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.
