Developing a Precision Agriculture Workforce Ladder through Secondary, College, and Incumbent Worker Education that Integrates Emerging Technologies and Farm Data

以两年制大学为重点，先进技术教育（ATE）计划侧重于推动我国经济的高科技领域的技术人员教育。根据劳工统计局的预测，需要技术人员来满足农业和食品科学、环境科学和保护、农业设备机械和服务以及土地测绘等需要精准农业的领域日益增长的需求。精准农业的工作需要独特的技术和农业专业知识的结合，这对中学生和大学生来说并不普遍。不断变化的行业需求与现有培训之间的差距意味着，即使是在职工人也必须寻求精确农业技术和实践方面的额外培训或教育，以获得工作并取得成功。通过为中学生，两年制大学生和在职行业工人提供增强教育经验的阶梯，内布拉斯加州东北社区学院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，以支持内布拉斯加州和美国的重要农业产业。该项目的一个重点是增加西班牙裔妇女和个人在精准农业中的人数，这将加强和多样化美国新兴产业。通过该项目开发的可交付成果和最佳实践将与ATE Central协调，通过区域农业和文化活动，以及通过农业教育期刊和会议，在农业教育社区的网站上传播。由于精准农业工作的高度技术性，农业课程往往过时，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，并将这一课程与中学和在职工人教育联系起来，将大大提高一些农业部门技术人员的准备程度。内布拉斯加州东北社区学院的教师，与博学的无畏合作，并与当地农业产业咨询，将利用学院现有的精准农业课程作为基础，为更多的技术支持，数据驱动和经验的应用科学协会（A.A.S.）学位课程在整个精准农业A.A.S.中整合新兴技术和纵向农场数据。该计划将为大学生提供重要的机会，参与现实世界的农场场景，收集和分析农场数据的过程，并决定知情的行动计划。此外，在模块化的三个核心课程的精准农业A.A.S.计划，调查人员将灵活地调整课程模块，用于中学介绍Ag课程和东北地区早期的大学精准农业课程，以鼓励学生完成高中学业并寻求大学教育。这些课程模块也将成为一系列符合学分资格的讲习班和混合课程的基础，为在职农业工人提供支持，以提高他们的生产力。当地中学教师将与项目小组合作，共同开发和试点一个精准农业单元，该单元可用于内布拉斯加州所有农业教育学校提供的农业入门课程。当地行业代表将作为东北部精准农业项目咨询委员会的成员，为项目和课程设计提供投入。该项目将支持一个全职的精准农业培训助理，这将有助于拟议的教育活动，并将促进东北社区学院和高中之间的关系和在职劳动力在其服务领域。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。

With an emphasis on two-year colleges, the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program focuses on the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy. According to projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, technicians are needed to fulfill growing demand in fields that require precision agriculture such as agriculture and food science, environmental science and protection, farm equipment mechanics and service, and land surveying and mapping. Jobs in precision agriculture require a unique combination of technical and agricultural expertise that is not widely available for secondary and college students. The gap between evolving industry need and existing training means that even incumbent workers must seek additional training or education in precision agriculture technologies and practices to acquire jobs and succeed in them. By offering a ladder of enhanced educational experiences to secondary students, two-year college students, and incumbent industry workers, Northeast Community College in Nebraska 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 Nebraska and the United States. A focus of the project is on increasing the number of women and individuals of Hispanic origin in precision agriculture, which will strengthen and diversify an emerging U.S. industry. The deliverables and best practices developed through the project will be disseminated in coordination with ATE Central, at websites reaching agriculture education communities, through regional agriculture and cultural events, and through agriculture education journals and conferences.Due to the highly technical nature of precision agriculture jobs, the agriculture curriculum 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 secondary schools and incumbent worker education will dramatically improve the preparedness of technicians in a number of agricultural sectors. Faculty at Northeast Community College in Nebraska, collaborating with Erudite Ingenuity and consulting with local agriculture industry, will utilize the college's existing precision agriculture curriculum as the foundation for a more technology-enabled, data-driven, and experiential Associates of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree program. Integration of emerging technologies and longitudinal farm data throughout the precision agriculture A.A.S. program will provide important opportunities for college students to engage in real-world farm scenarios, the processes of gathering and analyzing farm data, and deciding on informed action plans. In addition, after modularizing three core courses of the precision agriculture A.A.S. program, investigators will flexibly adapt the course modules for use in the secondary Intro Ag course and in Northeast's early college precision agriculture course(s) to encourage students to complete high school and seek college-level education. The course modules will also be the foundation of a series of credit-eligible workshops and hybrid courses for incumbent agriculture workers to support their productivity. Local secondary teachers will collaborate with the project team to co-develop and pilot a precision agriculture unit that could be used in the Introduction Ag course offered by all Nebraska agriculture education schools. Local industry representatives will provide input on program and curriculum design as members of Northeast's Precision Agriculture Program advisory committee. The project will support a full-time Precision Agriculture Training Associate that will contribute to the proposed educational activities and will facilitate relationships between Northeast Community College and the high schools and incumbent workforce in its service area. 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.