Agronomy Feeds the World: A New Plantingscience Module.

In the face of a national decline in science literacy, PlantingScience (PS) was created to provide STEM resources to middle school and high school teachers, and to place scientists in the classroom as mentors to students. Since its inception, PS has mobilized more than 900 scientists from 14 international scientific societies to support teachers and mentor students through online learning modules. Recently, in a project funded by ASA, PS has developed the learning module "Agronomy Feeds the World." This module includes guided inquiry and open inquiry components which allow scientific inquiry on soils and plant stress topics by students.  This module contains multiple areas for cross-curricular planning through manysubjects, including geography, statistics, and government. Topics included in this module were chosen based on a teacher survey of all participating PS teachers as well as responses collected at the National Science Teachers Association national meeting. Upon completion of the module, students will be able to define agronomy, and recognize the major components in the field-to-table process, including transportation, health, economics, policy, and environment. The subtopic of food and environment will be expanded in STEM classes to address the differences in crop production across ecoregions, as well as the plant-soil relationship and plant stressors. Through teacher, mentor and student guides, as well as online supplemental resources, the module is packaged for deployment in the classroom. In the fall of 2016, a school in Pennsylvania will beta test this module with the assistance of over 10 scientist mentors. The development team will serve as mentors as well as work to make real-time changes to ensure that the module will include all support teachers, mentors and students need. This presentation will outline the Agronomy Feeds the World module and give information on the deployment of the module in the fall of 2016.