Logistics

Plan B Plans:

We were monitoring the weather and by lunchtime the day of the event, if the weather was bad we would've modified our event. Our Rain Plan was to have the bus drive through the farm and do short verbal tour from the bus (Alison Reeves, the farm manager, will board the bus to give the short tour), and then continue going straight to the Lake Johnson Classroom. This is because the only activities that would be affected by adverse weather would be the tour of the Agroecology farm. We would still be able to do the short tour of the dairy unit because the dairy unit has a covered shelter. The rest of the activities would continue to take place in the Lake Johnson conference room. The decision to switch to the Rain Day Plan will be decided by the JCC Site supervisors and the Agroecology tour leaders.

When it came to the number of participants for our event, we got a group of track out students from Lake Lynn Community Center and we knew exactly how many kids to expect. Having a set number of students helped alleviate participant uncertainty, and ensured that we have the correct amount of resources for the activities we planned.

If some activities ended up taking longer than others, we would adjust the rest of our day accordingly. The agroecology farm would adjust their activities to match the rest of our timing for the day. We developed activities that can easily be added in or taken away to make the day match our timing.

Materials / Equipment Needed:

• Bus (Free through Raleigh Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources department)
• List of quiz questions for the bus ride (Free)
• Instructions for lessons, relay, planting plants, etc (Free)
• 35 pieces of paper for animal sounds game (JCC)
• List of questions to evaluate students’ experience
• Supplies for cow relay
  • 5 Cardboard cutouts of cows (donated)
  • 5 latex free gloves (JCC)
  • 2 gallons of milk (purchased)
  • 50 paper cups (purchased)
  • Duct and Masking tape (JCC)
  • 5 chairs (JCC)
  • Crate to carry everything (JCC)
• Supplies for planting plants
  • Pens (JCC)
  • Toothpicks (210) (Purchased)
  • Egg cartons (40 6-count) (donated)
  • 1 bag of potting soil (donated)
  • Seeds (6 types) (donated)
    • Donated by Cashie’s dad: Okra, corn, watermelon
    • Donated by agroecology farm: Pepper, watermelon, tomato
  • Markers (JCC)
  • Crates to carry egg cartons and materials (JCC)

Facilities:

Due to our event being a field trip, the majority of our event was out on the farm touring and moving from location to location. We were not able to decorate the farm, but we included activities that are hands-on and interactive so that students have a wow factor to enhance the field trip and the theme.

Staff Considerations:

Given that for this event we had a small group of “captive” participants (29 track out students), we did not need to recruit extra outside volunteers. We believed that our PRT 358 student team, site supervisors, Agroecology Farm employees, and the track out coordinator and chaperones would be able to adequately monitor the participants and maintain order. That being said, we had expectations for ourselves to be attentive and well coordinated to ensure the program followed the schedule we laid out. Even though we had an ample amount of adults there to watch over the kids, we only considered the individuals who had an active role in the schedule of events staff. Therefore, our staffing consisted of our group members, and Agroecology graduate student Jennie Wagner. Jenny was recruited through the Director of the Agroecology Farm, Alison Reaves, who put us in contact with Jenny. Cashie and Emily met in person with the Director to explain the program/participant/interpersonal objectives with her. After listening to our goals and objectives for the program, the Director said that she would collaborate with Jenny to develop appropriate activities for the allotted time we gave them, and no further meetings were necessary. Jenny ended up leading the tour of the Agroecology Farm and leading the Pollination Activity. The chaperones who came with the track out students were simply that, chaperones to watch over their kids, not staff that were briefed on the details of the program. Dan and Amy were there to participate and observe.

Safety and Risk Management Considerations:

• Activity Selection- We considered options that were modifiable to ensure that the abilities of each participant was taken into consideration, such as modifying the type of glove used to do the milking activity in case some of the participants had latex allergies or changed the way the relay race is structured if some of the participants were not able to perform the tasks of the relay due to disability.
• Conducting the Activity- We ensured safety during the field trip by having a large team of supervisors who were attentive to the students. We had around 10 adults for 30 students. This supervision was especially important if we got the chance to work with the Dairy Unit and the kids were getting hands-on interaction with animals that may have caused areas of concern. The large number of supervisors was used to communicate expected conduct while the event was taking place, enforcing the use of safety equipment, and monitoring the participants for misbehavior or misuse of equipment or resources.
• Environmental Conditions- Our program moved through many varied locations and it was therefore important to check the conditions of pathways between areas. This required one of the adults to lead and actively perceive potential problems. In most cases this was the Agroecology tour leaders who were the most familiar with the area. The rest of the adults duty was to be vigilant of other unforeseen hazards like rugs being flipped up, etc.

Budget / Resource Allocation:

Adventures in Agroecology did not have a budget from Jaycee Community Center. Site supervisors Dan and Amy told us not to worry about money or resources and did not want to hinder our creative ideas. However, for this program we did not have to make a substantial amount of purchases. We sat down a few times to go through all of the materials we would need, and we discovered that for most of the materials either JCC already had the supplies, the farm could supply the materials, or a group member could donate the needed material. The only item we ended up needing to purchase was a package of small Dixie cups. We did not want to charge students for the event because we thought the information they would be learning was invaluable. Our group felt strongly that agriculture is something children should deserve to learn about without money being a factor that deterred them from learning. Another reason we did not charge for the event is because there really was not a need. Since we were able to get all of the materials (minus the cups) needed from JCC and donations, there was no significant financial reason to charge for the event and make money back to earn a profit. Plus we were wanting to serve the community and provide a program where the community would benefit, and we felt that charging for this kind of experience would have ran contrary to our goals.

• Bus (Free through Raleigh Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources department)
• List of quiz questions for the bus ride (Free)
• 35 pieces of paper for animal sounds game (JCC)
• List of questions to evaluate students’ experience
• Supplies for cow relay
  • 5 Cardboard cutouts of cows (JCC)
  • 5 latex free gloves (JCC)
  • 50 paper cups (purchased, $3.62)
  • Duct and Masking tape (JCC)
  • 5 chairs (JCC)
  • Crate to carry everything (JCC)
• Supplies for planting plants
  • Pens (JCC)
  • Toothpicks (JCC)
  • Egg cartons (40 6-count) (donated and JCC)
  • 1 bag of potting soil (JCC)
  • Seeds (6 types) (donated and Agroecology Farm)
    • Cashie’s dad: Okra, corn, watermelon
    • Agroecology farm: Pepper, watermelon, tomato
  • Markers (JCC)
  • Crates to carry egg cartons and materials (JCC)

Evaluation:

Evaluation of Participants:

• Given that our program was for younger children, we thought it would be best to evaluate their thoughts on the event’s success or failures in an informal manner. We asked a series of voluntary questions on the bus ride home for instance, “What was your favorite part about today?” We took notes on the children’s responses and look over them as a group later to interpret the results
• While the students were being given the tour and participating in agroecology activities we looked for a number of cues indicating that they were having a meaningful experience. These cue included, but weren’t limited to asking questions, listening and interacting with the guide, looking around curiously, following directions, and not having off-topic side conversations. During our, the Jaycee Leadership team’s, activities we wanted to be looking out for similar cues that indicated their level of immersion as well as signs of camaraderie like cheering on their teammates, talking through team ideas, and helping others succeed.

Evaluation of Program:

• As previously mentioned, we can look at our notes from the bus ride home questions as well as discuss some of the things we saw and heard as a group. We will go over all of the cues we discussed beforehand at the soonest possible time after the program so that details will be fresh in our minds and we can recall efficiently. If we notice anything going particularly well or particularly bad we can make a note of it on paper and discuss later on what aspects of our program went well and what needs improvements.

Project Mgmt Timeline:

See appendix for project management timeline.

Run Sheet for Day of Program:

See appendix for run sheet.