Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** to achieve the desired future of…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** to achieve the desired future of global leadership, all parts of the U.S. Agriculture industry require a diverse and competent workforce with both technical and leadership abilities. Family and consumer sciences (FCS) education has long played a role in supporting agribusiness by preparing students for careers in developing and marketing value-added food and fiber consumer products and instilling entrepreneurial knowledge and skills that are of great importance for the next generation of agricultural entrepreneurs. Further, food and fiber industries are being impacted by emerging technologies (e.g. augmented reality/virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and 3D imaging) that improve efficiency and capacity to meet the needs of the u.s economy. However, these technologies are not typically being integrated into FCS education at all levels, so primary and secondary students may understand the value of skills and training with advanced technologies for their competitiveness. Integrating these emerging technologies in the high school education within the FCS curriculum would increase the diversity and number of high school students pursuing post-secondary training with these technologies. For this reason, introducing secondary students to advanced technologies in the food and fiber industry would serve to both attract students already interested in technology towards more advanced education as well as demonstrating the relevance of these technologies and solidifying students' commitment to a career in the food or fiber sciences.by supporting the one-day event, post event engagement, and follow-up competition and exhibition, the technology and leadership education network for texas students (talents) project will produce several events to approximately five high schools with involving 10 FCS teachers and 100 high school students (20 high school students from each school) in travis, harris, hays, and bexar counties in texas. This project can enhance FCS teachers' 1) understanding of advanced and emerging technologies used in logistics and merchandising and their relevance to the production and distribution of food and fiber products 2) capacity and confidence for teaching about advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) relevant to food and fiber industries and 3) exposure to emerging technologies (e.g., 3D visualization) that could integrate into a variety of high school family and consumer science curricula. The one-day event will be hosted in the school of family and consumer sciences (school of FCS) building in SAN marcos in spring 2025. The one-day event will be broken into the morning sessions and the afternoon session. During the first half of the day, students will attend a workshop series about product design and retail technologies with industry partners from various food and fiber brands in the school of FCS. Two to three industry partners will present in the demonstration sessions, each SH, owcasing the application of a selected new technology. Industry partners will be selected through our established industry relationships with the department (e.g., HEB, target, amazon). These sessions will illustrate to students how the technologies are applied in real-world contexts along exciting career pathways. Students will learn from the demonstrations, engage in discussions, ask questions, and network with industry partners. Students will be put into small groups to visit the fashion innovation lab where they could see our students working with the technologies mentioned by the industry partners. They will see how these technologies are used in research and creative work. Meanwhile, other small groups will rotate to various industry presenters in the room, providing a more intimate setting to ask questions and discuss career opportunities. Concurrently, teachers will attend a hands-on concurrent technology training workshop in the computer lab of the school of FCS. This will provide hands-on trainings to the teachers with the technologies that are being presented to their students by our industry partners. The topics for hands-on trainings should cover but not limited to: 1) virtual and augmented reality: innovative displays for agricultural products; 2) artificial intelligence as a content/image generator; 3) 3D compositing design by adobe dimension; 4) 3D design visualizations by browzwear. FCS teachers will benefit from the hands-on training sessions. These prepared topics will equip them with the skills and knowledge to guide their students in creating projects that can be submitted for talents competition and exhibition in the fall. In total, this part takes about 3 HRS. In the afternoon, students and teachers will be transported to one of several nearby distribution centers with the industry partner for the afternoon session. For example, SAN marcos, TX is home of an HEB distribution center and two separate amazon distribution centers. The afternoon session will provide all attendees with practical knowledge and first-hand look at the logistics and operations involved in managing a large-scale retail supply chain.by providing the planned events and evaluations of participants' learning outcome and feedback, the project can enhance curricula in FCS by providing hands on experience to teachers and their students. This project provides high school students with 1) real-world learning experiences through education network events and competitions, 2) opportunities to choose a career within the field of agriculture, 3) increase interest of starting new businesses that could support rural economies in texas. Further, by using food and fiber related examples in the training and competitions, students will be inspired to start a business related to food and fiber manufacturing and logistics retail after they graduate from high school while others may pursue advanced training opportunities in food and fiber related majors in higher educati, on.moreover, this project will specifically target students from diverse backgrounds whose representation in agricultural and merchandisingfields can be increased. Additionally, this project will indirectly benefit future students who receiveguidance fromtheir FCS teachers with new skills and curriculum gained through helping previous studentscreateprojects tosubmittotalents competition and exhibition.