AgXplore

Primary Investigator: Kevin Ragland, kevin.ragland@mtsu.edu  

Additional PIs: Chaney Mosley
Sponsor: United States Department Agriculture Sponsor Award Number: 2023-67037-39939

Overview: This project will provide a three-year CASE AgXplore professional development institute and CASE curriculum certification program in agricultural science education for 100 middle school agriculture teachers. CASE has been shown to be a highly effective curriculum that can improve agriculture teachers personal science teaching efficacy and science teaching outcome expectancy (Velez et. al, 2013). It has also been shown to positively impact student outcomes in math and science (Smith, 2019). However, research has demonstrated there are barriers that prevent some teachers from implementing the curriculum. Witte et. al, (2021) identified 1) time for training, 2) cost of training, and 3) access to equipment and supplies as the greatest barriers to the implementation of CASE. Additionally, Bird and Rice (2021) found that some teachers need additional support and an opportunity to ask questions about scheduling and teaching the curriculum after attending CASE training to implement it with increased frequency and fidelity. This project is designed to mitigate the common barriers to implementation for middle school agriculture education teachers by providing training, certification, classroom materials for teachers, lodging, transportation and virtual ongoing support. The goals of this project are to (1) enhance the middle school student educational experience by improving instructional practices and relevant curricula, (2) increase teachers ability to integrate science and experiential learning into the middle school agriculture curriculum, and (3) boost teachers self-efficacy.

AgXplore BreifCASE Teacher Certification Program – January 8th & 9th, 2024