Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

During 2018 the W2006 met twice, the first meeting was in Charleston, SC, May 15^th 2018 and the second meeting was in Bosie, ID, September 17^th, 2018.  During these meetings the committee reviewed the accomplishments during the past year and discussed future research.  The following is a breakdown of the accomplishments which fall under the umbrella of W2006 as reported by institutions.

University of Arizona

The faculty members of the University of Arizona, including Matt Mars, conducted work in Priority #1 and #2 of the W2006 project.  This work focused on the integration of local food contexts with in school-based agricultural education 

Kansas State University

The faculty members at the Kansas State University, including Gaea Hock, developed a youth education program and conference entitled the Vision for the Future of Water Supply in Kansas (Vision).  The two of the action items of Vision included: collaborate with youth related organization leadership on water-related educational opportunities and establish sessions and experiences focused on water; and, create opportunities to encourage collaboration between organizations currently involved in water education for youth.  The Kansas Department of Agriculture assisted in the development of the Kansas Water Vision Education and Outreach Working Vision supplement.  A Youth Water Advocates Conference (YWAC) will be held each summer to train a select group of students to educate others in the community/school district about water related topics and issues.  After attending the (YWAC) the students will officially be members of the Youth Water Advocates (YWA) Team. This group of high school students will speak about water issues/topics to community groups, in school classrooms, and to other key stakeholder groups. As they present, they will also collect key information about the participants’ knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes toward water issues and topics.  In addition to the Youth Water Advocates, water advocacy publications, curriculum and videos will be created to showcase the work of the students. To increase the capacity of the YWA students to conduct scientific research, they will be asked to conduct an Agriscience Fair research project (or Science Fair project) in tandem with their water presentations.  There have been 19 students trained, and planning was done this year to host the conference in tandem with the Governor's Water Conference in November 2018.

Colorado State University

The faculty members at Colorado State University, including Kellie Enns and Michael Martin, reported the following accomplishments for 2018.  The team finished a long-term curriculum development project at the university level which included research on agricultural literacy instruction through experiential education.  In 2017 an experimental course was developed which exposed 20 freshman students to the diverse sectors of the agricultural industry through experiential education.  This included a variety of field trips for hands-on training.  Based on student feedback and research conducted on students’ experiences (which is part of a student’s Master thesis), the course was elevated beyond experimental level and opened to 60 freshman in 2018.    

Michael Martin and Kellie Enns also worked to develop an educational plan for the forthcoming National Western Center (NWC) in Denver, Colorado.  The NWC is $1.3 billion project to revitalize the National Western Stock Show in Denver.  They were charged to help design the educational center and program of the new Colorado State University Building and Water Resources Building at NWC as well as advise the National Western Center about their educational programming at the NWC.   

Finally, the Colorado State University team has been active in variety of activities which involve the priority areas of W2006 project.  These included training educators and students on effective techniques for agricultural literacy, hosting workshops for students and industry groups on effective working with groups with differencing agricultural values and perceptions, developing a new graduate course (entitled Agrarian Values and Ideology) on agriculture attitudes and perceptions, and provided consultant services for measuring agricultural literacy programmatic impact.

Utah State University

Using The American Association for Agricultural Education - National Research Agenda for 2016-2020 along with the research agenda of the W2006 the following has been accomplished at Utah State University in 2018. A new website was launched in June, http://agliteracy.org, provides an accessible porthole to previous work completed by the W2006. Dr. Spielmaker, a member of the W2006, and Team Leader for the National Center for Agricultural Literacy (NCAL), manages the site with the support of curriculum specialists and researchers. The website also provides other researchers with links to influential research and a curated database of categorized research. Dr. Spielmaker maintains this database, which was initiated in year 1 of the W2006. This resource is publicly accessible, https://www.zotero.org/groups/agricultural_literacy/items. The website had 334 hits in 2018. The page with the largest number of hits (156) was the “Evaluation Tools” page that includes instrumentation for assessing agricultural literacy. The USU NCAL team and W2006 research team (Debra Spielmaker, Max Longhurst, Brian Warnick and Denise Stewardson) focus on two W2006 research priorities to: 1) Assess agricultural knowledge of diverse segments of the population; and 3) Evaluate agricultural literacy to measure the program impact. The following summarizes the 2018 accomplishments.

In 2018 two large projects were undertaken by Dr. Spielmaker with the support of two other USU researchers (Dr. Max Longhurst and Dr. Brian Warnick), and a graduate student, Rose Judd-Murray. The research was funded by USDA (26,881) to develop two assessments, one for grades 2-5 students in elementary schools and one for students in grades 9-12. The assessments were designed using the National Agricultural Literacy Outcomes (NALOs) as the benchmarks for measurement. The NALOs grew out of previous work completed by a previous agricultural literacy research committee (W2001). The development of the NALOs was a significant step forward toward addressing agricultural literacy. However, in order for educators and administrators to effectively use them in the classroom, an assessment instrument was needed. Both assessments were developed using modified Delphi techniques. To support this effort, a Teacher Advisory Committee was formed to design the 2-5 grade-level appropriate assessment questions meeting NALO indicators for agricultural literacy. Additionally, a panel of agricultural experts reviewed the questions to ensure that the language, vocabulary and context of the questions was accurate and appropriate. The instruments were designed to measure three levels of agricultural knowledge (exposure, factual literacy, and applicably proficient), and expert). These three levels of agricultural literacy provide a continuum of agricultural understanding and knowledge. The assessment instrument is intended to provide a benchmark for agricultural literacy at the 2^nd and 5^th grade levels. The framework presented here supports the analysis that a continuum of learning exists and that all learners are somewhere on that scale.

In April and May seven states from across the country were invited to participate in data collection (Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Wisconsin). The required an IRB protocol for each school district and each state. Approximately 350 second grade students and 350 fifth grade students responded to the instrument prepared for the particular grade level. Currently, data from the initial assessment instrument delivery is being analyzed for reliability and validity. The final questions/assessment will be publically available in February of 2019.

The grade 9-12 assessment was developed with similar methodology using the same levels to measure understanding. University professors served as the advisory committee for question development. In early September the instrument was given to college freshman and sophomores at Utah State University (275 students) as these students would have completed 12^th grade and should possess the necessary knowledge to aid researchers with determining the reliability and validity of the questions in each of the three criteria. The results are currently being analyzed and will be publically available in March of 2019.

These two ambitious research projects address Objective 1 and are congruent with the outcomes of the Agricultural Literacy Logic Model and grew out of previous research supported by a W2006 researcher (C. Forbes) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Upon final validation, the assessments will available online at http://agliteracy.org.

While most of this years’ efforts focused on Objective 1, Dr. Spielmaker and a graduate student, Amelia Miller, had a research poster accepted by the Mobile Lab Coalition on a foundational study, “Investigating Mobile Agricultural Classrooms for Agricultural Literacy Programming,” to describe current programs and existing evaluation measures used by mobile agricultural classrooms/labs. The findings from this surveys’ research were used as background research to develop an award winning proposal, “Evaluating Michigan’s Food, Agriculture, and Resources in Motion (Farm) Science Lab as a Modality for Agricultural Literacy.” This proposal was submitted to the Association for Communications Excellence and was awarded the 2018 Outstanding Student Research Proposal. The data has been collected and is currently being analyzed. The study will be completed in May of 2019. One more activity is underway on Objective 3. Denise Stewardson has submitted an undergraduate research grant proposal to involve Utah Agriculture in the Classroom with a program evaluation.

Objective One: Assess agricultural knowledge of diverse segments of the population:

Bohnenblust, K., Hock, G., & Callaghan, Z. (November, 2017). Measuring the Knowledge, Self-Efficacy and Satisfaction of Students Attending the Kansas Youth Water Advocates Conference. Referred poster presented at the Governor’s Water Conference, Manhattan, KS.

Countryman, A. M., Martin, M. J., & Enns, K. E. (In Press). Gains from trade: Student perceptions of an international agricultural trade course. NACTA Journal.

Hock, G., Bohnenblust, K., & Callaghan, Z. (2018, June). Developing the Next Generation of Water Advocates. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Journal, 2018 NACTA Abstracts Supplement, 62(1). Abstract.

Mars, M. M., & Schau, H. J. (2018). The jazziness of local food work: Organization level ingenuity and the entrepreneurial formation and evolution of local food systems. Rural Sociology: 1-27 (Advanced online publication) doi: 10.1111/ruso.12244

Mars, M. M., & Schau, H. J. (2018). What is local food entrepreneurship? Variations in the commercially and socially oriented features of entrepreneurship in the Southeastern Arizona local food system. Rural Sociology, 83(3), 568-597. doi: 10.1111/ruso.12197

Martin, M. J., & Hartmann, K. (In Press). Who is against agriculture. The Agricultural Education Magazine.

Martin, M. J., & Wesoloski, D. (2018). Experiences of non-conventional agriculture majors in a college of agriculture, NACTA Journal, 62, 1, 12-15.

Stofer. K. A., & Schiebel, T. (2018). What do we know? Review of U.S. public genetic modification literacy reveals little empirical data. Journal of Human Sciences and Extension. 6 (4). 59-76.

Stofer, K. A., & Schiebel, T. (2017). U.S. adults with agriculture experience are likely more familiar with genetic engineering than those without. Journal of Agricultural Education. 58 (4). 160-174.

Objective Two:  Assess attitudes and perceptions and motivations concerning agriculture of diverse segments of the population:

Mars, M. M., & Schau, H. J. (2018). The jazziness of local food work: Organization level ingenuity and the entrepreneurial formation and evolution of local food systems. Rural Sociology: 1-27 (Advanced online publication). doi: 10.1111/ruso.12244

Mars, M. M., & Schau, H. J. (2018). What is local food entrepreneurship? Variations in the commercially and socially oriented features of entrepreneurship in the Southeastern Arizona local food system. Rural Sociology, 83(3), 568-597. doi: 10.1111/ruso.12197

Martin, M. J., & Wight, A., 2018, Critical pedagogy in agriculture for environmental educators, In proceedings of the 2018 American Education Research Association Conference.

Stofer. K. A., & Schiebel, T. (2018). What do we know? Review of U.S. public genetic modification literacy reveals little empirical data. Journal of Human Sciences and Extension. 6 (4). 59-76.

Stofer, K. A., & Schiebel, T. (2017). U.S. adults with agriculture experience are likely more familiar with genetic engineering than those without. Journal of Agricultural Education. 58 (4). 160-174.

Objective Three: Evaluate agricultural literacy to measure the program impact:

Frasier, M., Clark, N., & Martin, M. J., 2018, Experiential learning for freshman in agriculture, In proceedings of the 2018 Western Region American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference. 

Miller, A., & Spielmaker, D. M. (2018, July). Investigating Mobile Agricultural Classrooms for Agricultural Literacy Programming. Poster session presented at the 2018 Mobile Laboratory Coalition Conference, Detroit, MI.

Whaley, J., Enns, K.E., & Martin, M. J., 2018, Connecting rural agriculture programs to community colleges, In proceedings of the 2018 American Association of Agricultural Educators Conference.