Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Multi-State Agricultural Literacy Research Committee (W-1006) Annual Meeting April 21-23, 2009 Horizons Resort, South Tahoe, Nevada Minutes  April 21, 2009 Meeting convened at 6:30 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, Texas A&M University jelliot@tamu.edu James Knight, University of Arizona jnight@ag.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 Eddie A. Moore, Michigan State mooreee@msu.edu Monica Pastor, University of Arizona Extension (AITC) mpastor@cals.arizona.edu Non-member University Ag Educators & Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) Directors/Members William Deimler, Utah State Office of Education william.deimler@schools.utah.gov Graduate Students Shawn Anderson shawn.anderson@oregonstate.edu Agenda Items and Minutes 1. Welcome and Introductions: Jack Elliot announced that he would continue to participate with the research committee (W-1006) with his move to Texas A & M and that James Knight would be added to the research committee as a member from the University of Arizona. 2. Distribution and approval of the Minutes from April 16-19, 2008 (reviewed and approved) Distribution of Multi-state Research Project Summary  Brian Warnick opened the meeting by distributing the W-1006: Agricultural Literacy Program of Work (research project plan, http://lgu.umd.edu) and asked states if they would report on projects or research completed or conducted that met the objectives. Before the state reports began, Gary Straquadine, the committee Administrative Advisor, discussed the importance of or working with our individual Agriculture Experiment Station (AES) directors to keep them aware of our research committee and our individual state progress. He advised the group to be proactive. Jack Elliot provided the committee with a brief history of the research committee and reminded the group that the W-1006 had two more years of USDA-AES administrative support to work on the following objectives 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 also discussed the importance of filing CRIS reports when funding is obtained from AES or other USDA funds. Gary Straquadine reviewed the short form for CRIS reports and reminded the group that the CRIS model of outputs (accomplishments) and outcomes (impacts) are very important when AES directors and other administrators look at the continuation of research committees. Gary also defined for the group the difference between an output and an outcome based upon the USDA-AES and Extension logic modelinputs - activities or processes  outputs  outcomes. He mentioned that outcomes relate to successful achievement of our program objectives and that outcomes address a benefit, change of behavior, or practice change in our target audience. 3. Committee Member Status Reports: Each member updated the group about their efforts in agricultural literacy over the past year. a. Debra Spielmaker (USU) updated the group on the AITC state reports and the baseline data collected to meet Objective 1. Debra reviewed the 2007 and 2008 survey results and the questionnaire for 2008. The 2007 survey results are posted online (PowerPoint presentation) http://www.agclassroom.org/consortium/reports.htm and the 2008 results will be posted in June after the Agriculture in the Classroom Consortium annual meeting. She noted that 41 states completed a 2008 report, an increase over 2007 when 38 states reported. Highlights of the 2007 report revealed that about 70% of the classroom resources developed by AITC programs were aligned or correlated with state or national standards. The 2008 survey included findings that there had been a decline in the number of pre-service teachers receiving AITC pre-service training over the last three years (2006, 2007, 2008). The 2008 survey asked state AITC contacts about their familiarity with current popular or best selling books about agriculture and food. This question provides some feedback about future AITC professional development. Two additional unique questions were asked on the 2008 survey, one question about their state AITC website, and the other about the scope of their AITC program and materials. The results are posted on http://www.agclassroom.org/consortium/reports.htm. 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 2010 to be sent to her no later than November 1, 2009. b. Brian Warnick and Debra Spielmaker (USU) also reported on a research project, A Casual-Comparative Model for the Examination of an Online Teacher Professional Development Program for an Elementary Agricultural Literacy Curriculum, 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. A poster on the research is being presented at this research meeting. c. Brian Warnick (USU) also reported on a Personal Food Production (gardening project) he is involved with and will be conducting research on a variety of aspects with the project. d. Greg Thompson (OSU) shared a flyer from and discussed the Oregon Summer Ag Institute for K-12 teachers (a program of Oregon Ag Education Foundation); the lessons generated from this program are posted on the Oregon AITC website. Greg discussed the course schedule and theme which was the Science in agriculture, Agriculture and the economy, Agriculture and the environment, family versus corporate funding, diversity of agriculture, the role of agriculture in daily life. Greg said the changes in teacher perceptions are measureable. OSU is planning to do an evaluation of this project. e. Jack Elliot (U of A and recently Texas A & M) reported that three research projects had been generated out of a cooperative agreement with Arizona AITC Ag in the Classroom and Academic Achievement by Holly Renee Schindler a masters thesis; Agricultural Perceptions of Participants of the Arizona Summer Agricultural Institute by Heather Rae Jepsen a masters thesis; and Arizona Agriculture in the Classroom: Academic Achievement Study by Monica Pastor, Holly Schindler, and Jack Elliot. f. Mike Swan (WSU) has been working with Washington community colleges to learn about their agricultural courses. Eighteen of thirty-four community colleges said they had an entry level soils course. He worked with the group to put together a course syllabi and lab manual for the course to create a common course that would be offered at the community colleges statewide and provide some continuity, important when students transfer credits. g. Ania Wieczoreli (U of H) provided the committee with an update of 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. She also discussed work being done with other grade levels and a comic book. Her program meets the needs of 11,000 students each year. h. Carl Igo (MSU) reported on that they held a Summer Ag Institute during the summer of 2008 at MSU. Eight teachers participated. Agriculture in Montana Schools provided some funding. The teachers participated in numerous hands-on activities including beef nutrition where they looked at bacteria from the stomach of a cannulated cow, and learned about how to integrate food and fiber production into their science and math lessons. Carl plans to work with the Montana Outdoor Science Center and focus on agriculture and math at the 2009 Summer Agriculture Institute. 4. Brian Warnick asked committee members to meet at breakfast in the morning to discuss short-term and long-term outcomes of the research committee. The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM. April 22, 2009: 7:45 AM  Breakfast meeting Gary Straquadine clarified again the difference between an output and outcome (see above). Gary reiterated that impacts or outcomes can be measured as policy or practice changes among our identified target audiences. Carl Igo mentioned the Food and Fiber Literacy Standards, which W-1006 adopted as guidelines (2004) for measuring agricultural literacy should be looked at for evaluating agricultural literacy projects. Jack discussed the importance of all our individual state agricultural literacy efforts and recommended that we attach the western state Agriculture the Classroom outputs and outcomes as they are related to this project and our respective institutions. These reports are attached. Papers and projects related to agricultural literacy can be viewed online, at http://www.agclassroom.org/consortium. Jim Knight suggested that we look for more multistate opportunities in the next coming year, Gary agreed and Carl mentioned important ag literacy research efforts my want to focus on food safety and obesity. Gary encouraged us to engage other researchers in other states who have an interest in agricultural literacy to become members of this committee. Debra requested that any changes and project impacts be sent to her by May 25th for submission to Gary and Brian to be included in the NIMSS (National Information Management and Support System) report. The W-1006 Multi-State Research Committee will officially meet again next year in Great Falls, MT, April 21-23, 2010. Respectfully submitted, Debra Spielmaker, Secretary

Arizona 2008 Report Classroom Resources " Arizona Farm Bureau has developed lessons which include " Curriculum Kits: Apples, Pumpkins, Poultry, Insects, Dairy, Plant, Cotton and Cattle at www.azfb.org/programs/aitc " Presentation Enhancements: Giant hamburger and pizza with removable pieces for use in lessons. Major Program Accomplishments or Outputs -Eighteenth Annual Summer Agricultural Institute was held for 28 educators with help from 78 volunteers giving 350 hours of service. Fifteen thousand dollars from 30 agribusinesses and organizations funded the five-day Institute that traveled through four counties. The Food, Land & People curriculum and Arizona Specialty Crop Lessons are provided for free to the participants. -Maricopa County Farm Bureau continued its funding of half of the Program Coordinators salary to have trained volunteers who give educationally appropriate presentations in classrooms. -42 volunteers read to 3563 primary students during Arizona Agricultural Literacy Days. -A partnership has been formed with the AZ Foundation for Resource Education in which an Educator Workshop will be held each semester. These workshops are coordinated by their teaching faculty in collaboration with AITC staff. -A partnership has been formed with Western Growers Association to coordinate six-hour workshops for their Gardening With Children grant recipients and a Specialty Crop Grant was awarded to have these trainings each summer for the next three years. -Volunteer Agriculture Educators have implemented educational events at their farms with advice from the Ag Literacy staff and reach 5000 students. -On going meetings have been held with Science Curriculum Coordinators to begin implementing Professional Development opportunities for their faculty. -Quarterly electronic Ag Literacy News newsletter implemented. -Coordinated the education area for AZ Agriculture Day with 1100 visitors. -Funding cuts have reduced 1.5 FTE to .65 FTE in the Ag Literacy program. -AZ Farm Bureau hired a full time Ag Education Manager who has developed lessons and trained volunteers. -Student and teacher contacts by AZ Farm Bureau, AZ Beef Council and University of Arizona Ag Ventures -programs are included in this report. -AZ Beef Council coordinates Beef Days in which students rotate among different learning stations. Major Program Impacts or Outcomes -The Ag Literacy program developed and coordinates the educational workshops for the Western Growers Association garden grant recipients. -100% of Summer Ag Institute participants rated the Institute as more valuable than other in-service programs and said it will make a significant difference in the way they present agriculture concepts in their classroom curriculum. -A research study shows that elementary students taught by AITC trained teachers have equivalent test scores for the state mandated standards achievement test to those students not taught using AITC materials. -Research showed 100% of teachers trained by AITC used lessons in their classroom after attending training, especially when prompted by suggested lessons in the newsletter. -100% of participants in workshops demonstrate their understanding of the lessons as well as an increase in agriculture knowledge as they work in teams to teach a lesson of their choice prior to completion of the workshop. -5% of educators participating in informational events request presentations by the Agriculture Educator volunteers for their students. -An agriculture lesson taught by an Agriculture Educator volunteer in a fourth grade classroom led to the fourth grade teacher coordinating agriculture lessons for all 28 classrooms in the K-6 elementary school. -AZ Farm Bureau recognized the value of educating about agriculture and has employed a full-time Ag Education Manager for their AITC program. Biosketch State Contact: Ms. Monica Pastor; mpastor@cals.arizona.edu Arizonas Ag Literacy Program is in a state of flux because of drastic reductions in state funding for Universities. Monica Pastor is a University of Arizona faculty member who devotes fifteen percent of her time in supervision of Gerry Parker who is a half-time program coordinator for the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Maricopa County. Monica and Gerry both have Masters in Education. Gerry is a farm owner, school board member, and a former classroom teacher. She just completed her first year in the Ag Literacy program. She works closely with 15 members of her Ag Literacy Advisory Committee in administering a research-based, scientifically accurate program that utilizes current education pedagogy. Monica was promoted to County Extension Director in October of 2007. Prior to that she was an Associate Agent, Agricultural Literacy for seven years. Monica has been involved with Ag in the Classroom since her tenure as a Fieldman and Director of Field Services with the Arizona Farm Bureau. When she became Executive Director of the Maricopa County Farm Bureau the Ag in the Classroom program was a priority directive from her volunteer Board. She was instrumental in coordinating meetings of the agriculture community to discuss education efforts by each of the agriculture organizations. A culmination of these meetings resulted in the development of the Summer Agricultural Institute and the formation of the AZ Foundation for Agricultural Literacy. The SAI just completed its eighteenth annual Institute and the Foundation is the funding source for SAI, AG Day, teacher workshops and curriculum development for the Agricultural Literacy program in Arizona. California 2008 Report Classroom Resources " Teacher Resource Guide; http://www.cfaitc.org/trg/ " WHATS GROWIN ON? and WHATS GROWIN ON? Teacher Guide; http://www.cfaitc.org/wgo/ " Commodity and Natural Resource Fact and Activity Sheets; http://www.cfaitc.org/Commodity/Commodity.php " Web Activities for Students based on WHATS GROWIN ON?; http://kids.cfaitc.org/wgo6/ " Milk Matters: Discovering Dairy www.cfaitc.org/LessonPlans/LessonPlans.php " Gardens for Learning; www.cfaitc.org/gardensforlearning/ Major Program Accomplishments or Outputs The winning stories of our annual IMAGINE THIS... student writing contest were illustrated and published in book format, a change from the formerly produced animated video. The book format helps teachers meet more standards and has been praised by the education community. Student authors participated in book signings with professional authors at the State Fair. Nearly 10,500 stories were written by 3-8 graders in 2008. In 2008 CFATIC developed Gardens for Learning: Linking State Standards to Your School Garden as a supplement to the instructional book published by CA School Garden Network. The 26-page supplement was funded by the CA Assn. of Nurseries and Garden Centers and identifies state teaching standards being satisfied by the garden activities within the book and is being distributed by CFAITC and CSGN. In Dec. 2008, CFAITC completed a new curriculum unit featuring the dairy industry. The unit, Milk Matters: Discovering Dairy, was sponsored by a grant from the CA Milk Advisory Board and is available online. The last comprehensive unit we developed was in 2001. 550+ attendees participated in the National Ag in the Classroom Conference, hosted by CFAITC in Orange County in June 2008. It was a successful event, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants. The CFAITC donor newsletter, Hands on Ag was revived with a new design and a focus on strengthening donor relations. The first new issue was released in 2008 to nearly 4,000 current, lapsed and prospective donors. CFAITC partnered with CFBF to offer a youth category for the first time in their annual photo contest. The new Budding Artists category awarded 2 prizes to children of Farm Bureau members under the age of 13. 500,000 copies of our student newspaper, WHATS GROWIN ON? (6th edition) were distributed to classrooms and communities through the CA Newspapers in Education Program in 2008. The issue focused on plant health and was included in multiple CA newspaper circulations. Major Program Impacts or Outcomes Of the 138 respondents who participated in a Nov. 2008 CFAITC survey, 85% of respondents reported to have used CFAITC programs and/or materials in their classrooms. Of this total, 94% of teachers agree that their students have developed an appreciation for agriculture as a result. The same survey showed that 95% of respondents agree that curriculum content in our WHATS GROWIN ON? student newspaper always/often meets the California State Board of Educations Content Standards. The number of CFAITC ambassadors increased by nearly 7% in 2008(11,406 in Dec. 2008 compared to 10,686 in Dec. 2007), showing significant gains in our target audience. Ambassadors are defined as educators acting as a liason between CFAITC and their school community. CFAITC is represented in 40% of Californias schools. The CFAITC Web site (www.cfaitc.org) received 183,847 unique Web site visitors in 2008, an increase of nearly 40,000 (28%) visitors compared to 2007. CFAITCs Literacy for Life Teaching Award (formerly known as Outstanding Educator Award) nominations increased by 250% in 2008 as a result of increased program visibility. There were 86 nominations online in 2008 compared to 24 online nominations in 2007. Biosketch State Contact: Ms. Judy Culbertson; jculbertson@cfbf.com Judy Culbertson, a 5th generation pear grower, grew up in Courtland, a small town just outside of Sacramento, California. Following high school, she attended and graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Business Management. In 1980 Judy joined the Agriculture in the Classroom program. Today she serves as the Executive Director for California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. Judy hopes that through the Foundation, every student can gain an appreciation and curiosity for learning about where their food and fiber come from. The dedication and belief Judy possesses in the value of agriculture and education does not stop with her role with the Foundation. She represents the Foundation on a variety of local, statewide and national boards and committees along with dedicated involvement within her own community. Montana 2007 Report Classroom Resources None reported for 2007, 2008 Major Program Accomplishments or Outputs Diana Agre and Kim Hofstad, 4th grade teachers in Conrad, were chosen to receive the National Award of Excellence in Teaching About Agriculture. They were honored at the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey in June. "Montanas Kids, Critters & Commodities K-3 Resource Guide for Teachers" Lessons were printed, bound, P R and distribution begun. Printed a teacher activity in bi-annual Newsbits. Post cards printed (and bumper stickers) from winning bumper stickers. Winning K-6 students, their families and teachers honored in Helena at the Ag Day/Bumper Sticker Luncheon. Essay Contest: Expanding Opportunities for Careers in Agriculture". 24 winners attended the CareerAwareness Workshop on the MSU-Bozeman campus June 11th-15th. Summer Volunteer Workshop trained volunteers and teachers and distributed Treasure Chest materials. Attended MEA/MFT & Montana State Reading Conference. Major Program Impacts or Outcomes 80% of Teacher Workshop teachers say they use AMS materials in their classrooms More schools/areas are hosting agriculture days or fairs to expand awareness of agriculture as an addition to AMS materials and training. There has been an increase in requests for AMS materials and presentations. Biosketch State Contact: Ms. Margie Thompson; flatcreek@3rivers.net Oregon 2008 Report Classroom Resources None reported in 2008 Major Program Accomplishments We reached more than 7,300 students through our first annual literacy project. More than 130 volunteers read to K-3 students throughout the state. Volunteers read the book, lead the students through an activity and left the book and a teacher packet in the classroom. We received record entries for our calendar contest. 2,101 students submitted artwork about Oregon agriculture. We printed our seventh school year calendar with student artwork and daily agricultural facts. Students from 29 of our 36 counties submitted artwork. We printed 10,000 calendars and are distributing them throughout Oregon. Nearly 350 people attended our Fall Harvest Dinner, which is our only fundraising event. We raised more than $42,000 and sold 39 cases of Get Oregonized books that will be donated to schools throughout the state. Major Program Impacts AITC materials and lessons were delivered to more than 77,100 students, an increase of 21% from the previous year. 80% of Oregon counties participated in our K-6 calendar contest. Biosketch State Contact: Ms. Tami Kerr; Tami.Kerr@oregonstate.edu BS in Agriculture Business Management with a minor in Animal Science. Nine years as Director of Oregon AITC.