AgrowKnowledge: The National Center for Agriscience and Technology Education

ArowKnowledge，国家农业科学和技术教育中心，正在继续其领导地位，特别关注社区大学和中学的农业技术教育。16个ArowKnowledge社区学院合作伙伴和他们当地的中学项目、五个成员的大学理事会和一个活跃的行业委员会共享对21世纪农业技术教育的愿景，来自不同背景的学生：1.追求严格、高质量的农业、食品和自然资源(AFNR)学习计划，课程强调技术、数学和科学技能；2.在中学、社区学院和大学之间建立一个无缝的教育系统，并制定清晰的清晰计划；3.大学毕业生为充满活力和日益技术化的劳动力做好准备。该中心的智力优势在于它努力扩大课程和教师发展，并将科学、数学和技术作为学生学习农业技术教育不可或缺的一部分制度化。通过将大学理事会作为联盟的一部分，ArowKnowledge增加了研究部分，特别是在衔接、招聘、教师教育和技术转让领域。他们的参与以及工业理事会的参与也有助于验证课程和教学项目，这些项目与科学、数学和技术的国家标准保持一致。该中心对学生的更广泛影响是，由于接触到新兴技术，他们发现自己为进入农业职业生涯做好了更好的准备，无论是承担家庭农场的责任，作为一名行业技术员，还是继续接受农业科学、研究或教育专业学位的教育。16个ArowKnowledge合作伙伴与越来越多的社区大学和中学进行了接触。因此，该中心正在为全国越来越多的学生和教职员工制作教育模型、研讨会、课程指南和教学材料。ArowKnowledge中心的目的是创建支持学生成功的系统；提供整合了高级科学、数学和技术技能的课程；并培养使用该课程或增强自己的课程和计划的社区学院教师。活动包括：1.跟踪学生入学情况，并开发招生工具，以包括招收人数不足的学生。2.跟踪选定的社区学院农业专业学生数学和科学成绩的变化。3.扩大16个主要社区学院伙伴的大力参与，包括正式招聘另外32所社区学院；4.通过建立一个在区域内复制研讨会的程序，增加参与教师发展研讨会的教员人数；5.通过举办Vision 2020规划研究所，增加社区学院与中学和专上学校以及工商界的伙伴关系，这是一个建立这些伙伴关系并鼓励2+2+2衔接的过程；6.为支持在农业中使用新兴技术的研究领域制定课程指南，包括确定和/或开发学习、课程作业和基于计算机的学习对象计划。7.通过网站信息交流中心，加强科学、技术和数学课程的复制。虽然农业教育曾经被认为是社区大学体系中日益减少的一部分，但今天它重新焕发了活力，部分原因是ArowKnowledge成员的努力，他们正在招收新学生，特别是来自代表性较低的类别的学生，并找到新的方法，让学生对农业的光明未来感到兴奋。

AgrowKnowledge, The National Center for Agriscience and Technology Education, is continuing its leadership with its specific focus on agriculture technology education in community colleges and secondary schools. Sixteen AgrowKnowledge Community College Partners and their local secondary programs, a five member University Council, and an active Industry Council share a vision for 21st century agricultural technology education in which students from diverse backgrounds: 1. Pursue rigorous, high quality programs of study in Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) with coursework that emphasizes technology, mathematics, and science skills; 2. Move through a seamless educational system with clear articulation plans among secondary schools, community colleges, and universities; and 3. Graduate from college well prepared for a dynamic and increasingly technological workforce. The intellectual merit of the Center is in its effort to expand curriculum and faculty development and to institutionalize science, mathematics, and technology as an integral part of student learning in agriculture technology education. By having the University Council as part of the consortium, AgrowKnowledge adds a research component, particularly in the areas of articulation, recruitment, teacher education, and technology transfer. Their involvement, with that of the Industry Council, also helps validate curriculum and instruction projects, which are aligned with national standards for science, mathematics, and technology. The broader impact of the Center is on students who, because of their exposure to emerging technology, find themselves better prepared to enter agricultural careers, whether assuming responsibility for the family farm, working as an industry technician, or continuing their education for a professional degree in agriculture science, research, or education. The 16 AgrowKnowledge Partners reach out to a growing number of community colleges and secondary schools. As a result, the Center is producing educational models, workshops, curriculum guides, and instructional materials for an ever larger number of students and faculty across the country. The AgrowKnowledge Center's purpose is to create systems that support student success; to provide curriculum with advanced science, mathematics, and technology skills integrated; and to develop community college faculty who use that curriculum or enhance their own courses and programs. Activities include the following: 1. Tracking student enrollment and develop recruiting tools to include recruitment of underrepresented students. 2. Tracking changes in selected community college agriculture students' mathematics and science scores. 3. Expanding the strong participation of 16 Lead Community College Partners to include formal recruitment of 32 additional community colleges; 4. Increasing the number of faculty involved in Faculty Development Workshops by instituting a process that replicates the workshops regionally; 5. Increasing community college partnerships with secondary and post-secondary schools and business and industry by holding Vision 2020 planning institutes, a process for building those partnerships and encouraging 2+2+2 articulation; 6. Developing curriculum guides for areas of study that support the use of emerging technology in agriculture to include identification and/or development of programs of study, coursework, and computer-based Learning Objects. 7. Enhancing the replication of curriculum with science, technology, and mathematics integrated through the website clearinghouse. While agriculture education might once have been considered a diminishing part of the community college system, today there is a renewed vitality, in part because of the efforts of AgrowKnowledge members who are recruiting new students, especially from underrepresented categories, and finding new ways to excite students about a promising future for agriculture.