On February 22nd, InnovATE hosted an Ask Ag Chat on Agrilinks entiled: “Ask Ag About…Positive Youth Development.”
Positive Youth Development (PYD) programs provide opportunities for young people to build skills and exercise leadership in their communities. In addition, programs that involve universities, extension services, local organizations, government, schools and the private sector can be tremendous catalysts for change.
The INGENAES Global Symposium and Learning Exchange was held in Lusaka, Zambia January 23-25, 2017. The INGENAES project was designed to assist partners in Feed the Future countries to build more robust, gender-responsive, and nutrition-sensitive institutions, projects and programs capable of assessing and responding to the needs of both men and women farmers. The Learning Exchange was three days of sharing past experiences, human-centered design, and innovations in gender and nutrition issues in extension. InnovATE’s own Ruth Mendum, of Pennsylvania State University attended and presented on InnovATE’s training modules on gender bias called, “Teaching Gender to Secondary and Tertiary Students.” Mendum and her colleague, Patricia Neiner also from Pennsylvania State University, developed the modules. Mendum not only taught others about using this gender tool but also took away some valuable lessons.
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In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.
In the most recent installment of our Ag Educators Corner blog series, Krista Pontius, an Agriscience teacher of 20 years at Greenwood High School in central Pennsylvania shares about her experiences. Given her 20 years of teaching, Krista not only knows how to connect with students, but also how to engage them and even lead them to their passions. Continue reading
In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.
In the most recent installment, Kaylie Ackerley, a Secondary Agriscience Educator/FFA Advisor, was contemplating a business decision and planning a lesson for her Introduction to Agriculture class. When she decided to pose her dilemma as a real world problem-solving project, she sparked student engagement.
In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.
The most recent installment was submitted by Blaze Currie, former Executive Director of Agricorps, writes about the experience of a 4-H teacher abroad in Ghana who is struggling to connect with her students, before finding a new guiding teaching principle in When in Doubt, Be Intentional. Continue reading
The 5th Biennial Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) Conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa from October 17th to 21st. The theme of the conference was “Linking Agricultural Universities with Civil Society, Private Sector, Governments, and other Stakeholders in support of Agricultural Development in Africa.” InnovATE held a side event that brought together presenters from universities and youth development organizations in Ghana,Liberia,Senegal and Tanzania. Participants discussed agricultural outreach programs and curricula, university cooperation in positive youth development programs, and community-focused experiential learning. Continue reading
In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts, called ” The Ag Educators’ Corner,” provides insight, practical tips, and stories by and for agricultural educators.
Melanie Miller-Foster and Daniel Foster, Penn State, launched the series in September. In our first post, For Agricultural Educators, From Agricultural Educators, they highlight their experience teaching Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to secondary school students in Guatemala. By bringing hands-on, minds-on activity into the classroom and using research-based educational strategies and techniques, the Fosters improved learning outcomes and created a fun and memorable experience. In Melanie’s own words, “I’ve never seen so many people this excited about IPM!” Read more on Agrilinks and check out the series each month!
