Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period, the audiences include small-scale producers, students, and faculty in the high schools within the regions served by the collaborating institutions and college students. Someactivities focused on information dissemination regarding the project's proposed activities for year 3. Other audiences are attendees at professional events and conferences where the project was presented and discussed. Changes/Problems: Finding secondary students with the availability/interest to complete the summer sustainable ag internship (goal of 4 internship placements in PA in year one - were only able to secure 1) Placements were not able to be finalized until close to the end of the school year. Plan to contact farmers/teachers in January/February to finalize placements by April 1. Recruitment of farmers for Farmer Field School for Sustainable Agriculture August was a difficult time of year for farmers to not be actively working in the field in both areas. This led to most local farmers declining an offer to participate in the field school in PA. In TN, the group was able to get more participation by contacting farmers through the NWTN local foods network, farmermarkets, and similar organizations. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The grant provided a professional development and learning opportunity for farmers, students, faculty, and stafffrom UT Martin to travel to Penn State University, State College, PA for a field school inSummer 2024. The group visitedcover crop and vegetable production research sites and attendedthe 2024Pennsylvania Ag Days. The grant also assisted (in part) insupporting students and facultytravel to the 2024 PickTN conference and the2024 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?PSU graduate studentpresented a talk ondealing with high soluble salt levels in high tunnels at the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention. About 50 people were in attendance. UTM faculty and students attended thePick TN Conference, provided information about the project,and collected data using a survey forgrowers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?- Research Trials for the last yearwill be implemented at both institutions. -UT Martin Sustainability Center activities will continue to be supported by the grant. -Students and faculty will attend and present at the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) conference, and other regional and national conferences to present the results and provide professional development opportunities to students. -Offer the'agricultural sustainability' course at both institutions including a travel study to Belize in Spring 2025. -Continue recruitment and placement of secondary students for Supervised Agriculture Experiences and continueengagement of students' secondary agriculture educators as supervisors. -Conduct FSAS for Pennsylvania producers to TN in the summer of 2025. -Host the first ever 'Small farms sustainability and local foods conference' in the West Tennessee region in partnership with the NWTN local food network as the concluding event to FSAS in the summer of 2025.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Research Objectives: PSU is currently completing the high tunnel project. The final set of cover crops is currently being grown in a high tunnel at Penn State's Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Farm. Data is currently being collected. We have a plan for analyzing the data and developing outreach materials. At UTM an undergraduate student was hired to help with research in the fall. A dwarf sunn hemp variety was found to bebetter suited for vegetable production than traditional research. Research plots were established and initial soil samples were collected in the summer of 2024. In July 2024, sunn hemp cover crops were planted. In mid-August, 900 arugula transplants were started in the greenhouse for the fall 2024 research season. Education Objectives: Both schools are creating course content and planning the international travel component. The course will be taught in the spring of 2025 with the trip to Belize in May 2025. Lab sessions were created at UTM for thePLSC 342 Fruit and Vegetable Production class which benefited students in horticulture courses. Training and professional development for one secondary student intern in PA, 4 secondary school interns in TN, through hands-on experiential learning in vegetable production, two Penn State undergraduate interns receiving professional development in qualitative research design, and one UTM student worker supervising and mentoringsecondary school interns. The undergraduate student interns at both schoolsledsupervisory visits to the GTT internship placement, and PSU interns also created promotional materials and continued the undergraduate research project established in year one to investigate perceptions of student sustainable ag internships. Outreach Objectives: PSU PIs hosted a Farmer School for Sustainable Agriculture in State College on August 13-14, 2024. Three Pennsylvania producers attended and networked with 6 Tennesse farmers, 2 faculty, 2 staff, and 2 students.The field school facilitated networking activities, an on-site presentation of the horticulture research project, and time to explore the Ag Progress Days event. PSU graduate studentpresented a talk ondealing with high soluble salt levels in high tunnels at the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention. About 50 people were in attendance. UTM faculty and students attended thePick TN Conference and collected data using a survey forgrowers. 30 responses were achieved. UT Martin Sustainability Center activities continued to be supported by the grant.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Blue, V. and E. Sanchez. 2024. Dealing with high soluble salts in high tunnels. PVGA proceedings. 2024 Mid-Atlantic fruit and vegetable convention.Available from: https://www.pvga.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/PVGA-Proceedings-2024.pdf
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The audiences during this reporting periodinclude small scale producers, stduents and facultyin the high schools within the regions served by the collborating institutionsand college students. Primarily, the activities foused oninformation dissemination regarding the proposed activties of the project planned for years 2 and 3. Other audiences are attendees at professional events and conferences where the project was presented and discussed. Changes/Problems:UTM: High School interns: In early May, six local producers were contacted about their interest in serving as mentors for high school internships this summer and three farms responded in Tennessee. However, we were not able to connect with local FFA teachers and recruit any high school students for this summer's internship. By July 1, we decided that we were not going to be successful in recruiting any students this first year and let the farmers who had responded know this. We believe that the problem was that we started too close to the end of the school year and beginning of summer (early to mid May) to contact FFA teachers and we contacted too few teachers (only 3 counties). Our plans to overcome this for next year are to start contacting farmers in February and then reach out to teachers by March. Some lessons that we learned from this year's work are to ask the farmers which 3-4 week period of the summer they would like interns to work with them (i.e. blackberry farmers are finished with the season by early June and pumpkin farmers are just starting) and working hours. If we can provide this information to the teachers, it will make it easier to successfully connect high school interns with the growers. Penn State: Branding of the sustainable student internships opportunities - creation of Growers of Today and Tomorrow (GTT) branding as a solution Finding secondary students with the availability/interest to complete the summer sustainable ag internship (goal of 3 internship placements in PA in year one. We were only able to secure 2) This was due in part to reaching out to teachers too late in the year (around May). Goal of initial ask being sent to teachers in February/March for next year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The grant provided a professional development and learning opportunity for4 faculty (co-project directors) from UT Martin to travel toPenn State University, State College, PA for aresearch and education planning visit in Summer 2023. The faculty visited cover crop and vegetable production research sites, local farmers markets, the Penn State student farm, and attended the 2023 Pennsylvania Ag days.The group also collaborated and worked with the Penn State faculty to initiate the framework for the farmer's field school, research trials, and the new course on agricultural sustainability to be implemented during Years 2 and 3. The grant also assisted (in part) to support facultytravel to the American Society of Agronomy Meetings to Baltimore, MD in November 2022 and the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture in Las Cruces, NM June 2023. This was an opportunity to network with stakeholders and attend conference sessions in the areas of agriculturalsustainability and eduaction. The grant also assisted (in part) to support faculty registrationattheOxford Education Research Symposium. Oxford, UK. December 2022. Accomplishmentsfrom a concluded project on climate literacy and proposed deliverables for this project focusing on agricultural sustainability and small holder farms were discussed. This was an opportunity to network with stakeholders and attend conference sessions in the areas of global education and sustainability. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presented a talk at theNorth American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Conference, Las Cruces, NM in June 2023 discussingthe plans and current initiatives of the project. Presented a talkattheOxford Education Research Symposium. Oxford, UK. December 2022discussingthe plans and current initiatives of the project. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?- Research Trial for Year 1 will be implemented at both institutions. - Research on vegetables at UTM: Research plots have been identified and cleared for research to begin summer 2024. - Student experience: Seven students in PLSC 342 Fruit and Vegetable Production in Fall 2023 semester will learn how to grow arugula, the vegetable crop we are growing next year for research. Before the Aug 31, 2023 cutoff, students will be involved in germinating arugula plants for transplanting later in the fall and making raised beds in the field. Photos and notes from these projects will be used in upcoming sustainability classes. Additionally, the "test run" of growing arugula this fall ahead of the official research project will help us fine-tune our research project for next year. -UT Martin Sustainability center activities will continue to be supported by the grant. -Students and faculty will attend and present at the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) conference, as well as conduct a planning meeting for the travel study as part of the agricultural sustainability course (Year 3). -Will continue development of the 'agricultural sustainability' course at both institutions. -Continue recruitment and placement of secondary students for Supervised Agriculture Experiences and continue engagement of students' secondary agriculture educators as supervisors. -Conduct FSAS for Tennessee Producers to Pennsylvania
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Progress on overarching goal - training and professional development for two secondary student interns through hands- on experiential learning in vegetable production, and one Penn State undergraduate intern receiving professional development in qualitative research design. Research Objectives: Progress stated below (trials schduled for Years 2/3): UT Martin: Other research projects with cover crops before vegetables showed us that high-residue cover crops would be challenging or problematic when using plastic mulch, which we plan to use. The cover crop we selected for this project, sunn hemp, is known to produce very high amounts of biomass very quickly, so this could be a challenge. But while visiting the Ag Progress Days during the planning meeting at Penn State the CO-PIs learnt of a new dwarf sunn hemp cover crop that should work better in the region. The plan is to purchase this dwarf variety seeds for the research plots next summer and fall. Penn State:Research Objective 2 - This experiment is underway. Winter rye, barley, sugarbeets, golden beets, berseem clover, and sorghum were planted in a high tunnel at Penn State University's Russel E. Larson Agriculture Research Center in May 2023. The initial experiment was completed in July. A second experiment was planted in early August and is currently being observed. A third experiment will be planted in late September. Education Objectives: Initiatedthe frameworkfor the new course on sustainableagriculturalproduction to be developed over Yaers 2 and 3. Initiatedindustry-connected experiential learning opportunities in Pennsylvania and Tennessee for secondary and post-secondary agriculture studentsutilizing work-based learning and layered mentoring strategies. Hired interns for the UT Martin 'Center' for Sustainability to support activities of the 'Center'. Education Objective 2 - addressed by successful completion of 2 GTT student internships in Pennsylvania. Both students then transitioned into employment opportunities with their respective host site. Placement One - New Morning Farm and Southern Huntingdon County High School Placement Two - Brian Campbell Farms and Millville Area High School Education Objective 3 - addressed by Jenna Sassaman, AEE major at Penn State, leading supervisory visits to both PA GTT internship placements, creating promotional materials, and developing a research project to investigate perceptions of studentsustainable ag internships Undergraduate students/ interns working on project (undertakenresponsibilities) Development of promotional materials for secondary student sustainable internships with oversight of vegetable producer and agriculture teacher;Supervisory visits for secondary student internship placements;Development of IRB and research instruments for undergraduate research on student sustainability internships. Graduate students working on project (undertakenresponsibilities) Evaluation of different cover crops for their ability to bioaccumulate excess soluble salts in high tunnels;Implementation of experiment treatments;Management of experimental plants;Data collection and analysis;Extension related to the cover crop evaluation Outreach Objectives: Provided information to smallholder farm communities for the upcoming FSAS program for Years 2 and 3 in Tennessee. Bicycles purchased by Center to promote sustainability at UT Martin.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Tewari, R., Foster, D. D., & Miller Foster, M. (2023, June). Climate Literacy for Agriculture and Sustainable Societies (CLASS): Advancing education for sustainable development in rural communities. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Conference, Las Cruces, NM.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Tewari, R., C. Letot, M. Simpson and J. Mehlhorn. Enhancing climate literacy through CLASS: augmenting the teaching-learning process in rural secondary and postsecondary institutions. Oxford Education Research Symposium. Oxford, UK. December 2022.
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