Joy Morgan, EdD

The agricultural education faculty in the Agricultural and Human Sciences Department in CALS will provide a 10-day, intensive Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) Institute training for North Carolina agriculture teachers. CASE is an inquiry-based, STEM-oriented agriculture curriculum modeled on the pre-engineering curriculum Project Lead the Way. The CASE vision is ���to enhance the rigor and relevance of agriculture, food, and natural resources subject matter��� CASE provides purposeful enhancement of science, mathematics, and English language understanding.��� The training enables high school agriculture teachers to implement the CASE curriculum in their high school agriculture classrooms. Tasks enabled by this grant include the purchase of laboratory materials and teacher support for initial phases of the CASE Institute. CASE will benefit agriculture teachers and students, and it has the potential of boosting college agriculture enrollments. In other states, CASE has increased both preparation of agriculture students for and enrollments in high-need agriculture majors.

The North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission Agricultural Leadership Development Program seeks to continue to provide leadership development skills to program alumni through the alumni weekend programs. One of the areas of interest from program alumni is focused on succession planning and additional leadership competencies that would allow them to lead in a challenging agricultural environment. This alumni weekend would provide participants with an intense training, providing them with skills related to succession planning, conflict resolution, and advocating for agriculture.

The NC TTFC Agricultural Leadership Development Program will provide personal coaching to participants in the 2020-2022 program focused on building and further developing their personal and civic leadership skills. Using coaches to help participants interpret and use leadership assessments and to develop their personal leadership plans significantly improves the success and impact of leaders trained in the program. This project will ensure that participants have more time with coaches than previous programs have been able to provide. This will increase the positive impacts these emerging leaders have on agricultural and rural communities.

Through the NC Agricultural Foundation, the grant "Engaging and Educating Agricultural Educators" will provide opportunities for Agricultural Extension and Education students to gain real-world context and experiences, contributing to their preparation for future careers as extension agents or agriculture teachers. Immersive experiences to farms and agricultural industries will allow students to connect content knowledge with real���������world opportunities and perspectives that can be integrated in extension programming and curriculum development. These experiences will take place during the following sessions: fall break and summer. These immersive visits will showcase the diversity that is found within North Carolina agriculture by sessions being held in different parts of the state. Following each session, students will be required to prepare two lesson plans based on their trips. These plans will then be distributed to teachers and agents within the state to use within their classes and programs.

The purpose of the CASE Institute for North Carolina agriculture teachers is to ����������������to enhance the rigor and relevance of agriculture, food, and natural resources subject matter��������������� CASE provides purposeful enhancement of science, mathematics, and English language understanding.��������������� CASE was developed in 2009 as a special project of the National Council for Agricultural Education. In 2019, 30 CASE Institutes will be delivered in 20 states and enroll approximately 600 agriculture teachers across the nation. In summer 2018, 38 NC agriculture teachers indicated interest in the CASE Institute. CASE is founded on scientific inquiry. Concepts are taught using activity-, project-, and problem-base instructional strategies. CASE ensures quality teaching by providing extensive professional development for teachers that leads to certification. Teachers actually participate in all aspects of the curriculum in the 10-day, residential, intensive institute (teacher professional development), which will be held in CALS at NC State. CASE curriculum is designed to promote common understanding of agricultural concepts by all CASE students. By providing instruction based on common concepts, national assessments of agricultural education programs are implemented in valid, reliable, and meaningful ways. The projects goals and objectives are to deliver a CASE Institute professional development for North Carolina agriculture teaches so that they can enhance their delivery of robust, inquiry-based, STEM-oriented agriculture, food, and natural resources curriculum. By delivering CASE across the state with 20 North Carolina agriculture teachers the curriculum may impact as many as 1600 high school students annually.

The North Carolina Agricultural Leadership Development Program is a two-year program designed to develop and promote personal and civic leadership skills in North Carolina farmers, agribusiness professionals, and other agriculturalists through a series of seven seminars held in North Carolina, a legislative study tour to Washington, and a United States and an international study tour. The program also emphasizes a greater understanding of agriculture and its place in the United States and global economy. This project will measure the quantitative and qualitative impacts of the program through data collected via surveys, focus groups, and individual interviews. While some of the impacts are easily recognizable (e.g. commodity association officers), the impacts that are less recognizable also serve a significant leadership role within communities and organizations. The findings will also serve as a resource assisting the leadership team in planning future programs. Stakeholders, donors, CALS, and the leadership team will benefit from having specific,quantifiable numbers and the thoughts and beliefs of program alumni.