Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Multi-State Agricultural Literacy Research Committee (W-1006) Annual Meeting April 16-19, 2008 Canyons Resort, Park City, Utah Minutes  April 16, 2008 Meeting convened at 8:00 PM with the following present: Members in attendance: Gary Straquadine, Administrative Advisor, Utah State University gary.straqudine@usu.edu Carl Igo, Co-Chair, Montana State University, cigo@montana.edu Brian Warnick, Co-Chair, Utah State University brian.warnick@usu.edu Debra Spielmaker, Secretary, Utah State University (AITC) debra.spielmaker@usu.edu Jack Elliot, University of Arizona elliot@ag.arizona.edu Eddie A. Moore, Michigan State mooreee@msu.edu Monica Pastor, University of Arizona Extension (AITC) mpastor@cals.arizona.edu Greg Thompson, Oregon State University greg.thompson@orst.edu Michael Swan, Washington State University mswan@wsu.edu Ania Wieczoreli, University of Hawaii ania@hawaii.edu Members Absent: Cary Trexler, University of California, Davis cjtrexler@ucdavis.edu Kerry Schwartz, University of Arizona kschwart@ag.arizona.edu Anissa Wilhelm, New Mexico State wilhelm@nmsu.edu Robert Martin, Iowa State University drmartin@iastate.edu Non-member University Ag Educators & Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) Directors/Members Kimberly Bellah, Tarlton State University bellah@tarleton.edu Heather Jepsen, University of Arizona jepsenh@email.arizona.edu Gary Moore, North Carolina State University gary.moore@ncsu.edu Graduate Students Holly Schindler, University of Arizona hollyshindler@aol.com Agenda Items 1. Welcome and Introductions 2. Distribution and approval of the Minutes from April 24-27, 2007 (reviewed and approved) 3. Distribution of Multi-state Research Project Summary  Jack Elliot (UA) http://lgu.umd.edu a. Gary Straquadine was introduced as the new Administrative Advisor of the research committee. b. Jack reviewed the purpose and objectives of the committee. The W-1006 is a national multi-state Agricultural Experiment Station research committee designated to assess programmatic effectiveness and learner outcomes to evaluate the success and impact of agricultural literacy programs. Objectives are to: 1) Identify and describe the organizational structure of AITC State programs 2) Identify and describe components and practices, which correlate with AITC program success 3) Determine the relationship of AITC programs on learner outcomes. Jack Elliot discussed the meaning of multi-state and that Gary Straquadine and Brian Warnick would now be submitting the W1006 reports to USDA through the National Information Management and Support System (NIMSS). c. Gary Straquadine asked about the needs of committee members to further their research goals. 4. Committee Member Status Reports: Each member updated the group about their efforts in agricultural literacy over the past year. " Holly Schindler updated the committee on the Academic Achievement study in Arizona and Phase II of the Academic Achievement study replicating the study in Florida. This research project is being done to determine the academic impact of the Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) teacher training workshops by comparing AIMS (Arizona high-stakes test) scores and now Florida high-stakes test scores between the students of teachers who have been trained with AITC resources with those who have not. Holly also shared and copies of a brochure that summarized the study noting the methods, procedures, and results. Briefly the method utilized each states standardized test, and compared the scores of elementary classrooms whose teachers completed an AITC training and incorporated AITC lessons into the curriculum with the scores of elementary classrooms whose teachers did not attend a training and have not incorporated AITC lessons. The procedures were as follows: 1) gain Institutional Review Board Approval, 2) Identify elementary schools with multiple elementary teachers who attended a summer AITC conference, 3) in each school, identify teachers within the same grade level to serve as the control group, 4) have the participating teacher complete a form regarding curriculum and lessons taught during the school year, 5) teachers within the treatment group completed a questionnaire regarding the frequency of Food, Land & People (FLP) lesson implementation and new pedagogy as a result of the AITC training, 6) administer a post-test to determine the effectiveness of AITC and the correlation of FLP lesson plans with students achieving higher scores in math, reading, and writing. The results indicated that 1) teachers that used agriculturally based examples and lessons had students that achieved higher scores, 2) teacher benefited from increased knowledge of learning styles and content methodology, 3) the hands-on technologies and relationship to prior knowledge used in AITC curriculum increased student abilities to comprehend not only science concepts, but also math and writing concepts. a. Greg Thompson (OSU) discussed the Oregon Summer Ag Institute (a program of Oregon Ag Education Foundation), lessons generated from this program are posted on the Oregon AITC website. Greg also discussed the Get Oregonized Oregon history book, developed by Oregon AITC and distributed statewide to 4th grade teachers. OSU is planning some kind of evaluation of this project. b. Mike Swan (WSU) has been doing international work in the United Arab Emirates. He has been using some AITC resources while overseas. c. Ania Wieczoreli (U of H) shared the U of H Biotechnology and Agriculture Education Program. The program is called Gene-ius Day. This program provides 120 elementary students (3rd - 5th grade) per month with an onsite experience learning about and doing hands-on activities related to biotechnology. As part of the experience, students prepare a poster and then present it at a fair with other students and their parents. Everyone is educated. d. Eddie Moore (MSU) shared some information about the history of AITC in Michigan and some ideas for future funding in Michigan. e. Carl Igo (MSU) reported on their meeting with the Ag in Montana Schools Board (an AITC group in Montana) and how to improve the program through collaboration with MSU. They are planning future work with this group. f. Kimberly Bella (TS) discussed some anecdotal reports of a project evaluation from a Texas Summer Ag Institute teacher in-service. g. Gary Moore (NCSU) discussed a program at NCSU to help students to become more agriculturally literate through a 3 credit course in general science called Agriculture Biotechnology. h. Debra Spielmaker (USU) updated the group on the AITC state reports and the baseline data collected to meet Objective 1. Debra reviewed the 2006 survey results and the questionnaire for 2007. The 2006 survey results are posted online (PowerPoint presentation) http://www.agclassroom.org/consortium/reports.htm. The demographic findings were of particular interest. The 2007 results will be posted in May 2008. Debra mentioned that if any researcher needed any of the raw benchmark data that she could send it to them for research projects they might be conducting. She also encouraged them to send her any questions that they want asked in 2009 about 2008 to be sent to her no later than November 1, 2008. i. Brian Warnick and Debra Spielmaker (USU) also reported on a research project recently completed that found teachers who participated in the USU online course (Food, Land & People) continued to use the course resources with their students after 3 years. Hopefully this research will be presented next year. j. Brian Warnick previewed some of USUs research with Utah 7th grade teachers who must provide 15 hours of instruction on agriculture and careers in agriculture. The Utah AITC program provides the agricultural instruction for this mandatory curriculum. More on this study can be found online, in the Western Region 2007 Agricultural Education Conference papers. http://www.agclassroom.org/consortium/research.htm 5. Brian Warnick asked committee members to meet at breakfast over the next two days to discuss next years research initiatives. The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 PM. April 18, 2008: 8:30 AM  3:30 PM W-1006 research findings were presented in the research paper presentations. Papers related to agricultural literacy can be viewed online, in the Western Region 2008 Agricultural Education Conference papers. http://www.agclassroom.org/consortium/research.htm April 19, 2008: 8:30  Noon Committee members met in small groups at breakfast on Thursday and Friday. W-1006 research findings were presented in the research paper presentations. Papers related to agricultural literacy can be viewed online, in the Western Region 2008 Agricultural Education Conference papers. http://www.agclassroom.org/consortium/research.htm The W-1006 Multi-State Research Committee will officially meet again next year in Reno, NV, April 21-24. Respectfully submitted, Debra Spielmaker, Secretary

Powell, D., Agnew, D., & Trexler, C. (2008). Agricultural literacy: Clarifying a vision for practical application. Journal of Agricultural Education, 49(1), 85-98.