Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience for this reporting period were K-12 female students and educators, as well as female college students pursuing a career in Forestry, in the state of Louisiana. The priority subgroup of our target audience were female students in rural Louisiana parishes (i.e., population > 50,000 people). Changes/Problems:The only challenge we experienced during this reporting period was late reception of grant funds. While the project was to begin September 15, 2023, our university did not receive the funds for our project until February 29, 2024. Additionally, these funds were not available to us from our granting office until March 8, 2024. To overcome this obstacle, we initiated the project by focusing on seeking administrative assitance within the Louisiana Tech University system to begin project implementation, recruiting female Forestry professionals to serve as mentors, and developing project promotion items. At this time, we do not foresee any future issues associated with this delay. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We provided the following opportunities for training and professional development: For high school female students, we provided a training program introducing them to the STEM field of Forestry, as well as providing them information on future education and career options in Forestry and other fields of natural resource science. For educators, we are providing a virtual platform for them to have easy access to teaching materials and activities related to Forestry. For female Forestry professionals, we are teaching them the importance of developing mentor-mentee relationships with young women who may be interested in Forestry as a career. For community outreach, we are creating opporunities to educate children and adults about what Forestry is and what it means to be a Forester. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We released the Women in the Woods workshop video so the Forestry community and the general public can see what experiences the workshop can provide. We also developed and released promotion materials on social media to help publicize the project among students, parents, and educators across the state of Louisiana. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we will... ...host a second Women in the Woods workshop. The dates for this event is May 2-4, 2025. It will once again be held at the LEAF Center near Florien, Louisiana. We have developed promotion materials for this event and we will advertise the workshop and the Louisiana Forestry Associations' annual meeting, the Louisiana Women in Agriculture annual meeting, state FFA Foresty competitions, and state 4H events. ...visit with students who are in FFA, 4H, and Girls Scouts of America about Forestry. We will use our already established contacts to schedule specific dates and Forestry topics to discuss with children at these events. We will also have a table at the local Farmers' Market with Forestry activities and crafts to educate young children and their parents about Forestry. ...finish designing and release our website. We will hire two undergraduate student assistants (one in Forestry, one in education) to maintain the website and create new and innovative Forestry lesson plans K-12 educators in Louisiana can easily implement in their classrooms. ...present the concept of our project at The Wildlife Society's annual conference in Baltimore, MD as part of the Women Of Wildlife (WOW) session. The objective of this presentation will be to instruct them on how to mimic the goals of our project in other states. ...develop a database to track involvement of the various aspects of our project (participants, volunteers, etc.), as well as female student enrollment in the Louisiana Tech Forestry program. The intention is to determine if our project is have a positive effect on female undergraduate enrollment in the program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A. Organize Professional Development Workshops - On April 5-7, 2024, we hosted the first Women in the Woods workshop. Ten high school girls from across the state participated in the workshop, along with volunteer instructors from Louisiana Tech University, US Forest Service, Weyerhauser, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Quail Forever, Central Louisiana Technical Community College, and the University of Texas-Tyler. This 3-day, 2-night workshop was held at the Louisiana Ecological Forestry (LEAF) Center near Florien, Louisiana. Participants and volunteers were involved in a curricula highlighting various components of Forestry. These components were dendrology, forest health, forest soils and water quality, forest products, prescribed fire, logging safety, and wildlife. Involvement in these components were critical in building the participants' knowledge base of Forestry, as well as their confidence in building Forestry-related skills. Additionally, the workshop provided an opportunity for the participants to meet and talk with current female Forestry professionals, which has led to the development of several mentor-mentee relationships. The results of the workshop survey indicated 80% of the participants believed the workshop was 'excellent' and 20% believed the workshop was 'good.' Furthermore, 20% of the participants have already applied and have been accepted into the Louisiana Tech Forestry program. We also set the date for the 2025 workshop (May 2-4, 2025) and have begun recruiting volunteers for this event. B. Community Outreach - We served as guest instructors at the Recipe for Rural STEM Day, held in Alexandria, Louisiana on February 8, 2024. At these event, we talked with several hundred middle school students about what it means to be a Forester. On February 9, 2024, H. Adams served as a Women in STEM panelist for Louisiana Tech's annual STEMINIST Fest. We attended the Louisiana Forestry Association annual meeting, the Louisiana Women in Agriculture annual meeting, and Louisiana 4H and FFA events to seek female Forestry professionals willing to serve as project mentors. We also made contacts with Girls Scouts of America and the Ruston Farmers' Market to start planning future outreach events with these groups. C. Create a Virtual Forestry Education Platform - We began designing a project website that we plan on releasing online Fall 2025. This website will include pages featuring the workshop, educator resources, upcoming outreach events, and project director and volunteer contact information.
Publications
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