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2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (Autumn 2021) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Koetz ◽  
Veronica Bullock ◽  
Nicholas Burgmeier ◽  
Angie Manuel ◽  
Rod Williams

Partnerships between natural resources agencies and Extension have existed for years and Extension has served in many roles. These roles include writing grants, facilitating meetings, training, and designing collaborative programming. Herein, we highlight a partnership between Purdue Extension and the Indiana Division of State Parks (IDSP) where Purdue Extension used an existing partnership to create programming about eastern hellbenders in a format presentable by interpretive naturalists, Extension educators, and K-12 teachers. The program increased pre/post knowledge gain scores for attendees by 129.27%. This model has successfully expanded Purdue Extension’s outreach efforts while satisfying a need expressed by IDSP. Forming reciprocal partnerships with nontraditional partners can have a tremendous positive impact on the success of outreach and education efforts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 83-95
Author(s):  
John Diaz ◽  
Colby Silvert ◽  
Cody Gusto ◽  
K.S.U Jayaratne ◽  
Lendel Narine

The rapid diversification of workforces and client stakeholder groups has prompted a growing emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion as a critical component of professional development across industry sectors. While the proliferation of intercultural competence training models has increased awareness among employers and workforces, the competencies advocated in these models may not always be relevant to an organization or institution’s operational context. This study addresses the need for contextually grounded intercultural competency models targeted to extension education contexts. Using a three-phased Delphi approach, data were gathered from a panel of 36 intercultural competency experts. The panel identified nine personal traits thought to be critical for the recruitment and development of culturally competent extension educators. The authors explain how these results may be used to recruit extension educators with traits conducive to engagement with a broad audience of stakeholders using culturally sensitive and responsive techniques. Given the distinct processes by which different components of intercultural competence are developed, we recommend specific measures and techniques administrators can utilize to recruit and develop extension educators who possess the agreed-upon intercultural personality traits.


2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (Autumn 2021) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siew Guan Lee ◽  
Gretchen Manker ◽  
Nav Ghimire ◽  
Laura Frost ◽  
Julie Buck

The “School Pantry: Mystery Food Box Cook-Off” is a program designed to increase awareness of food insecurity among youth and teach strategies to prepare healthy foods on a budget. A pre-and-post survey showed a statistically significant difference in participants’ overall knowledge, skills, and confidence level after the program compared to before the program. Findings revealed a hands-on nutrition education strategy via cook-off could educate youth on food insecurity and increase their knowledge and confidence to make healthy and affordable meals at home. Other Extension educators seeking to address food insecurity and food preparation skills among youth can replicate this program.


Author(s):  
Han Chen ◽  
Tamara Benjamin ◽  
Wenjing Guan ◽  
Yaohua Feng

Production of value-added foods is of growing interest to small-scale produce growers. However, previous studies reported that they lack sufficient food safety awareness and have limited knowledge of applicable food safety regulations. Targeted food safety education can help to address these challenges. This study used focus groups and a combination of web-based and printed surveys to evaluate growers’ attitudes toward and knowledge of value-added business and to assess their food safety education needs. A total of 136 Indiana produce growers participated in the study, including 38 focus group participants and 98 survey participants. Overall, growers were aware of the importance of food safety, with 78% of the survey participants agreeing strongly that food safety was a top priority in value-added businesses. Most survey participants (82%) self-reported being knowledgeable about food safety. Most were confident in their ability to run a successful value-added business. The top two barriers that hindered growers from learning about food safety were time limitations and an overwhelming amount of information. Growers preferred to receive additional educational materials on selling non-home-based vendor products, communication strategies with regulators and inspectors, and marketing strategies; they trusted the information from extension educators and university extension publications the most. This study guides the development of future food safety education programs for small-scale growers who are interested in establishing a value-added business.


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 342-343
Author(s):  
Jazmin A Markey ◽  
Angel Riggs ◽  
Alexi Moehlenpah ◽  
David Lalman ◽  
Dan Stein

Abstract The role of extension educators is to convey cutting-edge information to the varying sectors of the agricultural industry. In recent years, Oklahoma State University has initiated the process of creating online continuing education courses for Oklahoma-based extension educators. The objective is to develop online modules to enhance educator professional development through expansion of animal science knowledge. In the spring of 2021, Oklahoma extension educators will receive the opportunity to enroll in the introductory level course of this series, “Livestock Production Practices 101” (LPP 101). LPP 101 has been designed for extension educators that have little to no animal science background. The course will be comprised of eight lessons. The eight lessons include livestock species terminology, vision, hearing and handling, nutrient classification, digestive anatomy, reproductive anatomy, life cycles - from conception to consumption, breeds and genetic evaluation parameters, and comparative anatomy. Each lesson will convey species-specific information relative to cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens. Lessons will include activities such as readings and interactive illustrations. At the conclusion of each lesson, knowledge checks will be given as review to prepare educators for a quiz. Knowledge checks and quiz questions will be a combination of fill-in the blank, multiple choice, matching, and species-specific sorting. Educators must obtain an eighty percent or higher on all lesson quizzes to receive a course certificate. Educators will complete approximately five hours of course work over a ten-week period. A survey will be offered at the conclusion of the course to assess whether the educator found the course to be both engaging and beneficial. The survey will also serve as a guide as to which topics provided in this course would be sought after if developed into courses of their own.


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 101-102
Author(s):  
Sandra L Dillard

Abstract Even though forage and grazing lands represent the largest land use in the United States, the number of forage faculty positions nationwide has decreased by 47% in the last 15 years, with only an estimated 2.3 forage research and Extension full-time equivalents (FTE) per state. This challenge has made partnerships with county/regional agents and Extension faculty from other states an increasingly important component of a successful Extension program. Whereas virtual/online programs existed prior to 2020, people of all ages are currently more comfortable and adept with virtual technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving forward, virtual meetings and hybrid meetings will likely become more routine, making it possible to disseminate knowledge to producers locally and across the state, region, and country concurrently. This approach will enable Extension educators to be more efficient in their knowledge transfer as illustrated by programs such as the Bermudagrass Hay Summit which has seen an almost six-fold increase in attendance from 2020 to 2021 because travel is not required. Lastly, there is a largely untapped opportunity in on-farm demonstrations and research. An example of how this can positively affect adoption of new technology is the regional program Alfalfa in the South. This program combines both on-farm and experiment station research. As a result of on-farm demonstrations, producer interest in adoption of alfalfa across Alabama and Georgia has increased in the last 3 years. There are many challenges to Extension programming in forages, but there are also ample opportunities to partner with other state Extension programs, as well as with producers to disseminate forage and pasture management effectively and efficiently to the forage and livestock sectors across the United States.


Horticulturae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 370
Author(s):  
Elsa S. Sánchez ◽  
Thomas M. Butzler ◽  
Timothy E. Elkner ◽  
Robert Pollock ◽  
Francesco Di Gioia

Cultivar selection is an important managerial task for commercial farmers. Numerous available options provide marketing opportunities for farmers; however, they can also make cultivar selection time-consuming. For the past 13 years, a team of Penn State Extension educators and university faculty has implemented a new model to evaluate cultivars for key vegetable crops to assist farmers. Our approach started by building relationships within the vegetable industry with farmers, seed company representatives, and farmer-driven organizations who support our program with funding and gift-in-kind donations. We also added rigor to cultivar evaluations by conducting trials of key vegetable crops over 2 years at three locations. The results were used to develop cultivar recommendations, which were disseminated through various face-to-face and distance Extension avenues. The results were also published in refereed journals. The combination of funding, Extension products, and refereed articles led to university support. A drawback to our approach was the difficulty implementing uniform production methods at three experimental sites. The input of a statistical consultant assisted with overcoming this drawback. This model also required the use of strategies common to successful teams. Our methods are described here for those who desire to build a similar program.


2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (Summer 2021) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinan Banna ◽  
Kaitlin Danible ◽  
Chloe Panizza ◽  
Carol Boushey ◽  
Deborah Kerr ◽  
...  

The mobile food record™ (mFR™) is a novel app that allows for the tracking of individual food waste and addresses the limitations of current methods to accurately quantify food waste. Extension educators may use data from the mFR™ to create educational initiatives for food waste prevention and education that may be implemented in settings such as schools and universities. The mFR is an innovative application that simplifies the process of collecting food-based data and accurately quantifying food waste for use in Extension.


2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (Summer 2021) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice Smith ◽  
Shannon Wiley

4-H Youth Development prides itself on providing essential resources to reach underserved minority populations. 4-H provides programming and professional development for volunteers to include diverse hands-on training, and cultural competency workshops. This article provides best practices for the inclusion of African American volunteers in 4-H programming efforts that could help extension educators better understand the need to include minority volunteer roles and responsibilities. These strategies include strengthening diverse volunteer make-up, increasing participation and trust among African American youth, and engaging volunteers working in educational organizations that could provide real world experiences for youth.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9017
Author(s):  
Koralalage S. U. Jayaratne ◽  
Daniel P. Collins ◽  
Shannon B. McCollum

The purpose of this research study was to determine the challenges faced by early-career youth development extension educators and strategies helpful in managing those challenges. This study used the modified Delphi method of three rounds with a specifically selected expert panel of 24 members to build consensus on the challenges that early-career youth development extension educators faced and managing strategies of those challenges. The expert panel of this Delphi study was selected from two south-eastern states in the U.S. based on their proven success and effectiveness in youth development extension programming in their respective counties. The three-round Delphi study led to building the consensus on 16 challenges faced by early-career youth development extension educators and 14 strategies helpful in managing those challenges. The findings of this study have implications for planning onboarding training programs for early-career youth development extension educators. Future research is needed to understand how identified strategies contribute to managing early-career challenges faced by youth development extension educators.


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