Creating a Sustainable Educational Pipeline for the Controlled Environment Agriculture Workforce through a Remote Dual-Credit High School to College Model

Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), popularly knows as indoor agriculture is rapidly becoming a widely accepted technology to improve food security, food safety, and economic development in rural communities. New Mexico is ideal for CEA with more than 300 days of sun each year, inexpensive land, and growing demand for fresh locally grown produce.

Northern New Mexico is a region with historical agricultural Hispanic and Native American communities who often lack access to the educational resources necessary to develop the technical CEA workforce. Thus, the demand for CEA technicians in the region presents an opportunity for economic growth and food security in these rural areas. This 3-year project at Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) will train 18 teachers at 9 rural high schools to provide 180 underserved students with dual-credit courses in the first-year curriculum of the Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree in CEA.

The project significantly expands the ability for schools across New Mexico to train a regional CEA workforce and creates a pipeline for students to enter SFCC and earn their A.A.S. degree in reduced time. Remote instructional technologies coupled with on-site, hands-on replicated aquaponics systems provide teachers and students with blended learning opportunities in rural high schools.

A novel online network will connect students and teachers with CEA industry and academic professionals whom they would not likely have opportunities to interact with through a conventional high school education. An academic pipeline, including a robust internship program, will ensure that students who complete their SFCC CEA degree requirements are ready to enter the workforce.

This project will meet the technical workforce needs of the industry through integrated education and outreach efforts. In addition it will address the opportunity to increase the number of qualified dual-credit CEA instructors through a summer program for high school teachers at the SFCC campus. Three high schools from underserved communities will each be invited to send two STEM teachers to participate in an intensive week-long summer workshop to learn the introductory CEA college curriculum.

The teachers will be prepared to deliver two CEA dual-credit courses annually. Each school will receive a replicated turn-key classroom aquaponics system for hands-on practical instruction complete with sensors for remote monitoring. The first academic year after each cohort of teachers completes the summer workshop the students will participate in hands-on learning with their aquaponics system in classes co-taught by the high school teacher and SFCC faculty.

In subsequent years participating high school teachers will be prepared to teach the dual-credit CEA curriculum independently. The teachers will be mentored weekly by SFCC faculty and staff throughout the three years of the project. Student internships and summer research experiences will reinforce the curriculum and develop workplace skills.

The project is unique in providing twenty-first century agricultural education and networking opportunities to largely underserved rural communities. The project will increase the number of dual-credit classes available in local high schools and engage the local community in food sovereignty issues while creating a sustainable workforce in underserved communities.

This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced technology fields that drive the nation's economy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.