The Graduate Extension Scholars: Communicating Science to the Youth

Urban Farm DB summary

An article describing the Graduate Extension Scholars (GES) program at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), Virginia Tech, United States. Citing the National Academy of Sciences (2009), it notes that future agronomists will increasingly come from cities and suburbs rather than rural areas, making youth outreach to build interest in agriculture a recruitment concern. The GES program has graduate students develop educational modules for youth based on their own research, working with 4-H youth development agents; lesson plans are posted online, and networking through professional conferences of the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education extends impact beyond individual classrooms or clubs. Per the National Academy of Sciences (2009), several urban agricultural education programs are already established, but higher education institutions are not well represented in most K-12 curricular programs. The article also references the 2013 Next Generation Science Standards.