Advancing Precision Agriculture in the Urban Environment

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The agriculture industry has seen rapid advances through the development and application of precision agriculture techniques. Horticulture-based jobs are now utilizing these advances such as drones, water-sensing technology, and automated weeding systems. Combining precision agriculture with horticulture in the emerging field of urban agriculture is therefore an expanding filed that needs a skilled workforce. This is particularly true in Nebraska, where one in four jobs is connected to agriculture and many are found in an urban and/or horticulture setting. This project unites the fields of precision agriculture and horticulture to create a technical education program at a two-year college that provides a pathway to urban agriculture careers. Over its 3-year duration, current programming will be expanded to provide micro-credentialed courses related to urban agriculture technology, summer workshops for high school agriculture educators, and continuing education workshops for incumbent workers. These new resources will improve existing high-quality training to enrich student interest and skills in horticulture technology and enhance career pathways for incumbent workers. The following objectives will guide the project: 1) partner with local high schools to introduce students to career options and to provide active learning opportunities using horticulture concepts and precision technologies, 2) design and implement a series of six workshops for agriculture educators to enhance their ability to teach relevant courses in horticulture, precision technology, and urban agriculture, and 3) provide a series of five continuing education workshops for incumbent workers. This program will strengthen partnerships with area high schools and build new relationships within the horticulture and urban agriculture industries. In secondary schools, teachers will be invited to be true colleagues, by co-creating educational pathways that excite, encourage, and prepare students to consider careers in urban agriculture. A three-course modularized curriculum will be developed that can be used to supplement agriculture education courses in local high schools, and in some cases, will result in dual credit for high school students. Overall, the new curriculum will impact students and teachers at five pilot high schools and incumbent workers from around the state. Results of the project and the curriculum will be made available to other community colleges, the community of educators in agriculture education and the broader technician education community. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation’s economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.