches, and 3) provide students with personal and professional opportunities to enhance their cultural competence, teamwork and leadership skills for their personal and career needs. Students will interact with researchers, extension specialists, stakeholders, and other students through a series of research and extension activities that will include an introductory 16-week, 3 credit hours course, a 6-week hands-on research and extension domestic experience that includes weekly 1-hour brown bag discussions, an optional 2-week extensive research internship abroad, a service-learning project through the student organization club, and dissemination of their results through on-campus and professional conferences and peer-reviewed publications. We expect that students will 1) provide solutionsto minimize issues surrounding food systems, 2) develop technical, interpersonal, cross-cultural, teamworkand leadershipskills, 3) illustrate, in terms accessible to the public,clearand effective responses to proposed approaches, policies, or practices that addresschallenges associated with current food systems, and 4) engage in personaland professional experiences with a focus on foods systems to enrich critical thinking skills for prospective careers or to pursue graduate degrees.
Animal Health Component
85%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
5%
Applied
85%
Developmental
10%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
7246099101070%
5017410202010%
3073999101020%
Goals / Objectives
The overall goal of this Seeds4Life program proposal is to educate the next generation of food systems leaders by enhancing students' technical and interpersonal skills and knowledge about food systems. This goal will be achieved with the following program objectives: 1) form student learning communities that include marginalized students and raise multicultural awareness of food systems, and 2) broaden students' perspectives from local, to regional, to international, on food, environment, health, economic, and societal issues. The specific student learning objectives are to: 1) provide solutions to minimize issues surrounding food systems; 2) develop technical, interpersonal, crosscultural, teamwork and leadership skills; 3) illustrate, in terms accessible to the public, clear, and effective responses to proposed approaches, policies, or practices that address issues related to food systems; and 4) compose personal and professional experiences towards the foods systems to enrich critical thinking skills for prospective careers or to pursue graduate degrees.
Project Methods
This program will consist of a 2-part required and two additional encouraged experiences. Part I is a traditional 16-week semester course, 3-credit hours, in which students (n=10) will learn about food systems and participate in experiential learning through assignments and field trips. Part II is a domestic learning experience. Over the summer, students (n=10) will spend 6-weeks, 0-3 credit hours, at a domestic internship - field & fork campus gardens or conducting research with faculty at UF or FAMU. To enhance the student learning community, a Seeds4Life Food Systems student service-learning organizational club will be formed. For students who are interested in learning more about food systems abroad, through an application process, students can participate in an intensive international research experience. Currently, our team manages three international experiences that focus on nutrition, health, and food systems - Community Nutrition in Quito, Ecuador; Cattle Value Chains in Sri Lanka; and USAID's Soybean Innovation Lab on Soybean Utilization for Human Nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa. Students can apply to this experience as explained below.

Progress 01/01/24 to 12/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting year, January - December 2024, our recruitment efforts focused on identifying undergraduate students with majors in the area of agriculture at both University of Florida (UF) and Florida Agricultural Mechanical University (FAMU). In February of 2024, we provided an informational session to all interested students and provided announcements about our program to advisors in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UF and our Co-PI at FAMU distributed these announcements. During Spring/Summer months, we restructured the course to accommodate the evaluations from the students who took the class in Fall 2023. We identified experts in that particular field and potential field trips for our students. We identified labs and other activities to help immerse students within the subject matter to enhance their comprehension and potential ability to apply the information through assignments. In Fall 2024, we implemented this slightly revised course and were able to recruit 19 undergraduates from Sophomore - Senior years in eight different majors across the agricultural field (nutritional sciences, food science, biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, exercise physiology, biology, public health, and dietetics through UF). Our focus of this course was more on comprehension; thus the assignments were to assess critical thinking and ability to apply knowledge as opposed to assessing knowledge gained through standardized exams. We attempted to communicate with administrators at FAMU our intention for a joint course, however, these discussions remain on-going to ensure credits, and such align with FAMU and provides a benefit to the students. The PI established a project in this course that would demonstrate a different method of research and used for more service learning and was developed into a virtual exchange experience with Universidad de Cuenca. Through this program, we have been able to successfully recruit 7 students from the course to conduct research in the collaborators respective labs during the year 2024. Dependent on the research focus, students are working independently or assisting graduate students with their research. From last year, students who worked in a research area, a student was included on a few conference abstracts, one student presented her research at a national conference, and several students are aiding in writing manuscripts with graduate students. Students who are currently conducting research are conducting a food environmental scan, assisting with a clinical trial, analyzing data, and working in the laboratory for biological sciences. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We were able to recruit 7 of the 19 students enrolled in the course to participate in research activities in collaborators' labs. There were several students already enrolled in the class who were participating in research activities already. Through this research opportunity, we have been working with the students to enhance their technical and personal skills in the lab by allowing them to participate in mixed methodology study, analysis techniques, writing technical reports and developing their own independent project. From the students who took part in research from year 2, one student has been included on abstracts for conferences, another student has presented her research at a national conference, and several students have been working on manuscripts with graduate students within their respective labs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have communicated information to collaborators and administrators informally. Once data has been compiled from research and course activities, we will be presenting this information more formally to administrators and through conferences/publications in Spring 2025. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?As it is quite challenging to engage students in study abroad activities, we are attempting research abroad in which students can assist us in any research we conduct abroad that is conducive to their learning environment. This is an on-going challenge with FAMU in attempting to have students in their programs take our class and provide research opportunities to us. Possibly it will need to be an administrator from our college to reach out to FAMU directly and see the possibility of incorporating students from there into this program.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For the third year, we were able to recruit 19 students from eight different majors and five different colleges (engineering, public health, health and human performance, agricultural and life sciences, and liberal arts and sciences). Many students identified as females (n=17, 89.5%) and racial/ethnicities as African American (n=2), Asian (n=1), Hispanic/Latino (n=6), and white (n=10). During our class, we included a virtual exchange program in which undergraduate students majoring in biochemistry (n=5) from University of Cuenca in Ecuador participated in our lectures each week through Zoom. The students' project for this virtual exchange was to conduct a food environmental scan and identify similar places to compare/contrast (e.g. pizza, coffee shops, etc). The students used Padlet to communicate prompts throughout the semester. Additionally, the class has been revised to provide students opportunities to learn about intricates of the food system from planting to the cultural/personal aspects. Thus, we had a guest speaker who spoke about considering the gender component in the food systems. Subsequently students submitted an assignment focused on ideas for equalizing gender roles in the food systems. Furthermore, students submitted an assignment focused on educating community members about a food system topic that considered the community members' cultural, educational, gender, and other backgrounds that impact one's ability to enhance their knowledge and ability to incorporate the information. Finally, students created a pre/post graphical depiction of what food systems meant to them. They provided context to what changed/did not change from the beginning of the semester to the end about food systems.

Publications

  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Schneider ST, Klug A, Andrade JM. Phosphorus Knowledge and Dietary Intake of Phosphorus of US Adults Undergoing Dialysis. Nutrients. 2024 Jun 27;16(13):2034. doi: 10.3390/nu16132034. PMID: 38999782; PMCID: PMC11243062.


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

Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting year, January - December 2023, our recruitment efforts focused on identifying undergraduate students with majors in the area of agriculture at both University of Florida (UF) and Florida Agricultural Mechanical University (FAMU). In February of 2023, we provided an informational session to all interested students and provided announcements about our program to advisors in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UF and our Co-PI at FAMU distributed these announcements. During Spring/Summer months, we restructured the course to accommodate the evaluations from the students who took the class in Fall 2022. We identified experts in that particular field and potential field trips for our students. We identified labs and other activities to help immerse students within the subject matter to enhance their comprehension and potential ability to apply the information through assignments. We recruited individuals from the field - 2 industry partners to participate in our course-end panel and will continue the conversation about working together on internship initiatives to provide further opportunities for students who partake in this program. In Fall 2023, we implemented this slightly revised course and were able to recruit 14 undergraduates from Sophomore - Senior years in five different majors across the agricultural field (nutritional sciences, food science, food resource economics, biology, and dietetics through UF). Our focus of this course was more on comprehension, thus the assignments were to assess critical thinking and ability to apply knowledge as opposed to assessing knowledge gained through standardized exams. We attempted to communicate with administrators at FAMU our intention for a joint course, however, these discussions remain on-going to ensure credits and such align with FAMU and provides a benefit to the students. The PI established a project in this course that would demonstrate a different method of research and used for more service learning and it will be developed into a virtual exchange experience with Universidad de Cuenca in Quito, Ecuador. Through this program, we have been able to successfully recruit 10 students from the course to conduct research in the collaborators respective labs. Dependent on the research focus, students are working independently or assisting graduate students with their research. From last year, students who worked in a research area, one student obtained a undergraduate research scholarship, another student was a co-author of a journal article in the Journal of Renal Nutrition, one undergraduate presented her honors thesis to an extension conference and another undergraduate student pursued research in Sri Lanka. Students who are currently conducting research are performing a sensory evaluation with shrimp, writing technical reports, and establishing a food security instrument for those with chronic diseases. Changes/Problems:Of the above information that was presented the changes to the class included a service-learning project that allows students to identify barriers and potential solutions to a food establishment. One problem is that many students elect to complete research during the semester, but they are not able to complete 240 hours in that semester, so continue with research over the following semester. However, due to classes and other commitments, they do not participate in as much research as they need. On-going discussions about how to alleviate this problem are continuing. An additional problem is the on-going inability to have students from FAMU participate in this program. It is unknown the bottleneck, so a visit to the campus with administrators may need to occur. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We were able to recruit 10 of the 14 students enrolled in the course to participate in research activities in collaborators' labs. Through this research opportunity, we have been working with the students to enhance their technical and personal skills in the lab by allowing them to participate in mixed methodology study, analysis techniques, writing technical reports and developing their own independent project. From the students who took part in research from year 1, one student achieved an undergraduate research scholarship, one undergraduate student was a co-author of a manuscript that was published in the Journal of Renal Nutrition, one undergraduate student completed a research study in Sri Lanka, and one student presented her honors thesis at an extension conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have communicated information to collaborators and administrators informally. Once data has been compiled from research and course activities, we will be presenting this information more formally to administrators and through conferences/publications in Spring 2024. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This Fall, we had attempted to implement a virtual exchange due to the challenges with students completing a study abroad. However, due to medical issues with the individual abroad, we could not implement this aspect within our course. Therefore, we are seeking to do this next Fall 2024. We are encouraging students to take part in research abroad opportunities with the team, however, it is challenging with the course load of students, thus finding alternative methods to incorporate an abroad opportunity are being sought. In this second year, we were unable to recruit students from FAMU to participate in this program. Therefore, communicating with administrators to assure students are able to take the course and participate in research at specific times of the year is on-going.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For the second year, we were able to recruit 14 students from five different majors. The students have identified as females (n=14) and racial/ethnicities as asian (n=3), hispanic (n=3), and white (n=8). During our Fall class, we had a guest speaker who spoke about considering the gender component in the food systems. Subsequently students submitted an assignment focused on ideas for equalizing gender roles in the food systems. Furthermore, students submitted an assignment focused on educating community members about a food system topic that considered the community members' cultural, educational, gender, and other backgrounds that impact one's ability to enhance their knowledge and ability to incorporate the information. Finally, students created a pre/post graphical depiction of what food systems meant to them. They provided context to what changed/did not change from the beginning of the semester to the end about food systems. The group project that students worked on throughout the semester was a food environmental scan that was focused on at least 2 food establishments of their choice. For example, coffee shops or delis. From last year, students who worked in a research area, one student obtained a undergraduate research scholarship, another student was a co-author of a journal article in the Journal of Renal Nutrition, one undergraduate presented her honors thesis to an extension conference and another undergraduate student pursued research in Sri Lanka. Students who are currently conducting research are performing a sensory evaluation with shrimp, writing technical reports, and establishing a food security instrument for those with chronic diseases.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Andrade JM, Andrade JE, Farzad R, Nelson C, Mateescu R, Betiku O. Students' Visualizations of the Food Systems. 2023. NACTA annual conference. Las Cruces, NM.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Under Review Year Published: 2023 Citation: Schneider S, Andrade JM. Phosphorus Knowledge and Dietary Practices of US Adults Undergoing Dialysis. 2023. Spring Clinical Meetings for the National Kidney Foundation, Long Beach, CA.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2023 Citation: Acevedo S, Milton M, Andrade JM. Exploring spice consumption in adults: A qualitative study. 2023. Nutrition Research.


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

Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting year, January - December 2022, our recruitment efforts focused on identifying undergraduate students with majors in the area of agriculture at both University of Florida (UF) and Florida Agricultural Mechanical University (FAMU). In February of 2022, we provided an informational session to all interested students and provided announcements about our program to advisors in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UF and our Co-PI at FAMU distributed these announcements. Additionally, advisors presented this program at a agricultural freshmen orientation in July 2022. During Spring/Summer months, we worked on developing a course that focused on discussion-based with topics surrounding the food systems. We identified experts in that particular field and potential field trips for our students. We identified labs and other activities to help immerse students within the subject matter to enhance their comprehension and potential ability to apply the information through assignments. We recruited individuals from the field - 2 industry partners to participate in our course-end panel and will continue the conversation about working together on internship initatives to provide further opportunities for students who partake in this program. In Fall 2022, we implemented this course and were able to recruit 17 undergraduates from Freshmen - Senior years in six different majors across the agricultural field (nutritional sciences, food science, food resource economics, biomedical engineering, plant sciences, and agricultural communication and education through UF). Our focus of this course was more on comprehension, thus the assignments were to assess critical thinking and ability to apply knowledge as opposed to assessing knowledge gained through standardized exams. We attempted to communicate with administrators at FAMU our intention for a joint course, however, these discussions remain on-going to ensure credits and such align with FAMU and provides a benefit to the students. The PI and Co-PI were able to revise a study aboard and worked with collaborators at the Universidad de San Francisco to establish this program for Spring 2023. We are actively recruiting undergraduate students through our course to enhance the continuation of discussion towards the food systems. The team has been meeting on a quarterly basis to identify methods to structure our service learning. We will be revising our course slightly to accomodate this service learning through a project the students will immerse themselves in the Fall course and carry forward in the Spring. The PI has been communicating with representations from Gainesville civic center to encorporate an on-going project that our students can assist. Through this program, we have been able to successfully recruit 13 students from the course to conduct research in the collaborators respective labs. Dependent on the research focus, students are working independently or assisting graduate students with their research. One student will be submitting a manuscript based on a study she conducted over the summer with the PI near the end of December 2022. We have been providing conference opportunities with our students with the intention we are able to have 1-2 attend a local conference in Spring 2023. Furthermore, they will be submitting abstracts to the Undergraduate Research Symposium at UF which takes place in April 2023. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We were able to recruit 13 of the 17 students enrolled in the course to participate in research activities in collaborators' labs. Through this research opportunity, we have been working with the students to enhance their technical and personal skills in the lab by allowing them to participate in clinical trials, development of food products, analysis techniques, and developing their own independent project. We will continue to work on offering mentoring and diversity training for the faculty involved in mentoring students in their labs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have communicated information to collaborators and administrators informally. In our December Global Food Systems Institute meeting, the PI will provide a summary of our activities to our members. Once data has been compiled from research and course activities, we will be presenting this information more formally to administrators and through conferences/publications in Spring 2023. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The team has recognized the challenges with students completing research activities within a short time-frame, therefore, to enhance the research component we have extended timelines for accomplishment of these tasks to ensure students have the opportunity to write manuscripts (if applicable) and submit abstracts for local professional conferences. Small modifications will be made in the course to allow building of a service learning component to encourage students outside of the class to pursue service learning component. Finally, we were unable to recruit students from FAMU to participate in this program. Therefore, communicating with administrators to assure students are able to take the course and participate in research at specific times of the year is on-going. Furthermore, we will begin monthly trainings for faculty who mentor students on research.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For this first year, we were able to recruit 17 students from six different majors. The students have identified as males (n=5) and females (n=12) and racial/ethnicities as asian (n=2), black (n=1), hispanic (n=5), and white (n=9). During our Fall class, we had a guest speaker who spoke about considering the gender component in the food systems. Subsequently students submitted an assignment focused on ideas for equalizing gender roles in the food systems. Furthermore, students submitted an assignment focused on educating community members about a food system topic that considered the community members' cultural, educational, gender, and other backgrounds that impact one's ability to enhance their knowledge and ability to incorporate the information. Finally, students created a pre/post graphical depiction of what food systems meant to them. They provided context to what changed/did not change from the beginning of the semester to the end about food systems. Through an end of the semester course evaluation, students (n=16) indicated that they enhanced their knowledge towards the food systems in various topics and that they would take a course similar to this in the future.

Publications