| For 2020 and newer grants, please go to https://grants.ipmcenters.org/ |
|---|
|
|
| Home Current RFAs PD User Guide Projects Login |
|
Funded Project |
|
Funding Program:
IPM Partnership Grants |
|
Project Title:
Educating the Next Generation of IPM Users: Supporting and Promoting IPM Education in Schools |
Project Director (PD):
|
|
Lead State: ME Lead Organization: Maine Department of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Resources |
| Undesignated Funding: $40,000 |
|
Start Date: Mar-14-2009 End Date: Mar-14-2011 |
|
Site/Commodity: schools, residential, homes, gardens, turfgrasses, landscapes, community |
|
Area of Emphasis: curriculum, education, demonstration |
|
Summary:
Lawn and garden chemicals, disinfectants, repellents, flea and tick treatments, and insect sprays are routinely used in and around many homes. Many pesticides contain known or suspected carcinogens and neurotoxins, yet homeowners generally have no education on proper use of these toxic materials and little understanding of their risks. While pesticides, if used properly, are powerful tools to protect people, pets and property from disease or damage, the potential for misuse is high. In 2002, 93,532 people reported unintentional exposure to pesticides in the U.S. Forty-eight percent involved children under six years old. A significant portion of those incidents occurred in and around the home (Watson, et al. 2003). Education is needed, and school classrooms are an excellent place to start. Children are both current and future pesticide users, and an excellent conduit for educating parents. Integrated pest management (IPM) curricula have been developed and offered to teachers in Pennsylvania, Maine, and Connecticut. However, the extent to which these curricula are being used and the degree to which they are effective is not known. In order to make the most and best use of these curricula across the Northeast, we need to collaborate regionally to 1) identify and work with partners to assess needs, identify opportunities for partnership, and develop a plan for promoting and supporting K-12 IPM education; 2) develop and implement a survey to determine the extent of IPM education currently being taught in northeastern schools, 3) identify effective teacher-training approaches to promote utilization of IPM curricula, 4) align curricula to academic standards in three states; and 5) pilot a curriculum demonstration in three states. We anticipate this project will improve public understanding about IPM as a means to reduce pesticide risk, especially in and around homes and schools.
Objectives: 1) Identify regional, state and local partners among teacher support organizations, departments of education, and other contacts and collaborate with them to assess needs, identify opportunities for partnership, and develop a plan for promoting and supporting K-12 IPM education. 2) Develop and implement a survey to determine the extent of IPM education currently being taught in northeastern schools. 3) Examine the effectiveness of teacher training in promoting the utilization of IPM curricula. 4) Align available K-12 curricula to academic standards in three states. 5) Pilot a K-12 IPM curriculum demonstration in one school district in each of three states. 6) Identify and adapt available educational materials to support compliance with state pesticide regulations and educational standards in K-12 horticulture programs. Proposal Integrated Pest Management Literacy Plan for K-12 Education (Revised 10/2012) |
|
Interim Report: Oct-21-2011 |
|
Outcomes We aligned the Connecticut IPM Curriculum with new CT academic standards as well as Maine, New England and National Standards. We developed and utilized assessment tools to measure student learning and to get teacher feedback. We developed five greenhouse IPM lessons and assessments for middle and high school level classrooms and HS technical education programs. We surveyed nearly 400 teachers throughout the Northeast to measure interest, need and opportunities for improving K-12 IPM education. We established a network for sharing ideas, resources, educational materials, announcements and technical expertise related to K-12 IPM education. The group also established a listserv to facilitate information sharing throughout the northeast region and convened monthly conference calls for project planning and information sharing. We have drafted the Northeast IPM Literacy Plan and have solicited reviews from a wide network of educators. We have outreached to 1,799 educators at regional and state-wide conferences and other events in 6 states (VT, CT, PA, WV, ME, MD) ahd have trained 180 teachers at workshops and classroom visits in 3 states (Ct, PA, ME). In addition we have directly worked with 16,370 K-12 students at numerous educational events in 3 states (CT, PA, ME). We have worked with teachers to educate 3,228 K-12 students in 160 classrooms at 107 schools in 3 states (CT, PA, ME) about IPM. We collaborated with Maryland Department of Agriculture and University of Maryland to raise visibility of Marylands school greenhouse IPM manual, and integrate our greenhouse lessons into a new revised version developed with separate funding ($13,500). The manual was introduced to 34 classrooms and 60 school staff in 2009-10. We identified K-12 IPM educational resources from numerous sources and worked with the NE IPM Center to add them to the Centers searchable IPM resources database. During the final year of this project we will: Conduct additional IPM curricula demonstrations in K-12 classrooms Work with previous demonstration classrooms to support their continuing use of the curricula; Conduct a final assessment to measure impacts on student learning, teacher learning, numbers of classrooms where IPM is taught, numbers of teachers accessing curricula from our website and other metrics; Identify additional schools and classrooms to pilot our new greenhouse IPM curricula; and Finalize the NE IPM Literacy Plan and collaborate with our partners to disseminate it to educators, policy-makers and others. |
|
Impacts Our proposed project directly addresses goals of the IPM Roadmap for human and environmental health impacts, economic impacts and IPM implementation impacts as outlined below. Safeguarding Human and Environmental Health Impacts. Our project will lead to an increase in the number of students, teachers, families, and other school community members aware of pest and pesticide risks, able to make informed decisions and choose least-risk approaches to managing pests in and around the home and in the community. We expect to increase awareness of pest and pesticide risks and least-risk IPM practices among students representing the next generation of pesticide users. We will reduce risk of pesticide exposure among students and teachers in school greenhouses. This proposed project is strengthened and its impacts widened because we will link it to activities aimed at promoting IPM adoption on school properties. By tying school IPM implementation to IPM education students, teachers, custodians, maintenance and kitchen staff, school volunteers and families will have the opportunity to engage in hands-on activities such as pest monitoring, prevention, avoidance and record-keeping. Therefore, we anticipate that K-12 educational benefits will ripple to families and communities through students, particularly though the use of take-home materials, homework, and service-learning projects. This is expected to result in improvement in the numbers of schools actively implementing high level IPM. Students, teachers and families will be able to implement what they learn at home, thereby minimizing pest and pesticide risks, reducing asthma triggers, and safeguarding the environment in the community. To date, we have enlisted collaborative partnerships with 55 people representing 49 educational organizations in nine states. We have also surveyed almost 400 teachers from most of the northeastern states. This network of people and organizations are working with us to educate students, educators and families about using IPM to reduce risks of pests and pesticides. The outcome will be a Northeast Regional IPM Literacy Plan which will outline needs and opportunities for promoting and supporting IPM education at the K-12 level. We also contracted with educational consultants in three states to align IPM curricula with state and New England learning standards which has facilitated adoption of these curricula for classroom learning. To date, IPM curricula have been demonstrated in 85 classrooms in Maine and 33 classrooms in Connecticut. A total of 55 schools, 2525 students, and 180 teachers have participated in IPM lessons and activities as a result of this project. An additional 20 teachers participated in a teacher workshop in Maine. Through partnership with a natural history museum in Maine (L.C. Bates Museum) IPM information was offered to an additional 1500 museum goers plus 20 families participating in an insect-themed workshop. We developed five lessons for teaching IPM in a school greenhouse setting. These lessons have been widely reviewed are now available. Plans are underway for piloting these lessons at selected schools. Economic Impacts. Our project will provide curriculum materials and teacher training to schools in several states, thereby reducing costs normally incurred by those schools for teacher education and classroom learning materials especially for science, math and social studies. We anticipate schools and families will save money by reducing the money spent on pesticides. IPM Implementation Impacts. By determining the extent to which IPM is currently included in K-12 education in public and private schools in all states in the Northeast we will be able to measure and document the impact of our project. We will also be able to concentrate our efforts in areas where little IPM education is currently offered to maximize our impact. We will also use the survey as an opportunity to educate about IPM, thus doubling its impact on the overall goal of promoting and supporting IPM education. Survey results will be made widely available to schools, communities and educational support organizations thus providing opportunities to set goals for improvement. We anticipate that the numbers of schools teaching IPM as part of their science, math, social studies, agriculture, and service learning curricula will increase. This will increase the numbers of future homeowners, policy makers, and other decision-makers who are knowledgeable about IPM as a means of minimizing pest and pesticide risks and safeguarding human health and the environment. We also anticipate that student learning about IPM will ripple through the community as students bring home educational materials, parents, community volunteers and teachers will become engaged in IPM learning projects at school. We anticipate the ultimate impact will be reduced pesticide use. |
| Report Appendices |
|
Final Report: |
|
Outcomes We aligned the Connecticut IPM Curriculum with new CT academic standards as well as Maine, New England and National Common Core Standards. We developed and utilized assessment tools to measure student learning and to get teacher feedback. We developed five greenhouse IPM lessons and assessments for middle and high school level classrooms and HS technical education programs. We also collaborated with Maryland Department of Agriculture and University of Maryland to raise visibility of Marylands school greenhouse IPM manual, and integrate our greenhouse lessons into a new revised version developed with separate funding ($13,500). The manual was introduced to 34 classrooms and 60 school staff in 2009-10. We surveyed nearly 400 teachers throughout the Northeast to measure interest, need and opportunities for improving K-12 IPM education. We established a national listserv for sharing ideas, resources, educational materials, announcements and technical expertise related to K-12 IPM education. We convened monthly conference calls for project planning and information sharing. We developed the Northeast IPM Literacy Plan. Solicited reviews from a wide network of educators and made the plan widely available to educators and IPM specialists. We outreached to educators and disseminated materials at education conferences in six states. We trained over 1000 teachers at workshops and classroom visits in 5 states We outreached to approximately 1,400 teachers at regional and state-wide conferences and other events in 6 states. We engaged 16,470 K-12 students at numerous educational events in 3 states. We taught IPM to 3,744 K-12 students in 226 classrooms at 42 schools in 3 states. We identified K-12 IPM educational resources and worked with the NE IPM Center to add them to the Centers searchable IPM resources database. |
|
Impacts Our proposed project directly addresses goals of the IPM Roadmap for human and environmental health impacts, economic impacts and IPM implementation impacts as outlined below. Safeguarding Human and Environmental Health Impacts. Our project will lead to an increase in the number of students, teachers, families, and other school community members aware of pest and pesticide risks, able to make informed decisions and choose least-risk approaches to managing pests in and around the home and in the community. We expect to increase awareness of pest and pesticide risks and least-risk IPM practices among students representing the next generation of pesticide users. We will reduce risk of pesticide exposure among students and teachers in school greenhouses. This proposed project is strengthened and its impacts widened because we will link it to activities aimed at promoting IPM adoption on school properties. By tying school IPM implementation to IPM education students, teachers, custodians, maintenance and kitchen staff, school volunteers and families will have the opportunity to engage in hands-on activities such as pest monitoring, prevention, avoidance and record-keeping. Therefore, we anticipate that K-12 educational benefits will ripple to families and communities through students, particularly though the use of take-home materials, homework, and service-learning projects. This is expected to result in improvement in the numbers of schools actively implementing high level IPM. Students, teachers and families will be able to implement what they learn at home, thereby minimizing pest and pesticide risks, reducing asthma triggers, and safeguarding the environment in the community. We have enlisted collaborative partnerships with 55 people representing 49 educational organizations in nine states. We surveyed almost 400 teachers from most of the northeastern states. This network of people and organizations are working with us to educate students, educators and families about using IPM to reduce risks of pests and pesticides. The outcome will be a Northeast Regional IPM Literacy Plan which will outline needs and opportunities for promoting and supporting IPM education at the K-12 level. We engaged educational consultants in three states to align IPM curricula with state and New England learning standards which has facilitated adoption of these curricula for classroom learning. To date, IPM curricula have been demonstrated in 226 classrooms in three states. A total of 20214 students, 2383 teachers, at least 226 classrooms and more than 55 schools have participated in IPM lessons and activities as a result of this project. Through partnership with a natural history museum in Maine (L.C. Bates Museum) IPM information was offered to an additional 1500 museum goers plus 20 families participating in an insect-themed workshop. We developed five lessons for teaching IPM in a school greenhouse setting. These lessons have been widely reviewed are now available. Economic Impacts. Our project will provide curriculum materials and teacher training to schools in several states, thereby reducing costs normally incurred by those schools for teacher education and classroom learning materials especially for science, math and social studies. We anticipate schools and families will save money by reducing the money spent on pesticides. IPM Implementation Impacts. By determining the extent to which IPM is currently included in K-12 education in public and private schools in all states in the Northeast we will be able to measure and document the impact of our project. We will also be able to concentrate our efforts in areas where little IPM education is currently offered to maximize our impact. We will also use the survey as an opportunity to educate about IPM, thus doubling its impact on the overall goal of promoting and supporting IPM education. Survey results will be made widely available to schools, communities and educational support organizations thus providing opportunities to set goals for improvement. We anticipate that the numbers of schools teaching IPM as part of their science, math, social studies, agriculture, and service learning curricula will increase. This will increase the numbers of future homeowners, policy makers, and other decision-makers who are knowledgeable about IPM as a means of minimizing pest and pesticide risks and safeguarding human health and the environment. We also anticipate that student learning about IPM will ripple through the community as students bring home educational materials, parents, community volunteers and teachers will become engaged in IPM learning projects at school. We anticipate the ultimate impact will be reduced pesticide use. |
| Report Appendices |
| Close Window |
|
Northeastern IPM Center 340 Tower Road Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 NortheastIPM.org |
 |
Developed by the Center for IPM © Copyright CIPM 2004-2026 |
|