Exploring Rural Middle School Students’ Ability to Identity Food-Energy-Water-Nexus Systems Within Their Local Communities (Poster 4)

• In Event: Collaborative Development of a Framework for Food-Energy-Water-Nexus Education

Abstract

For decades, scholars have been calling for an integrated, systems approach to resource management at a global scale. Through a transdisciplinary approach, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education can play a central role in improving systems thinking and problem-solving abilities, which is a crosscutting concept in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). As rural spaces are traditionally sites of resource extraction and food production, rural learners need to be empowered to work towards the viability of their communities (Howley & Howley, 2010; Kuehl et al., 2022; Peine et al., 2020). To address these needs, we developed an interdisciplinary pedagogical framework that was used to design STEM learning experiences for a week-long summer camp for rural middle school students who were identified as gifted and talented.
The purpose of this study was to explore how participants in their second year of camp attendance identified and described connections of FEW-nexus systems in their local communities. We utilized Critical place-based pedagogies (e.g.,Greenwood, 2012) in order to center the FEW-nexus within local rural communities. We centered participants’ local communities as we developed a curriculum that focused on community viability and FEW-nexus resource management and decision making.
Within this multi-modal study, we used quantitative and qualitative content analysis to describe how participants identified and connected the different aspects of the FEW-nexus. We conducted a pre-post analysis of an activity called “Draw Your Place” that prompted participants to create an illustration of the food, energy, and water system resources within their home communities. Participants completed the first illustration on the first day of camp prior to any activities. Participants explored different aspects of FEW-nexus systems at a local community-supported agricultural operation, stream and water revitalization laboratory, and a meat science laboratory. On the last day of camp, participants completed the second “Draw Your Place” prompt.
In the pre-camp activity, participants identified specific items within the FEW-nexus such as specific foods, types of energy, and bodies of water. Students listed food items more than any other construct within the FEW Nexus (n = 18), and listed at least one body of water and energy source within their communities. After the week-long camp, eight participants identified at least two connections in the FEW-nexus, and identified specific food systems that exist within their communities such as livestock facilities and agronomy operations. Emergent findings showed students were extremely familiar with hydro-electric dams as a dam was present in nine of the participants’ artifacts, five of the participants mentioned a connection to food retailers more than to food production operations, and lastly participants had the fewest connections to energy systems.
In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of centering place when instructing students on abstract systems. Participants were able to reference FEW systems that they could observe in their home communities compared to other systems that are far removed. This study is an early attempt to document the impacts of using the FEW-nexus as an instructional design tool.

Authors

• Kendrick Spencer, Missouri State University

• Clint D. Whitten, Virginia Tech

• Hannah H. Scherer, Virginia Tech

• Amy Price Azano, Virginia Tech