Source: University of Puerto Rico - Utuado submitted to
COMMUNITY SERVICE AS AN ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGY FOR AGRICULTURE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
EXTENDED
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1010320
Grant No.
2016-70004-25660
Project No.
PR.W-2016-06001
Proposal No.
2016-06001
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
AA-Q
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2016
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2019
Grant Year
2016
Project Director
Davila, M.
Recipient Organization
University of Puerto Rico - Utuado
(N/A)
Utuado,PR 00641
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
?
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
10221233020100%
Knowledge Area
102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships;

Subject Of Investigation
2123 - Bedding/garden plants;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
The long term goals of the proposed project are: 1) to improve sustainable agriculture education in schools and universities of Central Puerto Rico; and 2) to serve as an example of the integration of community service in agricultural education, which will be replicated in other US insular areas and the mainland. The supporting objectives of the project are to: 1) increase sustainable agriculture and school gardens knowledge in DAT-UPRU undergraduate and elementary school students; 2) offer a summer course in sustainable agriculture; 3) engage undergraduate students in the development of 15 school gardens in elementary schools of Utuado, Jayuya and Adjuntas municipalities; 4) develop school garden STEM educational modules that teachers will use; and 5) involve undergraduate students in the teaching of STEM educational modules to elementary students using school gardens.
Project Methods
During the fall semester of 2016, the PD and Project Coordinator will create a calendar of visits to elementary schools in collaboration with school principals, teachers and the PR Department of Education Regional Science Liaison. The purposes of the school visits are to meet interested teachers, to make visual observations of facilities and potential areas for school gardens, and to administer a survey about teacher/principal interest in the project and school resources. The External Evaluator (EE) will aid in the design of the survey. The PD and Project Coordinator will visit high schools during the fall and spring semesters of Project Year 1.During the fall and spring semesters of Project Year 1, the PD and Co-PD will develop the educational modules to be used in the summer sustainable agriculture course. The course will be offered to DAT-UPRU undergraduate students in June 2017. The PD and Co-PD will also develop during this time the educational modules to be provided to teachers in Year 2 of the project.The summer course will start the first week of June 2017, and will last four weeks. The summer course will train students in the development of sustainable school gardens. The course will be interdisciplinary, and will include guest lectures, webinars and visits to existing school gardens in Puerto Rico. The external evaluator will aid in the development of assessment and evaluation instruments to be used in the summer course. Undergraduate students that participate in the summer course will later aid in the development of school gardens during Year 2 of the project.During Year 2 of the project, school gardens will be developed in elementary schools of Utuado, Jayuya and Adjuntas municipalities. Schools will be selected based on the results of the visits and surveys conducted in Year 1 of the project. School gardens will be developed by following the educational modules created in Year 1 of the project. Each participant undergraduate student will be assigned to a school. Once a week they will visit the school to aid in the delivery of the assigned educational module and to help in the maintenance of the garden.The design of the school garden may vary between schools, since the design will be participatory, considering the opinions and needs of the school community. All school gardens will include the incorporation of vegetables, tropical crops, flowers for pollinators and parasitoids, and a simple outside classroom. In May 2018, all teachers involved in the project will vote to select which teacher will represent them in the National School Garden Network Meeting. The selected teacher will travel with the PD to present project's results in the meeting. After project funding ends, DAT-UPRU students will continue to collaborate with school gardens through UPRU's community service course.The PD will be responsible of project management. She will be responsible for annual and final report submissions. She will meet weekly with the Project Coordinator and Co-PD to ensure the timely completion of project objectives. The Project Coordinator will be responsible for coordinating all activities involving elementary schools and student participation. The Co-PD will aid in the development of educational modules, and in the teaching of the summer course.The accomplishment of stated product 1 will be evaluated by documenting when the course is offered at UPRU. The accomplishment of stated products 2 and 3 will be evaluated by documenting when the gardens and the modules are created. The dates of the signing of the fifteen collaboration agreements will be recorded as evidence of accomplishment of product 4. To measure the accomplishment of Project Outcome1, pre and post surveys will be used to quantify knowledge in sustainable agriculture among project participants, before and after participation in project activities. To evaluate the accomplishment of Project Outcome2, participants will be asked to complete a pre and post program survey in which the will list the number, type and quality of interactions they have with local elementary schools. Pre and post test data will be analyzed using Infostat Statistical Software. If assumptions are met, pre and post scores will be compared using Student's t-test. If assumptions are not met, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test will be used. To evaluate the accomplishment of Project Outcome3, a survey will be administered to participant teachers and school principals in May 2018. The survey will ask about their continuation plans for the school gardens, and their interest in continuing collaborating with DAT-UPRU, among other indicators. To evaluate the accomplishment of Project Outcome4, a subject test will be given to DAT-UPRU students that participated in the project and to other comparable 15 DAT-UPRU students that did not participate, and scores will be compared.

Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Early in the project establishment(November 2016), the PD and Project coordinator had aMeeting with the Department of Education (DE) Regional Directorto explain the project objectives and to planhow the schools were going tobeselected. Elementary Schoolsand Head Start directors were invited to a meeting in December 2016 and a presentation of the Objectives, Methodology, Outreach and Expected results was given to the audience. After the visit of around 25schools and Head Start centers in the target area, fourteenelementary schools (11from the Utuado municipality and 3 from the Adjuntas Municipality) and three (3) Head Start Centers from Utuado,were selected to participate in thisproject. Fourteen (14) students from the Agricultural Techology programs and the Education Program at the University of Puerto Rico-Utuadowere selected after an evaluation of theonline applicationand an interview. An experiential summer course in sustainable agriculture and school garden developmentwas offered from July 10 to 31for those 14 students. During the summer course, the selected students and 11 school teachers from the selected schools,participated in a conference offered by the Department of Education about Integration of School Garden projects to theScience Curriculafor K to 5th grade in Puerto Rico. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?1)Training Activities: Summer Course for DAT-UPRU Undergraduate students How to manage an organicgarden? at Organic Farm in Camuy, PR Developing a sustainable school garden at Botijas I School in Orocovis, PR 2) Professional Development:PD and Project Coordinator were selected toparticipate intheSchool Garden Support Organization Leadership Institute in Santa Cruz, California from January 21-26, 2018. We are one of the 20 organizations team selected from over 120 strong applicants. This action is a consecuence of the participation in the Webminar offered by Life-Lab from California, USA (www.lifelab.org/sgso.) How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?At this moment our project is been established in the selected schools and we don't have results to disseminate yet.However, the information about the project is publishedin the web page of the University of Puerto Rico at Utuado (www.uprutuado.edu). Also, all the activities realized during the summer course were post in social media as Facebook. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Goal 1:to improve sustainable agriculture education in schools and universities of Central Puerto Rico To complete the development of additional 15 educational modules on STEAM topics. Outreach activities-To participate in the 2018 Tierra Adentro Farm Fair Goal 2:to serve as an example of the integration of community service in agricultural education, which will be replicated in other US insular areas and the mainland To continue with the development of school gardens in Utuado and Adjuntas elementary schools and Head Starts To complete the process of collaboration agreements between UPRU and local elementary schools To disseminate the results in the 2018 Annual Symposium of Agroecology and Annual Meeting of Puertorrican Society of Agricultural Sciences To attend National School Garden Network Meeting To encourage other students from DAT-UPRU to enrolled in the course Community Service (INTD 3805) and allow them to collaborate with more elementary schools inCentral Puerto Rico Area.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The major goals of this project are supported by specific objectives that were accomplishedduringthe first year as stated in the Project Timetable(09/01/2016-08/31/2017). Fourteen(14) elementary schools and Three (3) Head Start Centers were selected to participate in this project. Around Twenty (20) school teachers andfifteen (15) school directors were informed about the project and are committed to collaborate with agricultural and education undergraduate students at the University of Puerto Rico at Utuado. Fourteen (14) undergraduate students participated in asummer course offered in July 2017. The following objectives were accomplished as described: 1) increase sustainable agriculture and school gardens knowledge in DAT-UPRU undergraduate and elementary school students DAT-UPRU undergraduate students group is an interdisciplinaryteam, since some students belongs to the Agricultural Technology Department (Horticulture,Crop Production, General Agriculture) and some to the Elementary Education Program. The previous knowledge in sustainable agriculture and school gardensdependson theirpersonal experiences in agriculture because sustainable agriculture, is not currently taught at local schools or at undergraduate agriculture programs. During the summer session (July), a 64 hours course in Sustainable Agriculture and School Gardenswas offered at the University of Puerto Rico-Utuado. To measure adquired knowledge of sustainable agriculture, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineer, Arts, Mathematics)disciplines and school gardens in thesummer course, a pre and post test was administered to the participants. As a previous result, 100% of the students improvedtheir test score after participation in project activities. Statistical analysis will be done to determine significative differences on the results. 2) offer a summer course in sustainable agriculture: The students received an intensive course that included around thirty (30) topicsthat helped them to increased knowledge of sustainable agriculture, STEAM disciplines and school gardens. Seven (7)professorsof our institution and ten (10) external resources gave lectures, webminars, workshops and experiential learning to accomplish the course curricula. The following sketch shows the differentsubjects covered in the Summer Course: Vistazo general de ejemplos de proyectos de huertos escolares/enseñanza agroecológica: Herencia sociocultural taína, la agricultura de subsistencia y su relación con el territorio Bosque Modelo Nacional de Puerto Rico - gobernanza y gestión territorial Experiencia Agroecológica de la Escuela Segunda Unidad - Botijas I en Orocovis Huertos escolares: Viveros y propagación: Plantas, frut@s y cosecha: Conociendo los cultivosmás en detalle Actividad teórico-práctica: herramientas de trabajo - siembras y cultivos/manutención Actividad teórico-práctica: siembras y cultivos/manutención Manejo orgánico integrado de plagas. Conferencias por Internet/Webinars: Experiencias de ECOSUR-San Cristóbal, México y Life-Lab-California, EUA Integración del Proyecto Huertos Escolares al Currículo de Ciencias del Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico Módulos de Educación STEM Visita a la Finca Orgánica de Don Luis Soto Nutrición 01: Composta/lombricomposta y otros abonos orgánicos Actividad teórico-práctica:Sistemas agroforestales, los servicios ambientales y la conservación de la Biodiversidad. La Agricultura Biodinámica y los huertos educativos Conociendo los cultivos (6) más en detalle Cosecha y manejo apropiado de la cosecha Actividad práctica: Observando e interpretando laBiodiversidad Nutrición 02: Composta/lombricomposta y otros abonos orgánicos harinas de cáscara de huevo/rocas, etc Actividad práctica: bueyes rotocultivador Actividad práctica: recortadora huerto escolar modelo Estrategias de aprendizaje y enseñanza para nin@s del nivel elemental El mundo de los Insectos/Artrópodos y su importancia en la Agroecología Manejo orgánico integrado de enfermedades ¿Malezas o buenazas? Cambiando nuestra percepción Actividad práctica: construcción del huerto escolar modelo vivero Programa de La Finca a la Escuela Nutrición Escolar Infantil Visita a Escuela Segunda Unidad - Botijas I Manejo y conservación de suelos Documental FOOD, INC.

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