Extension Today

In citizen science programs, the public is invited to engage in science projects that address real-world issues. Many times, these volunteers are asked to collect data, analyze results and solve scientific problems.

Alabama Extension at Alabama A&M University implements citizen science environmental programs with youths and adults across Alabama. During the past year, for example, participants built nestboxes that provided nesting sites for native songbirds. Youths generally installed boxes on their school campus along native songbird recovery trails while adults built nest boxes in their backyards.

As citizen scientists, birding participants collected information on the number of eggs laid and the species of nestling and determined estimated hatch and fledge dates. Bird sightings were also recorded using mobile birding apps such as the Audubon Bird Guide and Merlin Bird ID.

By monitoring birding results, scientists can track bird populations and determine any changes in bird habitats, the onset of diseases and possible climate changes. Extension citizen scientists also get a chance to learn about environmental issues in a natural outdoor setting.

Central State University Extension proudly collaborated with Apple Lab Camp for a groundbreaking initiative to train the next generation of tech leaders.

Thanks to a pilot opportunity, CSU Extension 4-H program assistant Rochelle Williams, CED educator Amber Twitty and independent contractor Richard Smith successfully conducted the Apple Creative Community Camp, an exclusive program tailored for high school tech enthusiasts. Eleven students from North College Hill embraced this enriching journey, making it a summer to remember.

From July 10-25, the young innovators immersed themselves in the world of coding and Apple applications. Under the mentorship of the CSU team and dedicated staff from the Beavercreek, Ohio, Apple store, the students mastered the nuances of the Apple platform.

The free program, which included a complimentary lunch, took place each day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Beavercreek, Ohio, Apple store located at the Greene outdoor shopping mall. Students were passionately engrossed in hands-on sessions that included iMovie, Camera, Garage Band and two days of Pages.

The highlight of the summer experience was the virtual Apple Creative Community Showcase on July 25, where participants confidently showcased their skills on a national level virtually. They presented their projects to other camp groups from across the nation. It wasn’t just a presentation; it was a testament to their dedication, passion and the collaborative spirit of the camp.

The National 4-H Council’s 4-H at Home (CLOVER) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) grant was bestowed upon the Florida A&M University (FAMU) Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development Program. This collaboration aims to bolster the rapid advancement of a robust Extension digital platform that fosters positive youth development.

Within the College of Agriculture and Food Science, the FAMU 4-H AgriSTEM Curriculum, crafted by the adept 4-H Team, proudly represents various disciplines. This comprehensive learning experience encompasses animal science, entomology and food science. It features a series of interactive learning modules designed to guide learners through the 4-H learning pathway. This progression starts with sparking interest, advances to skill development and culminates in exploring career pathways and real-world connections.

Discover all the engaging CLOVER activities at https://4-h.org/clover/. Additionally, delve into the enriching FAMU 4-H activities outlined below:

• Getting to Know Your Cricket: https://4-h.org/clover/activities/getting-to-know-your-cricket/
• Engineer a Bee: https://4-h.org/clover/activities/engineer-a-bee/
• It’s Slushy Time: https://4-h.org/clover/activities/its-slushy-time/
• Test-a-Tasty Slushy: https://4-h.org/clover/activities/test-a-tast-slushy/
• Best in Breed: https://4-h.org/clover/activities/best-in-breed/

Seven Turner County High School students in Ashburn, Georgia, received recognition for participating in the Fort Valley State University Cooperative Extension’s 2023 Writer’s Playground program.

This is the second year co-creators Latasha Ford and Dr. Yolanda Surrency with Communications, Conferencing and Technology have offered this new creative writing and technology course in the South Georgia community.

The participating students met for a week in FVSU’s Mobile Information Technology Center, a 72-foot semi-trailer with learning stations. They focused on effective communication and self-expression to deepen their understanding in a creative space and learn from diverse perspectives. The program challenged writers to analyze literary works and artwork through idea generation and problem-solving activities. These interactions allowed them to explore imaginative possibilities using the art of story mapping, poetry brainstorming and world building. The high school writers presented their final creative projects to parents and guests during a closing ceremony at Make it Factory in Ashburn, Georgia.

Since implementing Writer’s Playground in 2022, Ford and Surrency have received the Professional Poster First Place award at the 2023 National Association of Extension Program and Staff Development Professionals Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, a grant from the Southern Rural Development Center and a bronze award in Technology Education from the Association for Communication Excellence in 2023.

Kentucky State University’s Cooperative Extension Program is prioritizing precision agriculture to help Kentucky farmers incorporate cutting-edge technology, such as drones, into their agricultural production.

Drones have many applications for farmers and producers, such as surveying and observing farmland, forestry habitat restoration and mine reclamation.

“We really use the drones to document what conditions are now, and as you implement strategies on the land, we use the drones to monitor over time whatever impact, whatever outcome occurs,” said Jeremy Sandifer, state specialist for agriculture technology for small farms.

Additionally, spray drone technology allows farmers to treat their land without coming into contact with herbicides and pesticides that can be harmful to farmers in large doses or over an extended period.

“People across disciplines at Kentucky State have found ways to use drones,” Sandifer said.

Kentucky State personnel are training farmers, forging partnerships with organizations and bringing in research funding for drone usage and geospatial information systems (GIS) led by Dr. Buddhi Gyawali.

“That’s putting us at the forefront,” Sandifer said. “Nobody has the total package like we do.”

A $2.3 million U.S. Department of Agriculture facilities grant revitalized Kentucky State’s Hunter Hall to a state-of-the-art lab for GIS, a drone workshop area, a conference room and offices for faculty, staff and students. Kentucky State also recently unveiled a Precision Agriculture Trailer for use in Extension programming.

For more information about drones at Kentucky State University, contact Sandifer at jeremy.sandifer@kysu.edu. For more information about GIS at Kentucky State University, contact Gyawali at buddhi.gyawali@kysu.edu.

In advancing nutrition understanding for animal and human needs, Langston University has developed an online tool known as the Langston Interactive Nutrient Calculator (LINC). This tool specifically caters to goat producers, aiding them in comprehending the nutrient requirements across various classes of goats.

LINC is powerful yet easy to use. One of its most powerful features is the least-cost ration balancer, which can calculate a feed ration that minimizes cost yet meets the nutrient requirements of the goat. This is important for the financial stability of goat producers because feed costs are the No. 1 cost of production.

To use the least-cost ration balancer, a goat producer will enter a few inputs into the webpage and select possible feed ingredients. LINC will then provide the ration with the lowest cost that satisfies the nutrient requirements. A new project, “Enhanced Goat Management and Educational Tool,” will upgrade LINC and create an app for both Android and iPhones.

Mobile LINC 2.0 user interface will be designed to have a visually appealing and easy-to-navigate interface, ensuring that even farmers with limited technological experience can use the app efficiently. New app features will allow farmers to keep track of their feed inventory, thereby minimizing waste and promoting efficient resource management. Additionally, the app will provide tips on flock and pasture management, parasite control and sustainable feeding practices, thus empowering farmers to make eco-friendly choices.

One goal in the ever-changing world of technology is to improve communication services worldwide. Although it can be challenging to keep up with the latest innovations, there are those who still seek to maintain a more personal way to inform and educate.

Lincoln University Cooperative Extension in Missouri recognizes the importance of keeping our stakeholders informed of current research projects, which often affect the everyday lives of small farmers, ranchers and those who reside in underserved communities across the state of Missouri. Through creative thinking and planning, Extension faculty and staff also seek to problem-solve by using innovative ways to re-engage with community members, some of whom have yet to find ways to reconnect since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lincoln University faculty and staff are using more and more innovative ways to further their outreach in the community to share information faster and farther while still maintaining human connectivity and integrity.

Lincoln University Extension professors Drs. Touria Eaton and Mohan Acharya, through their research, and Extension Associate Callie Newsom, through her skills in education, communication and technology, have each accomplished this goal via their strong objectives to discover innovative ways to keep both Missouri’s urban and rural communities strong and thriving.

One goal in the ever-changing world of technology is to improve communication services worldwide. Although it can be challenging to keep up with the latest innovations, there are those who still seek to maintain a more personal way to inform and educate.

Lincoln University Cooperative Extension in Missouri recognizes the importance of keeping our stakeholders informed of current research projects, which often affect the everyday lives of small farmers, ranchers and those who reside in underserved communities across the state of Missouri. Through creative thinking and planning, Extension faculty and staff also seek to problem-solve by using innovative ways to re-engage with community members, some of whom have yet to find ways to reconnect since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lincoln University faculty and staff are using more and more innovative ways to further their outreach in the community to share information faster and farther while still maintaining human connectivity and integrity.

Lincoln University Extension professors Drs. Touria Eaton and Mohan Acharya, through their research, and Extension Associate Callie Newsom, through her skills in education, communication and technology, have each accomplished this goal via their strong objectives to discover innovative ways to keep both Missouri’s urban and rural communities strong and thriving.

4-H teaches youths to be leaders, but few 4-H members earn the distinction of “Ruler of Earth and Sky.”Two teams of 4-H youths — one comprised of middle school students and one of high schoolers — won that distinction this year at a competition called Game of Drones, offered by the 4-H STEM program of Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T in collaboration with STEMerald City LLC, a Fayetteville-based organization that provides STEM tutoring and hands-on learning.

In the competition, named for the massively popular TV series "Game of Thrones," they had the chance to show off their skills in coding and piloting drones after months of preparation that included learning coding and drone piloting techniques.

“It is vital that we provide opportunities for students that lack access to technology to participate and gain skills and exposure to concepts that will better prepare them for the future workforce,” said Misty Blue-Terry, Ph.D., 4-H STEM specialist for Extension at A&T. “Coding will be one of the most sought after skills as it cuts across so many different industries. This is a fun way to learn coding and see the results of your work.”

At Prairie View A&M University’s Ag Day on the Hill, teen leaders in 4-H educated other youths on drones.

Youths were exposed to careers that use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and were given hands-on opportunities to operate some. Early exposure is an effective way to influence career decisions. They were also educated on drones in agriculture. Drones have become an integral part of the ag industry. They can provide instantaneous data about crop growth and livestock conditions, as well as collect other information that can help producers.

It has been projected that in the next two years, more than 100,000 drone-related jobs will be created. The use of drones spans military, package delivery, geographical mapping, real estate, search and rescue, engineering and numerous other practices. This can be an attractive career for many youths with salary ranges on average from $58,000 to more than six figures.

South Carolina State 1890 Extension 4-H Youth Development program is putting a new spin to promote health and wellness among youths.

Kinda McInnis, 4-H Youth Development agent for the Pee Dee region, teaches youths about physical health and nutrition using a blend bike to make healthy smoothies.

“Combing physical exercising with nutrition education is a great way to encourage physical activity and healthy eating choices to our youth,” said McInnis. “The blend bike is not only fun and engaging, but it offers a unique and interactive incentive for youth to give their best effort in order to blend their ingredients into a smoothie.”

Youths chose healthy ingredients, including various fruits, spinach, honey and unsweetened almond milk, before pedaling their way to healthy and delicious smoothies. The blend bike is a stationary bike with a built-in blender powered by participants actively pedaling.

For more information, contact Kinda McInnis, SC State 1890 Extension Pee Dee 40H Youth Development agent, at kmcinnis@scsu.edu.

The Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center has been building capacity by bringing new technologies to the agricultural space. Innovative technologies are revolutionizing the field of agriculture Extension, empowering farmers with information and tools to enhance productivity and sustainability.

One such breakthrough is the use of drones for precision agriculture. Drones equipped with sensors and cameras can monitor crop health, identify pest infestations and assess the effectiveness of irrigation. This real-time data enables farmers to make informed decisions, optimize resource use and minimize environmental impacts.

Another innovation is an IBM collaboration project called Liquid Prep. It is an end-to-end solution for farmers who want to optimize their water usage, especially during times of drought. By using an intuitive, mobile app soil moisture sensor module, and backend services in IBM’s cloud, farmers can be better informed of when to use limited water supplies and increase their chances of growing healthy crops on their small plots of land. This technology can also be used in forest management practices by measuring moisture content in forests to notify the participants when drought conditions are high enough for forest fires.

These technological innovations are helping the socially disadvantaged, minority, veteran and women farmers serviced by the Southern University Ag Center in Louisiana.

Certain agricultural industries that involve the growth and marketing of tree-based products rely on efficient inventory management to ensure their financial stability. Historically, inventory procedures have been characterized by manual methods that require significant labor, resulting in difficulties related to precision and productivity.

The use of drones and artificial intelligence for the inventory of these systems can enhance operational efficiency, precision and sustainability. Dr. Jason de Koff, professor and Extension specialist in agronomy and soil science at Tennessee State University, and graduate student Sudip BK are engaged in a collaboration with the University of Arkansas to use machine learning to train a model to identify and count trees from drone imagery.

The expectation is that farmers will be able to use a low-cost drone, along with the free software developed from this program, to quickly assess how many trees are available in the field. Dissemination of the results of this project will be provided to members of the Tennessee Christmas Tree Association at the PickTN Conference in February 2024.

More information on the use of drones in forestry and nurseries can be found at https://www.tnstate.edu/extension/documents/Forestlands.pdf.

Digital tools refer to any software, application or online platform that helps users achieve specific tasks more efficiently and effectively. An ongoing collaboration between Microsoft” FarmVibes Research and the 1890 Center of Excellence for Farming Systems, Rural Prosperity, and Economic Sustainability has been developed to help use digital tools for developing and sharing best practices, innovations and technologies to small farmers. Tuskegee University Cooperative Extension Program is working with Microsoft’s FarmVibes in digital agriculture to further this initiative.

Through this collaboration, the goal is to enable researchers, practitioners and data scientists to build affordable digital technologies to help farmers (1) estimate the emissions in their farms, (2) withstand climate adaptation by predicting weather variations, and (3) determine the right management practices for profitability, and that will help improve soil health.

Drs. Joseph Quansah and Desmond Mortley at Tuskegee University are working at the TU Organic Farm as a demonstration site to use digital technology to accomplish these goals. Drones and sensors are some of the technical tools to measure the effects of climate change.

An effort to reestablish aquatic vegetation in DeGray Lake is yielding positive results, Scott Jones, small impoundment Extension specialist for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), said. The project, which commenced in 2019, involved the reestablishment of native aquatic plants in DeGray Lake in southwest Arkansas to enhance its overall ecological integrity and promote healthy populations of recreationally important fish species.

For three years, Jones has been mapping and monitoring aquatic plant growth across 550 acres at 21 sites using down- and side-imaging sonar. Any vegetation detected by sonar was later verified with a remote-controlled submersible drone.

“The sonar and footage from the drone confirm that coontail, an aquatic plant native to Arkansas and the main focus of our vegetation re-establishment program, has expanded tremendously in DeGray Lake,” he said. “It is now found in 13 of 21 sites and has even begun forming surface mats up to 18 feet deep in some locations.”

Jones said the increase in the abundance of submerged aquatic plants should increase the abundance of microbes and both invertebrate and vertebrate primary consumers, including several species of baitfish, crawfish and snails. In turn, this should increase the population and/or condition of secondary predators, such as black basses and crappie.

“Vegetation may also provide anglers a more defined area to target for fishing and increase catch rates,” he said.

Delivery of an innovative, fully automated, controlled environment Freight Farm is on its way to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. The vertical hydroponic agricultural system housed inside a 320-square-foot (tractor-trailer-sized) container will expand research and education opportunities for faculty and students.

“When the system is up and running, the potential is also there for educational outreach and Extension activities in the way of tours and demonstrations,” said Corrie Cotton, a research assistant professor at UMES, who along with Dr. Sadanand Dhekney, a professor of plant breeding and biotechnology, are lead on the project.

Cotton said some of those potential external audiences may include small farmers and community gardeners through UMES Extension, science-minded youths in the community through UMES’ 4-H STEM program and agricultural youth programs such as Jr. MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences).

“The smart farm is a unique space-saving option for growing agricultural crops year-round,” Cotton said. “We are looking forward to using it to expand our previous research of ethnic crop production (edamame, purslane and tatsoi) in high tunnels using deep water culture and the Kratky method. Traditional planting in soil serves as the control.”

West Virginia State University (WVSU) Extension's 4-H program has integrated an augmented reality (AR) sandbox into its educational curriculum. This project mainly focuses on creating 3D visualization applications and includes a hands-on exhibit.

The AR sandbox utilizes a closed circuit of a Microsoft Kinect 3D camera, robust simulation and visualization software, and a data projector. It allows users to create topographical models by molding natural sand, which is then complemented in real-time by an elevation color map, topographic contour lines and simulated water. This system covers a range of geographical, geological and hydrological concepts, including reading topography maps and understanding contour lines, watersheds, catchment areas, levees and much more.

"We are thrilled to implement the AR sandbox technology into our curriculum," said Sara Price, WVSU 4-H program leader. "It has had a tremendous impact on students' learning experiences."

WVSU 4-H has used the exhibit at various schools and events and purchased topography maps of West Virginia for the software, enabling students to build, see and interact with the topography of their region. It's an innovative and interactive approach to learning geography, topography and geology that is unique to the state.