Progress 06/01/23 to 05/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:All WV agriculture education teacher (n=123) recieved information and opportunities to help provide curriculum. All WV ag teachers (n=123) recieved NextGen Scholar information through email and through printed materials. Partnerships have been utilized between WVSU, WVDA and WVDE. Changes/Problems:Hiring for the NextGen Coordinator and Curriculum Specialist took a bit longer than anticipated. Contracting teachers and designing currculum formats was very time consuming. This year we were about a month late on distributing our NextGen Scholar applications and information. Now that all internal approvals have been accomplished, goal 1 and goal 2 will run much smoother for the next four years. At this time we are catching up on ourtiming and still plan to have all goals met by the next report for years 1 & 2. We still plan to have 10 full agriculture curriculums in operation by September 2024. We will contract an additional seven teachers to design curriculum in the other selected curricula areas. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training and Professional Development is being created for curriculum navigation. In the month of July, 2024, professional development will be offered to all agriculture education teachers in WV (n=123). Training will consist of; accessing state curriculum, evaluation tools, lab plans, lesson plans, etc. All contracted teachers were trained in lesson plan format. Formats were created and approved so all curriculum lessons would look similar to provide a smooth flow throughout the state curriculum process. Formats that were created and trained on were; lesson plans, handouts, formative and summative evaluations, lab plans, materials and supply list, etc. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Scholarship literature has been distributed State wide. Teacher contract opportunities were advertised state wide. WV FFA receives timely updates of NextGen opportunities on weekly update newsletters. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue curriculum development and publication to create over 2500 days of curriculum. Continue to recruit NextGen Scholars. Continue working with WVDA with internship opportunities. Evaluation of the NextGen program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1 - Create WV Agriculture Education completer curriculum and release to WV Agriculture Education Teachers Two employees were hired for the NextGen Program and started on December 1, 2023. Steps that were taken for this to happen were; creating job descriptions, internal approval, one month advertising, interview 1, interview 2, job offer approval and finally the job offer. At this time, we have a NextGen Coordinator and a Curriculum Specialist on the NextGen staff. Ten WV agriculture education teachers have entered contracts to create 150 days of lessons for the WV curriculum being built with state and national standards. The Project Coordinator that was selected is a former agriculture teacher with over 30 years of service. The selected candidate was the agriculture education teacher of the project director of this grant. What better person to have as the project director with proven motivation and a person that has evidence of changing lives of students in agriculture. The project coordinator definitely changed the life of the project director that wrote the NextGen proposal for this award. The NextGen Coordinator has constant contact with our agriculture education teachers and other agriculture professionals throughout the state of West Virginia. The curriculum specialist that was selected comes to us with a wealth of knowledge on curriculum development. The goal is to make all of the curriculum fit into a certain format so the curriculum is easily accessible a navigable for all. The curriculum specialist has developed formats for lesson plans, lab plans, handouts, formative and summative evaluations and Microsoft Power Point presentations. The curriculum specialist has constant contact with the curriculum developers. West Virginia agriculture education offers an endorsement of "Agriculture Completer" that is endorsed by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture. To become an agriculture completer, students must take Introduction to Agriculture and complete two courses within the area they choose to complete in. Completers must also have two completed years of a supervised agriculture experience plan. An additional requirement is that each completer must pass a national NOCTI exam in their completer area. Completer areas in WV are: Agri-Business, Animal Systems, Food Products and Processing, Natural Resources, Plant Systems and Power, Structural and Technical. Curriculum is also being created for our middle school programs. The courses being created will offer every teacher at least two courses in each completer area. All teachers across the state will be able to offer all completer areas to their students if they choose with the developed curriculum. Over 8,000 secondary students will benefit with agriculture curriculum created through the NextGen program. Over 100 agriculture teachers will benefit by having a state standards curriculum that also prepares students for the national NOCTI exam for all completer areas offered in West Virginia. Ten different subject areas are being created during this time. Topics include: Introduction to Agriculture, Science of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Production, Companion Animal, Agriculture Structures, Meet Processing I, Meet Processing II, Forestry and Fish and Wildlife. Contractors are completing 3 stages of curriculum development with each stage containing 50 days of lessons. At the time of this report we are at the end of stage 2. At the completion of Goal 1, over 2500 days of curriculum will be created within 17 different WV agriculture completer courses. A webpage has been developed and curriculum is currently being loaded and categorized for easy access. At the time of this report, 700 of the 2500 days of lessons has been created. We are running a bit behind, however the curriculum is amazing! Curriculum development will continue in year 2. During Year 3, all curriculum will be released for everyone to access. A year pilot test will take place with WV agriculture education teachers to make sure that the curriculum is valid and that all materials meet copyright obligations. Goal 2 - Provide scholarships to students entering into food, agriculture, natural resources, and human resources majors at West Virginia State University. Scholarship applications were made and approved. Connections with all university employees have been made ie. admissions, housing, financial aid, department heads and Deans. A NextGen Scholars review committee was created to review applications and make selections of acceptance for the NextGen Scholars. Applications were posted and sent to all WV agriculture education teachers and agriculture organizations throughout the state. A NextGen scholars phamplet was created, approved and 1000 copies were printed and distributed throughout the state. At this time, ten NextGen Scholars will be joining WVSU in August, 2024 for their freshmen year. Five of the selected NextGen future students are running for WV State FFA officer positions. West Virginia State has never had a WV State FFA Officer as an enrolled full-time student. Three of the ten future NextGen Scholars are first generation post-secondary students. It has been decades since West Virginia State University has had true AGGIES as students and we are thrilled for the revising of a great tradition at West Virginia State. During the first year we were a bit behind with the scholarship applications after all of the internal approval processes. Now that approvals and standards have been met, the applications can go out much earlier next year. During the next two years ten additional NextGen Scholars will be added totaling 30 NextGen Scholars throughout this project. The only difficulty that we experienced with recruitment was convincing the students that this was a real opportunity. We were constantly questions about what the catch was when presenting the opportunity because an opportunity like this has never existed. It has been decades since West Virginia State University has had true AGGIES as students and we are thrilled for the revising of a great tradition. Goal 3 - Provide immersive food, agriculture, natural resources, and human resources internships throughout student's post- secondary education with West Virginia Department of Agriculture. Connections have been made with partner WVDA to go over plans for student internships. Each NextGen Scholar will receive 1500 hours of a USDA paid internship. WVDA will be running the internship program and the 2024/2025 interns will begin in October, 2024. Internship experiences can occur during the school year and summers. Interns will be able to receive experiential learning opportunities throughout all four years of enrollment at WVSU. When students graduate they will leave with not only a degree, but with four years of experience of agriculture employment.
Publications
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