The regional AG biotech academy will provide hands-on training, classroom-ready resources, and standards-based curriculum to 180 stem educators through a professional development program consisting of…

The Regional Ag Biotech Academy Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture will provide $300,000 to Education Projects & Partnerships, LLC to deliver agricultural biotechnology professional development training to 180 STEM educators through 2023. Funded under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program (AFRI, CFDA No. 10.310), the project aims to address the lack of agricultural literacy among US citizens and STEM classrooms. Education Projects & Partnerships will lead project design, development, and implementation in partnership with four agricultural industry collaborators. Over three years, in-person and virtual workshops will offer hands-on lab activities, classroom resources, and curriculum focused on biotechnology topics like DNA analysis and genetically modified organisms. All educators will receive $375 in lab supplies to replicate lessons. The unique collaboration seeks to strengthen connections between industry issues and STEM education in communities dependent on agriculture.

The regional AG biotech academy will provide hands-on training, classroom-ready resources, and standards-based curriculum to 180 stem educators through a professional development program consisting of immersive in-person and virtual activities in three separate workshops in 2021, 2022, and 2023. In each year, 30 teachers will attend in-person and 30 teachers will attend virtually. The virtual cohort will receive full access to workshop activities and resources and will have a dedicated team of educators monitoring and moderating the virtual discussion during the live workshop. All workshop activities focus on biotechnology in agriculture, with topics including aseptic techniques for labs, DNA analysis basics, protein extraction, gmos, and PCR for diagnostic purposes. In addition to training, all teachers will receive $375 worth of supplies after the training to replicate lessons in their classroom. Project design, development, and implementation will be led by education projects &partnerships (EP) in partnership with four key industry collaborators: ohio soybean council (OSC), ohio corn & wheat (OCW), corteva, and the national corn growers association (ncga).with these industry partnerships playing a central role in the planning and implementation of the project, the goals of the regional AG biotech academy mirror current issues of the agricultural industry. Research shows a widespread lack of agricultural literacy among US citizens, an issue similarly reflected in stem classrooms across the country. The project's unique collaborative model seeks to improve agricultural literacy among participants by connecting industry leadership and real world issues directly to the classroom. The project will bring together local, regional, and national stakeholders, broadening the project's scope to not only address the lack of agricultural literacy among stem educators and their students, but to strengthen the connection between real world issues and stem education in communities where agriculture is the leading industry.over the past five years, education projects & partnerships has created one of the largest, most extensive networks of teachers and industry leaders in ohio. This project allows our organization to optimize our institutional resources to reach teachers across the country. Education projects & partnerships' existing online networks, including nourish the future, grownextgen, and ohio corn education, house hundreds of lesson plans and have provided resources to over 20,000 teachers and 500,000 students. The regional AG biotech academy focuses on even broader accessibility, with the virtual component allowing education projects to align existing programming and resources with current industry needs.