About Us
As part of a 4-H out-of-school time program, participating high school students direct science videos in trusting partnership with Rutgers scientists who make their labs and research field sites available for real-world STEM experiences. These high-impact STEM learning opportunities were funded by USDA NIFA grant # 2023-67037-41123 “Food, Agriculture, and Marine (FAME) 4-H Ag Tech Program”.
Rutgers core team members include Dr Jim Simon, Dr Oscar Schofield, Dena Seidel, Dr Xenia Morin and Marissa Staffen. Rutgers student mentors work alongside FAME participants to share knowledge and guide students to their final project. Our team partners with local high schools, including Highland Park High School and Edison High School, and their teachers, to bring students into Rutgers labs to gain real world experience and knowledge about science happening at Rutgers University.
Mission & Vision
Building on Rutgers University’s research, the land grant public engagement infrastructure through the Rutgers’ Center for Agricultural Food Ecosystems and Rutgers Cooperative Extension 4-H youth program, this FAME Ag Tech program will create a scalable community engagement model. Anchored in the 4-H positive youth development Thrive Model (Arnold, 2020), we will introduce youth communities to food system scientists, engineers, farmers, aquaculturists, and subject matter experts while highlighting the youth’s own rich agrarian/fishing/food production and food preparation expertise (biocultural knowledge). This project is designed to support STEM learning opportunities focused on youth in grades 10-11 from New Jersey urban communities. Youth will be fully supported to create their science stories that feature 11 university scientists. These student-authored stories will feature scientists, engineers, and technicians using plant genetics and a wide range of agricultural technology including gene editing, automation in phenotyping and genetic analyses, and robotics relative to remote sensing and environmental monitoring and prediction and data science, to develop climate resilience food crops for farmers as well as innovative greenhouse designs and indoor food cultivation techniques. These facilities each also employ agricultural technologies. Stories will also feature aquaculture farming and shellfish breeding for food security and marine robotics used to assess ocean ecosystems’ food production capability in close partnership with Rutgers plant biology and marine science departments and the Center for New Use Agriculture, Food Innovation Center Aquaculture Innovation Center and Shellfish Laboratory. The pedagogical objective of our science-in-action STEM learning/storytelling model is to bridge science learning for students (Freeman 2014) and science communication (Baram-Tsabari, 2015) by way of repeated engagement with the video science content through video stories (Dando, 2013; Meager, 2019). Our methodology has demonstrated its potential to inspire young audiences to consider careers in science (Seidel et al., 2023) including food system science, agriculture and ag technology. Our learning outcomes for our youth participants include:
- Increased science communication skills
- Increased knowledge of food systems and agriculture technologies to address food systems challenges
- Increased relatability to science and scientists
- Increased confidence in agriculture technologies to address food systems challenges
- Increased interest in exploring Ag Tech related careers
It is our hypothesis that this program will enhance science learning by way of repeated engagement with science content described in their interviews and personal connections to real life science.