Why and general overview of program
- Why? Data literacy skills are crucial in making informed decisions, especially in the agriculture and food sectors where data provides valuable insights for more efficient, sustainable, and resilient practices. Just as breeding tools, mechanization and agrochemicals led to major advancements in the past, a data revolution is underway in agriculture (United Nations, 2014) creating emerging agricultural technologies in data analytics. We must invest in developing a skilled and socially conscious workforce to harness the power of data to improve our lives and the planet through data literacy, systems thinking, and social skills.
- Overview Cultivate ACCESS to Data Science in Agriculture (Cultivate Data Science) uses an integrated systems thinking, virtual near-peer mentoring, and community influencing approach to empower youth with an expanded vision for data infused agricultural technologies as socially integrated tools for solving complex, ambiguous problems while encouraging underrepresented student populations to consider agricultural and natural resources career paths.
Figure 1. Program Overview.
The benefits to the teacher and the student
- Student benefits:
- Explore personal interests and linkages to agricultural and natural resources issues.
- Receive mentoring from college students and industry professionals!
- Learn and apply data science skills to a personally relevant issue.
- Communicate science with a general audience via social media.
- Teacher benefits:
- Invigorate your instruction with games and interactive modules focused on data science in agriculture and natural resources.
- Provide experiential learning opportunities to your students
- Receive $3,000 stipend and $500 worth of books and resources
- Work collaboratively with your peers to provide feedback on development of games and interactive modules
- Pilot and implement these modules with your students
- Recruit 5 students to participate in the Cultivate ACCESS mentoring programing.
How to get involved:
Cultivate ACCESS – Narrated PowerPoint by Erin Ingram
