Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** many career opportunities related…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** many career opportunities related to agriculture exist outside of production and require strong stem skills. As such, there is a critical need to connect the future workforce to careers and concepts with an agricultural context to ensure a strong future for the industry. One possible mechanism to address this critical need is to introduce agriculturally-relevant examples when teaching concepts in core science classes like environmental science and biology. Our overall objective is to provide professional development opportunities for k-12 teachers that will enable them to incorporate learning modules that utilize agricultural examples to teach stem concepts. A total of six professional development sessions will be offered where teachers will be provided a curricular module that address next generation science standards. Teachers will also develop more activities for their courses during the sessions. Each session will have a follow-up virtual meeting to discuss progress and impact of module incorporation. Teachers from throughout ohio and neighboring states from urban, suburban, and rural districts will be recruited for participation. Assuming 18 teachers that each teach 60 students attend each workshop, a total of 108 professionals will be reached with potential to impact over 6,400 students. Offering hands-on training and connection to resources and agricultural industry experts directly supports the aim of the pdal program by growing agricultural literacy and workforce development for the future.