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Impact Report

For plan Memorial Middle School Agricultural Extension and Education Center
Date January 23, 2012, 7:07 pm
For Objective Medium-term Show medium-term objectives
Impact Report Obj. 1 - My administrative philosophy is to develop and enhance the Center, maintain Center costs, improve the physical plant, collaborate with specialists and campus faculty and with other institutions, empower employees to have greater input in their job activities, and actively pursue extramural sources of funding. Accomplishing these goals will establish the Center as a model for participatory learning and experiential education in the state and nationally. As the director of the MMSAEEC, I am responsible for administering center budgets; supervising full and part-time employees; managing row-crop, orchard, fruit and garden demonstration areas; and, operating an 1800 square foot greenhouse. A dedicated effort to guest lecturing on campus, public presentations, conducting print interviews, and the development of an innovative teaching and learning model has led to local, state, and regional recognition for the Center. I am also responsible for monitoring the establishment, treatment, maintenance, and data collection of agricultural and horticultural operations at the Center. This includes identifying and acquiring materials necessary for student projects; developing plant material for Center educational/demonstration sites; greenhouse maintenance duties as needed; and oversight of greenhouse facility operation to ensure plant survival. Roughly 2,000 linear feet of trails have been installed on approximately two and one-half acres of the campus that connect the greenhouse with the rest of the physical campus landscape for teaching purposes; 640 sq feet of raised beds have been installed and are in vegetable and fruit production; roughly one-third of an acre is in row-crop vegetable production and raspberry production; 55 fruit trees have been planted to establish a campus orchard. 100% of students have been involved in the producing fresh food from campus systems. Fresh produce was used in a farm-to-school program in the Health class to teach nutrition. About 50% of electrical energy needs for greenhouse supplied by solar and wind power. The Center captures, stores and reuses water annually through a catchment system but is in need of expansion to meet water needs for program in drought years and to improve water use efficiency. All of these systems are used for public demonstration. Transforming the Memorial Middle School campus into a youth agricultural science Center is an on-going process. The following improvements to the Center have been accomplished this year: - Maintained on-site agricultural plantings toduring severe drought. - Continued use of hoophouses provide cut leaf lettuce for teaching purposes and student consumption. - Maintained on-site composting. I work closely with MMSAEEC staff to ensure programs are delivered and projects completed. I work closely with Jonathan providing leadership on program identification, design, development and implementation. I provided specific programming leadership to Jonathan on programs in geospatial technologies, robotics and renewable energy. Each of these program areas is transferable to 4H programs. In some cases, I have co-taught with Jonathan to model effective teaching strategies, curriculum development methods and program implementation/outcomes. To achieve maximum production from part-time staff, I have found it necessary to work closely with them. This demonstrates to them that I am willing to engage myself in manual labor necessary to produce agricultural products from the campus. The Center continues to be a demonstration site for renewable energy and small scale agricultural production. Grafting workshops through the Center have increased community interest in fruit tree grafting and orchard restoration activities, while the wind turbine and solar panel attract interest in renewable energy. Due to the visibility of the renewable energy efforts and the greenhouse facility, parental and community interest in the program itself has increased. I feel that we are establishing ourselves as an integral part of the community, in both formal educational efforts and nonformal outreach, and are achieving a high level of community support. I continue to provide Center tours to community members and parents of students as requested. Obj. 2 – The mean scores on the State Standards Based Assessment (SBA) for treatment school (MMS) was higher than the mean for control school for Science Total (p=0.0086; 34.9 vs. 29.3), Scientific Investigation (p=0.0296; 9.5 vs. 8.2), Physical Sciences (p=0.0008; 8.6 vs. 6.7), Science and People (p=0.0724; 3.5 vs. 3.0) the ecology subscale of the Agriculture and Natural Resource science achievement tool (ANR) (p=0.0812; 1.42 vs. 1.13) and the agriscience subscale of the ANR (p=0.0997; 6.27 vs. 5.58). Analysis using all available data (n=127) suggested a difference for Earth Science (p=0.0998; 4.5 vs. 3.8) but reanalysis with 2 data points corresponding to high magnitude residuals removed did not produce a significant school difference (p=0.1617; 4.39 vs. 3.8). School by gender interaction effects were observed for the ANR total (p=0.0786) and the emerging issues ANR subscale (p=0.0035). The ANR total for treatment school males was higher than for control school males (p=0.0482; 12.89 vs. 10.71) while differences between females was not significant (p=0.5621). A gender main effect was observed only for scientific investigation (p=0.0942; 9.39 for females and 8.38 for males). Through our research project, we have found significant differences in the on the State Standards Based Assessment (SBA) science scores between treatment school (MMS) and the control school. The treatment school has higher scores on all five subscales on the test with significant differences on 4 of the five subscales. Students from the treatment school show improved achievement in the sciences based on the integrated MMSAEEC model. When controlling for gender, the male students are achieving at a higher level than females in agriculture and natural resource science. However, this gap can be addressed through increased engagement and motivation of female students. Finally, we have gathered baseline data on youth leadership life skills integral to 4-H programs. We will use year 2 data to inform us on which items are low ranking to improve the learning experience for all students. Obj. 3 - Feasibility project has not been initiated.