Ag Is STEM

STEM in Agriculture

Agriculture is the quintessential STEM project. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are woven into every component of agriculture - making agriculture a tremendous source for STEM contextual learning. STEM linkage to agriculture is largely ignored by many outside of agriculture. The context of agriculture, food and natural resources (AFNR) provides an innovative way to connect students to STEM. Additionally, agriculture needs STEM technicians for the changing and new careers in AFNR.

This website is a work in progress and created in part by a College of Southern Idaho GNED 101 class, "Exploring STEM in Modern Agriculture."

Also, follow us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AgIsSTEM/ and check our a companion Facebook page Ag101:

https://www.facebook.com/Agri101/.

Background

Over the past 30 to 40 years several significant efforts have been attempted to bring the emerging career-focused two-year collegiate field into better alignment with the needs of industry and the continuum of educational programming from secondary to post-secondary non-baccalaureate degree, to professional and graduate degree programs and systems of higher education.

In 1983 the Production Credit Association and the Federal Intermediate Credit Banks published research findings of the Battelle Memorial Institute on the future of U.S. agriculture in the book Agriculture 2000: A Look at the Future. The forward was written by then Secretary of Agriculture, John R. Block, and focused on a very broad and qualitative review of the evolving agricultural technologies and trends. Even then, the report recognized the need for more highly trained individuals and the impact that science and technology can provide.

In 1988, the National Research Council established the Committee on Agricultural Education in Secondary Schools at the request of the U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture and Education to assess the contributions of agricultural instruction to the maintenance and improvement of U.S. agricultural productivity and economic competitiveness. The Committee recommended many goals for instruction, the subject matter, and required skills. Overall, the Committee indicated that agricultural education was at a crossroads and that ". . .a renewed commitment to and broadening of agricultural education" was needed to ensure the skills and knowledge essential to the future vitality of U.S. agriculture.

In 1991 the Board on Agriculture and National Research Council joined with the USDA held a national conference to chart comprehensive changes needed to meet the challenges of undergraduate professional education in agriculture. The findings were published in 1992 Agriculture and the Undergraduate and concluded that the U.S. needed to invest in the future through "human capital and the scientific knowledge base to revitalize and reinvigorate one of its leading industries, the agriculture, food and environmental system.” To accomplish this, the report indicated that all students should be educated about agriculture with some being educated specifically for careers in agriculture. The proceedings are a source of ideas that can still contribute to the improvement of agricultural education.

Reshaping Curricula in 1995 reported on some of the few successes and false starts encountered to change AFNR educational programs. In 1996, Revolutionizing Higher Education in Agriculture: Framework for Change was published as a follow up to Agriculture and the Undergraduate. This report suggested that a systemic content and context change was needed due to the complexities of AFNR, due in part to the revolutions in the ". . .underlying sciences and technologies: economics, ecology, molecular biology, physiology, computer technology, biotechnology, and more."

Finally, in October of 2006 at the National Academy of Sciences over 300 people from academe, industry, government, professional societies and other stakeholders came together for the "Leadership Summit to Effect Change in Teaching and Learning" in AFNR. This was a follow up to the meeting that produced Agriculture and the Undergraduate.

Nine recommendations for change resulted from the meeting but the general consensus was that the change is slow and not much happened since the 1991 meeting. Proceedings of this meeting were published in 2009 as "Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World."

It is time for something to happen. It is time to make the connection of STEM to agriculture.