3 pages, The University of Missouri Integrated STEM Internship Program (MU-ISIP) is a 9-week internship experience that helps prepare undergraduates for the workforce or graduate school in four AFRI areas: (a) plant health and production, (b) animal health and production, (c) food safety, nutrition and health, and (d) agricultural economics and rural communities. This program helps address the need for the next generation of agriculturalists and food scientists through experiential learning. Additionally, it exposes undergraduates to Extension as a career option. This article outlines our approach to MU-ISIP and lessons learned during the program’s inception.
23 pages, School-based growing spaces support student engagement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning through authentic agricultural pursuits. We conducted a survey of Nebraska schools to characterize existing school-based growing spaces and to identify challenges limiting garden-based STEM learning. Our findings confirm the use of school-based growing spaces for kindergarten through 12th-grade STEM instruction, especially in the sciences. Opportunities for technology and engineering experiences are currently limited, and additional professional development support is needed to broaden garden-based STEM learning efforts. Our findings are relevant to current and future Extension efforts supporting school gardens, especially in rural agricultural communities.
10 pages, With a focus on the Commonwealth of Virginia, we reviewed literature and data associated with the prevalence and persistence of women's engagement in agriculture from youth-focused programs through to college and employment in order to learn which models of outreach may best attract women to and retain women in agricultural careers. We found that girls in Virginia have strong participation in early agriculture-related activities but that women constitute the minority of primary farm owners. Our systematic literature review shows that using science, technology, engineering, and math models of outreach and reframing agriculture as a career that builds communities and cares for the planet can engage more women in agriculture.
4 pages, Educators use school gardens to incorporate science, technology, engineering, and math programming into their curricula. Extension agents are called on to assist with planning and long-term support of these gardens, often working with educators who have no horticultural experience. University of Georgia Extension's school garden team created a multitiered approach to serving these gardeners while ensuring efficient use of Extension agents' time and resources. This approach includes a beginning-steps publication, hands-on garden training, and school garden associations. The result is more sustainable school gardens with limited frustration on the parts of school gardeners and Extension agents.
7 pages, • Consumers want transparency and sharing of more information regarding animal welfare, housing, and the environmental impacts of animals. Social media provides many new opportunities for farmers and ranchers to introduce science and technology in away that encourages the public to make informed decisions.
• All individuals associated with food production have the responsibility to communicate effectively with the public, news media, and policymakers. Effective communication on issues related to sustainable food production requires a commitment to building trust, shared values, ethics, and credible expertise.
• Additional research is needed to understand the best way to frame messages related to the production of meat, milk, and eggs for various audiences who do not fully understand where these foods come from.
• Policies and laws governing the production of meat, milk, and eggs should integrate ethical issues and science-based information.
Online journal - PLOS Medicine. 13 pages., Results of more than 100 interviews with top managers and executives at 13 bioscience companies to learn about bioindustry ethics from their perspective. Agricultural biotechnology firms represented.
Via Food Safety Network. 2 pages., Conference speaker notes that biotechnology has automatically come to mean transgenic. "He said some of the confusion has been caused by scientists themselves and he criticized those who have oversold and over-promised the technology."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C21771
Notes:
Pages 3-36 in Sandra Braman (ed), Biotechnology and communication: the meta-technologies of information. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, New Jersey. 287 pages.
