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Potential for urban agriculture to support accessible and impactful undergraduate biology education

Active learning in STEM education is essential for engaging the diverse pool of scholars needed to address pressing environmental and social challenges. However, active learning formats are difficult to scale and their incorporation into STEM teaching at U.S. universities varies widely. Here, we arg...

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Autores principales: Kay, Adam D., Chapman, Eric J., Cheruiyot, Jelagat D., Lowery, Sue, Singer, Susan R., Small, Gaston, Stone, Anne M., Warthen, Ray, Westbroek, Wendy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8928874/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35342576
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8721
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author Kay, Adam D.
Chapman, Eric J.
Cheruiyot, Jelagat D.
Lowery, Sue
Singer, Susan R.
Small, Gaston
Stone, Anne M.
Warthen, Ray
Westbroek, Wendy
author_facet Kay, Adam D.
Chapman, Eric J.
Cheruiyot, Jelagat D.
Lowery, Sue
Singer, Susan R.
Small, Gaston
Stone, Anne M.
Warthen, Ray
Westbroek, Wendy
author_sort Kay, Adam D.
collection PubMed
description Active learning in STEM education is essential for engaging the diverse pool of scholars needed to address pressing environmental and social challenges. However, active learning formats are difficult to scale and their incorporation into STEM teaching at U.S. universities varies widely. Here, we argue that urban agriculture as a theme can significantly increase active learning in undergraduate biology education by facilitating outdoor fieldwork and community‐engaged education. We begin by reviewing benefits of field courses and community engagement activities for undergraduate biology and discuss constraints to their broader implementation. We then describe how urban agriculture can connect biology concepts to pressing global changes, provide field research opportunities, and connect students to communities. Next, we assess the extent to which urban agriculture and related themes have already been incorporated into biology‐related programs in the United States using a review of major programs, reports on how campus gardens are used, and case studies from five higher education institutions (HEIs) engaging with this issue. We found that while field experiences are fairly common in major biology programs, community engagement opportunities are rare, and urban agriculture is almost nonexistent in course descriptions. We also found that many U.S. HEIs have campus gardens, but evidence suggests that they are rarely used in biology courses. Finally, case studies of five HEIs highlight innovative programming but also significant opportunities for further implementation. Together, our results suggest that urban agriculture is rarely incorporated into undergraduate biology in the United States, but there are significant prospects for doing so. We end with recommendations for integrating urban agriculture into undergraduate biology, including the development of campus gardens, research programs, community engagement partnerships, and collaborative networks. If done with care, this integration could help students make community contributions within required coursework, and help instructors feel a greater sense of accomplishment in an era of uncertainty.
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spelling pubmed-89288742022-03-24 Potential for urban agriculture to support accessible and impactful undergraduate biology education Kay, Adam D. Chapman, Eric J. Cheruiyot, Jelagat D. Lowery, Sue Singer, Susan R. Small, Gaston Stone, Anne M. Warthen, Ray Westbroek, Wendy Ecol Evol Academic Practice in Ecology and Evolution Active learning in STEM education is essential for engaging the diverse pool of scholars needed to address pressing environmental and social challenges. However, active learning formats are difficult to scale and their incorporation into STEM teaching at U.S. universities varies widely. Here, we argue that urban agriculture as a theme can significantly increase active learning in undergraduate biology education by facilitating outdoor fieldwork and community‐engaged education. We begin by reviewing benefits of field courses and community engagement activities for undergraduate biology and discuss constraints to their broader implementation. We then describe how urban agriculture can connect biology concepts to pressing global changes, provide field research opportunities, and connect students to communities. Next, we assess the extent to which urban agriculture and related themes have already been incorporated into biology‐related programs in the United States using a review of major programs, reports on how campus gardens are used, and case studies from five higher education institutions (HEIs) engaging with this issue. We found that while field experiences are fairly common in major biology programs, community engagement opportunities are rare, and urban agriculture is almost nonexistent in course descriptions. We also found that many U.S. HEIs have campus gardens, but evidence suggests that they are rarely used in biology courses. Finally, case studies of five HEIs highlight innovative programming but also significant opportunities for further implementation. Together, our results suggest that urban agriculture is rarely incorporated into undergraduate biology in the United States, but there are significant prospects for doing so. We end with recommendations for integrating urban agriculture into undergraduate biology, including the development of campus gardens, research programs, community engagement partnerships, and collaborative networks. If done with care, this integration could help students make community contributions within required coursework, and help instructors feel a greater sense of accomplishment in an era of uncertainty. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8928874/ /pubmed/35342576 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8721 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Academic Practice in Ecology and Evolution
Kay, Adam D.
Chapman, Eric J.
Cheruiyot, Jelagat D.
Lowery, Sue
Singer, Susan R.
Small, Gaston
Stone, Anne M.
Warthen, Ray
Westbroek, Wendy
Potential for urban agriculture to support accessible and impactful undergraduate biology education
title Potential for urban agriculture to support accessible and impactful undergraduate biology education
title_full Potential for urban agriculture to support accessible and impactful undergraduate biology education
title_fullStr Potential for urban agriculture to support accessible and impactful undergraduate biology education
title_full_unstemmed Potential for urban agriculture to support accessible and impactful undergraduate biology education
title_short Potential for urban agriculture to support accessible and impactful undergraduate biology education
title_sort potential for urban agriculture to support accessible and impactful undergraduate biology education
topic Academic Practice in Ecology and Evolution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8928874/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35342576
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8721
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