Recipient Organization
TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY
601 UNIVERSITY DRIVE
SAN MARCOS,TX 78666
Performing Department
Department of Agricultural Sciences
Non Technical Summary
Climate change is increasingly putting underrepresented minority farmers in a vulnerable position. Training future underrepresented farmers and policymakers in a multidisciplinary setting is crucial for the resilience of farming sector and our agricultural ecosystem. Under this challenging situtation, Hispanic population remains underrepresented in college enrollment, degree completion and workforce in STEM although the U.S. job opportunities are growing in the FANH and Science. Accounted for 22% of the U.S. Population, Hispanic population account for ~17% bachelor's, 13% of master's, and 9% of doctoral degrees earned, and 8% in STEM workforce. This trend holds in all the three collaborating HSI on this project. While equally enthusiastic about and aspire to STEM careers, Hispanic students are less confidence with STEM courses. This is likely because Hispanic students are mostly First-Gen college students from economically disadvantaged family, and thus lack the knowledge and resources to actively engage in STEM related courses and experiential learnings.Our overall goal is to provide under-represented undergraduate and graduate students a comprehensive experimental learning opportunity in a multi-disciplinary setting that including economics, precision agriculture and remote sensing, soil science, and AI and big data. We will equip them with necessary tools to solve for socially, economically, and scientifically optimal solutions under the complex natural, institutional, economic, and technological system through exposing them to research process and engaging them into research analyzing relevant issues in our agriculture and food system. To achieve our goals, we will use a combination of 1) joint curriculum training and professional development workshops that fill in the gaps in existing curriculum, 2) research involvement on sustainable and AI agriculture technology adoption and evaluation, and 3) a 10-week summer internship for undergraduate students at one of the three collaborating institutions or USDA research labs in Texas and Florida.A total of at least 47 underrepresented students will be supported directly by this project including at least 5 associates, ~24 undergraduates, at least 18 graduate students including under-represented minority PhDs. More than 200 students from each of the collaborating institutions will benefit from the project activities. We will establish at least 6 farm demonstration plots and train at least 50 farmers each year through open houses, field days, workshops, and student presentations. The project will enhance long-term collaborative research, educational, and outreach efforts on climate resilient agriculture practices among the three collaborating HSIs, with USDA research labs, and farmers in south Texas and Florida.The project activities thus support the educational needed areas on student experiential learning, curricular design and materials development, and student recruitment and retention in the discipline of soil and water conservation and improvement, Farm enhancement, and Artificial Intelligence and Big data.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
Our overall objective is toprovideHispanic and other underrepresented minorityundergraduate and graduatestudents acomprehensive experimental learning opportunitythroughresearch engagementon climate resilient agriculture, trainings,andpaid research assistantships and paid summer internshipin amulti-disciplinaryandmulti-institutionalsetting that includingeconomics, remote sensing and precision agriculture, soil science,Artificial Intelligence(AI) and big data.We will equip the students with the necessarytools to solve socially, economically, and scientifically optimal solutions to conserve resourcesunder the complex natural, institutional, economic, and technological systems. To achieve our goal, we build a team that is comprised of TXST, FIU, A&M-San Antonio and relevant USDA research labs in Texas and Florida. This joint force will provide expertise, research and instructional resources on the prevalent disciplines that are synergetic. Through research engagement, personalized mentoring, synergized learning environment, and financial support, we expect to inspire the interest and boost confidence of underrepresented minority students and transfer them into experts and future leaders in FANH and STEM.
Project Methods
This project provides comprehensive experiential learning opportunities involving multiple disciplines that are crucial for building a climate resilient agriculture and benefit local farmers.We use a combination of research, outreach, and education activities on a network of HSIs, farmers, USDA agencies, and other stakeholders that create unique learning and career opportunities for minority students at all degree levels and advancing equity.We will train students through curriculum and involvement into reach and 10-week Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) including joint online lectures and workshops, face-to-face training and interaction, and research on real-world issues that utilize the resource from multi-institutions to create synergy.Specific actions include:Establish a research platform for student experiential learning. Our effort will be on:1) Develop and evaluate remote sensing-based expert system utilizing satellite/UAV technology as a decision support tool for cover crop and soil conservation planning. To evaluate the effort, we will collect a) half-yearly data on agricultural plots established for research, b) yearly or bi-yearly data on courses infused with active learning strategies, and c) yearly data on students exposed and trained for using the multispectral agricultural drone, satellite image analysis software, soil, and plant chemical analysis equipment.2) Evaluate socio-economic outcomes and impacts and adoption decisions through.For evaluation of this effort, we will collect yearly data on the numbers of a) student intern participants, b) Undergraduate research projects conducted, 3) student research presentations, and c) student research reports3) Train minority farmers through field practices, geospatial and economic tools. To evaluate this effort, we will collect yearly data on a) field demonstrations, b) number of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in field demonstrations and stakeholder interactionsTrain students to address current issues in climate resilient agriculture and build connections with stakeholders and potential employers. We will recruit students from the 3 institutions and community colleges and then train them through curriculum, research involvements and filed works, regular meetings, internship workshops, career fairs. We provide an annual 10-week summer Internship and trainings and place students into three HSI institutions or USDA centers that fit their research topic and interests. To evaluate this effort, we will collect yearly data on the number of a), students exposed to training on AI and big data, b) research publications, c) students graduating with new soil analysis and geospatial skills, d) student presentations with the new cover crop, soil analysis and economic analysis skills, e) student projects with new cover crop, soil analysis and economic analysis skills, f) minority students in the program, g) journal club sessions, and end of program data on h) total students trained in the programWe will use a comprehensive evaluation plan including formative and summative evaluation components. Formative evaluation will monitor the implementation of project activities and provide feedback to improve the activities, which occur iteratively. As part of the formative evaluation, we will track:1) recruitment of underrepresented students into the program,2) developing and offering workshops and experiential learning activities,3) undergraduate and graduate enrollments, participation in the workshops and summer internships, and 4) systematic expert evaluation of ongoing project activities with vetted rubrics.The summative evaluation will evaluate the impact of the project using quantitative and qualitative measurements on1) all underrepresented students trained in the workshops and experiential learning opportunities,2) the 24 undergraduate summer interns and3) the 18 graduate studentsPIs and key personnel will receive evaluation updates each semester and a formal evaluation report summarizing the entire year at the end of each summer.We will develop a set of questions to collect students' expectations from the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE), access to spatial and market data, data mining, and data analysis. The questionnaire will be administered prior to the start of the SURE each year. The PIs will use the results to assess student preparation and expectations and better design the internship deliveries to achieve targeted student learning outcomes. The learning outcomes of SURE will be used to design post-internship activity and program evaluations. Differences between the post- and pre- SURE results will define the impact of SURE on student learning and perception relative to the stated project goals.Dr. Collette Bloom from TSU will direct the evaluation process. She will be engaged in formative evaluations (testing of course modules, workshops, and internships during development) and summative evaluation and analyzing student evaluations. The interview procedure will be part of the IRB submitted before any interviews are conducted.