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INVESTIGATOR: Umar, G.; Phills, B.; Phills, G.; Umar, G.; Onokpise, O.; Mobley, R.; Smothers, J.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA 32307

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT SUMMER INST. PHASE II: ENHANCEMENT OF RESEARCH & EXT. LEARNING LABS (RELL), IN SEARCH OF NEXT GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: During the summer of 2011, Florida A&M University (FAMU), College of Engineering Sciences, Technology and Agriculture (CESTA), currently named the College of Agriculture and Food Sciences (CAFS), launched its Youth Development Institute for precollege students. Though the program was successful, it became apparent that there were some areas that needed to be strengthened in order for the college to adequately expose precollege and collegiate students to Food and Agricultural Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (FASTEM) disciplines. It was observed that even though students spend most of their experiential learning in either wet or outdoor learning laboratories, they fail to associate this with FASTEM disciplinary training. We clearly realize that STEM is essential for students' full academic development in the food and agricultural sciences. Thus, the term "FASTEM" was coined to represent training students in STEM disciplines from a food and agriculture perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this Phase II project is to expand and enhance the teaching, research and extension learning laboratories throughout the college by converting them into environments that will enable students to recognize the relationship between FASTEM coursework and their hands-on experiential activities, and to eradicate fear of the STEMs. Currently, the indoor and field laboratories are in a modern enough state to make it fairly easy to convert them into high profile learning laboratories that provide greater exposure to FASTEM disciplines and intriguing professional careers.

OBJECTIVES: Goals: 1. Make students aware of the significance of pursuing a college education in the food, agricultural and engineering sciences by exposing them to the FASTEM disciplines. 2. Enlighten students about the many exciting scientific career options in the food, agricultural and engineering sciences. 3. Prepare students for college admission and matriculation to insure successful completion of their undergraduate programs and to encourage pursuance of graduate and post-graduate FASTEM degrees. 4. Acquaint students with the life works of Dr. George Washington Carver in an effort to instill in them his core values, ideals and principals for serving mankind, which led to his multitude of inventions and discoveries. 5. To use the RELL as resource reservoirs of for students, parents, educators and visitors outside of the college of agriculture and food sciences to explore and learn of the scientific and diverse nature of plant life in general and agriculture food plants specifically and the role that they play or could play in the world food chain. Objectives: A. To enhance CAFS Research and Extension Learning Laboratories as academic and extension/outreach reservoirs for scientific experimentation, and experiential hands-on learning for precollege and collegiate student training. B. Development of training modules for precollege instructors, counselors and staff using instructional props from agriculture and food sciences. C. Use precollege and undergraduate students to test the theory that students will enjoy the new exposure of the resource learning laboratories and retain greater knowledge of FASTEM disciplines resulting directly from these learning laboratories. Expected Outputs: The success of this program is largely dependent on the College-wide and university acceptance of these research and extension learning resource laboratories (RELL) as effective and useful means of training students in FASTEM disciplines. Additionally, another outcome measure will be the increased use of the outdoor learning laboratories by Pre-K, elementary, middle and high school students for field trips, and other learning opportunities. Lastly, we expect to see increased usage of RELL as precollege exposure through summer intern programs by faculty throughout the university.