About the Challenge
Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Human (HANH) Sciences face many complex and global challenges. These grand challenges can seem out of touch at the local level. This project is an effort to localize these challenges by building awareness and making them relevant for today and tomorrow’s careers while providing a core set of resources for teacher to use in their classroom and a template for them to develop their own resources centered on their local grand challenges.
Some of the best school-based agricultural teachers throughout the United States were selected as Grand Challenge Ambassadors. They completed a 40-hour immersive experience centered on a local FANH grand challenge. They collected collect raw audio/visual data: a) audio of a recorded interview with an expert, b) a video and/or virtual tour framing the local FANH problem, c) an infographic making clear the STEM principles key to the chosen challenges, and d) a case study for student use that includes “expert” suggestions or tips to support student and teacher case resolutions. Educational designers from Farthest Pixel, LLC developed the final versions of the educational tools. These resources were developed by agriculture teachers for agricultural teachers
This work is an extension of innovative professional development platform for SBA educators created to support teachers in utilizing research-based teaching strategies to train students for Food, Agricultural, Natural, and Human (FANH) careers. The Owl Pellets: Tips for Ag Teachers model has experienced consistent success in getting research on pedagogy into the hands of teachers. This social media-based professional development platform reaches thousands of school-based agricultural education teachers daily.