Precision Agriculture Curriculum Enhancement

需要技术人员和专家来满足精准农业行业的需求，如精准农业技术人员，作物专家，营养管理专家，精准农艺师，服务技术人员和研究科学家。他们与土壤测试公司，作物咨询公司以及化肥和化学品零售商合作，但精确农业教育机会的短缺限制了企业雇用合格员工的能力，并迫使他们将有限的资源用于在职工人培训。此外，行业需求和现有培训之间的差距导致毕业生不得不重新培训或参加额外的课程，即使他们已经获得了普通农业学位。通过为高中和大学生提供增强课程，伊利诺伊州帕克兰学院的这个项目将根据行业需求教育各种各样的农业工人，因为它提供了一个强大的教育和培训计划，以支持伊利诺伊州和美国的重要农业产业。该项目的一个重点是增加从事精准农业的妇女人数，这将加强美国新兴产业并使其多样化。通过该项目开发的可交付成果和最佳实践将通过与ATE国家地理空间技术卓越中心、俄亥俄州斯普林菲尔德的克拉克州立社区学院和农业教育会议的协调传播。精准农业的工作需要技术和农业专业知识的独特组合，而这对高中生和大学生来说并不普遍。由于精准农业工作的高度技术性，该领域的课程往往已经过时，不能为学生提供充分的准备。加强两年制大学的精准农业课程，并将这一课程与高中和四年制大学联系起来，将大大提高一些农业部门技术人员的准备程度。它将利用现有的精准农业课程作为增强计划的基础，包括更全面的副学士学位，更新的衔接协议，以及为地区高中开发双招生内容。这些组成部分将建立一个2+2+2结构，可在其他区域复制并可持续。该项目将利用新兴技术与农学结合，以加强精准农业教育，并将与当地和区域雇主密切合作开发。将采用形成性和总结性评价程序，以不断加强项目活动，并为研究和评价项目和交付成果的成功提供机会。

Technicians and specialists are needed in order to fulfill the demand of the precision agriculture industry as precision agriculture technicians, crop specialists, nutrient management specialists, precision agronomists, service technicians, and research scientists. They work with soil testing companies, crop consulting firms, and fertilizer and chemical retailers, but the shortage of precision agriculture educational opportunities limits the ability of businesses to hire qualified employees and forces them to use their limited resources on incumbent worker training. In addition, the gap between industry need and existing training leads to graduates having to retrain or take additional courses even though they have already earned a general agriculture degree. By offering an enhanced curriculum to high school and college students, this project at Parkland College in Illinois will educate a wide variety of agriculture workers in line with industry needs as it provides a robust education and training program to support the vital agricultural industry of Illinois and the United States. A focus of the project is on increasing the number of women in precision agriculture, which will strengthen and diversify an emerging American industry. The deliverables and best practices developed through the project will be disseminated through coordination with the ATE National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence, Clark State Community College in Springfield, OH, and agricultural education conferences.Jobs in precision agriculture require a unique combination of technical and agricultural expertise that is not widely available for high school and college students. Due to the highly technical nature of precision agriculture jobs, the curriculum in the field is often outdated and does not fully prepare students for available positions. Enhancing precision agriculture curriculum for two-year colleges and connecting this curriculum with high schools and four-year colleges will dramatically improve the preparedness of technicians in a number of agricultural sectors. It will utilize the existing precision agriculture curriculum as the foundation for an enhanced program including a more comprehensive associate degree, updated articulation agreements, and the development of dual-enrollment content for area high schools. These components will create a 2+2+2 structure that will be replicable in other regions and sustainable. The project will utilize emerging technologies in conjunction with agronomy to enhance precision agriculture education and will be developed in close partnership with local and regional employers. A formative and summative evaluation process will be employed to continuously enhance the project activities and provide opportunities for researching and evaluating the success of the project and deliverables.