Duration: 10/01/2012 to 09/30/2013

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

As the W1006 multistate agricultural literacy research project is nearing completion, results related to the objectives indicate that additional research is needed in the area of agricultural literacy. The trend analysis of Agricultural in the Classroom (AITC) national data provides a solid baseline for the committee to build future work. Further, the results of the Arizona AITC study indicate that AITC programs can have significant impact on academic programs, prompting further exploration of this phenomenon.

A new agricultural literacy curriculum map project is currently being developed for the National Ag in the Classroom Program through a USDA-NIFA grant at the University of Minnesota in partnership with other non-profit foundations. The Map, which includes food, agriculture and natural resource standards and benchmarks for K-12 grades will be cross-referenced to common core academic standards in language arts, social studies and mathematics. Also, it will be cross-referenced to the National Science Standards. This will result in an agricultural literacy curriculum map that will serve as a basis for assessment of academic core knowledge and agriculture, food and natural resource knowledge. This will greatly enhance the ability of educators to integrate agriculture, food and natural resource across the K-12 curriculum and to understand the contribution that the agricultural literacy context makes to increasing student achievement in academic core subjects and in agriculture, food and natural resources. Field testing the Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Map and evaluating the implementation of the Map would be a logical place to focus the efforts of the research committee, thus providing additional impact data on agricultural literacy. However, the timing of the map project does not allow for the committee to develop a new proposal within the time constraints allowed.

Therefore, we propose that the W1006 research project be moved to a development committee for one year while a new proposal is developed related to the evaluation of the new agricultural literacy curriculum map. During the next few months, one part of the committee will complete the final report for the current W1006 project while another part of the committee will begin the development of the new proposal.

Related, Current and Previous Work

Objectives

1. Develop a new proposal.
   

Methods

Measurement of Progress and Results

Outputs

Outcomes or Projected Impacts

Milestones

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Outreach Plan

Organization/Governance

Literature Cited

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

AZ, CA, CO, HI, IA, KS, MT, OK, OR, UT, WA

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions