Education for Technical Applications in Agriculture

该项目旨在通过教育高中生掌握现代农业设备和操作中使用的技术，促进国家在健康、繁荣和福利方面的利益。这些技术包括地理空间技术、机器人技术、电子学、传感器和计算机控制。农业装备行业严重缺乏受过制造、使用和维护现代装备培训的合格技术人员。为了解决这一农业技术员劳动力缺口，该项目计划在社区大学和中学教职员工以及设备制造商和经销商之间建立伙伴关系。这一合作伙伴关系将合作开发和实施中学课程和教师专业发展倡议，以促进农业技术教育。由此产生的课程将针对高中和大学的双重学分而设计。完成证书并获得大学学分的中学生将准备好无缝地进入合作学院的农业技术员培训计划，或直接进入农业技术员大军。该项目的主要目标是建立一个中学农业技术员计划，专注于与高等教育和农业技术员职业直接相关和可转移的技能和知识。由中央湖泊学院的AgCentric和农业科学教育课程(CASE)领导的合作伙伴包括Northland社区和技术学院、Ridgewater学院和行业合作者。这些合作伙伴将利用他们的资源和经验，确保该项目满足行业、学生和教师在农业技术员教育方面的需求。该项目打算通过开发将农业科学与复杂的机械系统联系起来的课程内容，在全国范围内推广。课程将按照案例模式编写、实地测试和修订，案例模式以证据和当前的教学方法为基础。项目评估将衡量课程开发和实施的进度，增加大学和劳动力准备的假设学生结果，以及对农业技术人员劳动力的影响。该项目的最终特点将是开发一个行业认可的证书，这将有助于促进中学生和大专学生的大学、职业和就业抱负。该项目由高级技术教育计划资助，该计划专注于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to advance national interests in health, prosperity, and welfare by educating high school students in technologies used in modern farming equipment and operations. These technologies include geospatial technologies, robotics, electronics, sensors, and computer controls. The agricultural equipment industry has a significant shortage of qualified technicians trained to manufacture, use, and maintain modern equipment. To address this agricultural technician workforce gap, the project plans to develop a partnership among community college and secondary school faculty, and equipment manufacturers and dealers. This partnership will collaborate to develop and implement a secondary school curriculum and faculty professional development initiative for technical agricultural education. The resulting courses will be designed for dual enrollment credit at high schools and colleges. Secondary students who complete the credential and earn college credit will be prepared to move seamlessly into an agricultural technician training program at partnering colleges or directly into the agricultural technician workforce.The primary goal of the project is to build a secondary school agricultural technician program that focuses on skills and knowledge that are directly relevant and transferable to higher education and to agricultural technician careers. The partners, led by AgCentric at Central Lakes College and the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE), include Northland Community and Technical College, Ridgewater College, and industry collaborators. These partners will leverage their resources and experience to ensure this project meets industry, student, and faculty needs in agricultural technician education. The project intends to have a national reach, through developing course content that links agricultural science with complex mechanical systems. The curriculum will be written, field-tested, and revised following the CASE model, which is based on evidence and current pedagogical approaches. The project evaluation will measure the progress of curriculum development and implementation, hypothesized student outcomes of increased college and workforce preparation, and impacts on the agricultural technician workforce. A culminating feature of this project will be the development of an industry-recognized credential that will help further the college, career, and workforce aspirations of secondary and post-secondary students. 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.