Integration of Computing in Rural Agricultural Education

Emporia State University, Emporia KS

Investigators

Abstract

As computing has become integral to the practice of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the STEM+Computing program seeks to address emerging challenges in computational STEM areas through the applied integration of computational thinking and computing activities within STEM teaching and learning in early childhood education through high school (preK-12). This proposed Exploratory Integration study is to determine under what conditions integrating computation and computational thinking in agricultural education and problem solving will increase student interest, motivation, performance in courses, independent projects, and technical careers. It is expected that students will gain proficiency in the application of programming to solve specific problems in agriculture and will derive interest in pursuing computational science and/or computing in their future academic courses and career selection. The objectives of the project include creating an educational program for students composed of four introductory and two advanced modules focused on agriculture challenges. Investigators will utilize online training workshops to prepare the participating cohort of teachers to effectively implement the education program, and to build a peer-support network to support teacher success. This project is an integration of computation within agricultural science to provide an opportunity to build a youth career model that will be applicable or adaptable to the multitudes of rural agriculture communities and schools in the Nation. Many national reports indicate the need for advancing computer science and advancing the integration of computing into STEM content in response to computationally-intensive careers, but there is a scarcity of studies examining embedding computing into non-computing careers and technical courses, such as agriculture science or agricultural mechanics classes. Thus, this agricultural-based project will address an important gap in academic research and the impact of computational agriculture on the future workforce. Although primarily-rural industries like agriculture and natural resource management are becoming increasingly technical and computationally-driven, rural students see themselves as consumers of these technologies rather than potential creators of the technologies and applications. Rural students continue to be underserved in computing and STEM education. This project will address these deficiencies by deriving high-quality educational courses exposing students to computing in a way that will appeal to the culture of the rural audience. Investigators want to know: under what conditions does integrating computing skills and competencies to address and help solve agricultural problems, increase student interest, motivation, and career opportunities? Further, how do students of different demographic and academic backgrounds interact with the computing-modified agriculture curriculum? Do these students have similar engagement patterns, performance, interest, and attitude changes? How do teachers' implementation models lead to greater classroom impact? Finally, what aspects of the implementation and integration influence student engagement and interest in future computing and STEM courses and careers?