Sustainable Agriculture Learning Modules for High School Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture Learning Modules for High School Agriculture

Summary

The year concluded with careful evaluation of the ten completed modules, and a plan to re-format these with color photos and thoughtfully designed study questions included with each. The updating is in progress in early 2013. Future planning through end of grant included choice of ten additional modules to be structured in a different format. Farmers with proven records of sustainable practices and systems will be identified, and a videotaped interview of each will be edited into two formats: five-minute summary for stimulating classroom discussion, and complete 35-50 minute interview for indepth study by individual students as an out-of-class assignment. With guidance from their voc-ag teacher, one or two students will conduct the interviews. We are convinced that this will build excitement and interest when viewed by other students. Update in early 2013: half of these interviews have been completed and are in the editing process.

Objectives/Performance Targets

To meet the short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term outcomes we will make the original ten modules as well as the ten video modules available on two key platforms: Nebraska State Education Department Vocational Agriculture web site, and Agronomy & Horticulture Department (UNL) eLibrary web site. Teachers are accustomed to visiting the former as this is their prime location for accessing up-dated information resources including state requirements from their official educational supervisor for the state. The latter will be a new site for many of them, and will lead teachers to over 100 other modules on specific topics for agriculture topics teaching that have been compiled by the UNL department’s web and distance learning specialists. These include soils, plant breeding, and weed management modules. The key to learning how well we meet the performance targets will be thoughtful and careful evaluation of how our 20 modules are used by high school voc-ag instructors. We plan to introduce the modules formally at their state-wide convention in June, 2013.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Although slow in the initial stages of the modified program, the project has moved ahead rapidly [in 2013] with employment of a full-time specialist in education who recently graduated from UNL. Her senior honors thesis was on local foods in the university cafeterias, and she has the additional background from courses in agroecology and organic farming. The project has accomplished some publicity through the contacts with interviewed farmers, as well as the voc-ag teachers and student interviewers. We also presented preliminary information to the state-wide Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society conference attendees, where additional interviews were accomplished — beyond the ten scheduled in the project, using another agroecology student who is familiar with sustainable farming practices. These are substantial milestones in early 2013 that put us well into the final stretch in meeting the overal project objectives by the end of funding in September 2013.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

We believe that the publicity surrounding the project and the current interviews is raising the profile of sustainable agriculture among the cadre of high school teachers, as well as with their students. They appreciate the accumulated experience and wisdom of the farmers they are visiting to interview, and this has been apparent in their informal feedback to us. The goal of blending the science and formal education from classroom teaching with the practical experiences of farmers will be accomplished when the modules are completed and put into use in classrooms across the state, and in other states in the Midwest. A draft article is in preparation to submit to PrairieFire Newspaper, a populist monthly publication with circulation to over 90,000 people in the Midwest. We plan to go beyond the modules promised in the grant proposal to prepare some cross-cutting topics such as recent history of Nebraska agriculture, direct marketing to consumers, value-adding on farms and in rural communities, and challenges to the future sustainability of agriculture in this region. We also will publicize the modules as useful across the curriculum, as specific topics could be used in history, natural science, food, and marketing courses in high schools. These will be available on the two web sites, and accessible to teachers across the region and the U.S.

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