Academic literature on the topic 'Iowa State College. Extension Service'

Based on citizen demand, Iowa State Univ. (ISU) established the first organic specialist faculty position at a U.S. Land Grant Univ. in 1997, as a shared appointment in the departments of horticulture and agronomy, with a 70% Extension and 30% Research split. A series of Organic Agriculture Focus Groups was convened in 1998 to help direct the new organic research and Extension program at ISU. Partnerships with the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the College of Agriculture facilitated the ISU sustainable agriculture Extension leader and organic specialist's participation in an extensive focus group dialogue with a diverse group of farmers (organic and conventional), agribusiness professionals, bankers and consumers in six agricultural communities across Iowa. Paramount in the needs assessment was the establishment of organic research sites, both on-farm and at research stations across the state, to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits associated with organic farming practices over the long term. Specific outcomes-based Extension needs were articulated, which led to the development of an annual schedule of organic workshops, field days and conferences. In 2001, in a survey of 300 farmers, 90% of respondents reported an increase in soil quality and 67% reported a 6 to 30% increase in farm income as a result of organic farming practices. The success of Land Grant Univ. organic programs will be dependent upon administrative support, sufficient resources, and community involvement in the decision-making process.

Service as an intramural official is a common experience for many college students. This kind of experience is thought to contribute to the growth and development of college students since it involves them in a meaningful way in the life of the campus. Such involvement frequently is advocated in the literature as a means of providing for a more robust student experience, thereby improving persistence and retention for students as well as adding a richness to their experience. This study was undertaken to determine if service as an intramural official contributed to student growth and development. To date, research on this topic appears to be nonexistent. A qualitative study involving four sites was undertaken to learn more about how intramural officials evaluated their experiences. The sites included Drake University, Grinnel College, Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. Student officials were interviewed at each site. A draft report was prepared, then reviewed by individuals who worked with the intramural programs at these institutions. After the reaction, a final report was prepared. The students found their experiences to be very important in their growth and development. While typically they began their work as officials for economic reasons or to stay close to sports, they reported that they developed a variety of skills from this experience, including improving their communication skills, becoming more self-confident and self-reliant, working better as a member of a team, and understanding how to handle difficult situations more effectively. For some, they decided to pursue officiating after graduation from college, either on a part-time basis or, in a few cases, in professional sports. While the results of qualitative studies generally are not transferable, the implications of this study for intramural supervisors are powerful. Experience as an intramural official, as famed by this study, can be used as a recruitment tool in the future since the experience appears to be so positive. This study also can be used to demonstrate how intramural sports programs contribute to the educational mission of the campus.

The purpose of this study was to examine the professional contributions of Alice Carey Inskeep (1875-1942), who contributed significantly to music education through her positive and effective teaching, supervising, community service, and leadership in music education. Inskeep was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, and taught for five years in that city's school system after graduating from high school. She served as music supervisor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for most of the remainder of her career, where she provided progressive leadership to the schools and community. She was one of three people appointed to plan the initial meeting in Keokuk, Iowa, for what eventually became MENC: The National Association for Music Education, and she was one of sixty-nine founding members of the organization in 1907. The Keokuk meeting served as an impetus for Inskeep to travel to Chicago, where she studied with several notable music educators. Later, she sat on the organization's nominating committee, the first Educational Council (precursor to the Music Education Research Council) board of directors, and provided leadership to two of the organization's affiliates, the North Central Division and the Iowa Music Educators Association. She served as a part-time or summer faculty member at Iowa State Normal School and Coe College in Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, respectively, and the American Institute of Normal Methods in Evanston, Illinois, and Auburndale, Massachusetts.

Truman David Wood graduated from Delevan (Minnesota) High School in 1950. He earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Mankato State Teachers' College (later Minnesota State University, Mankato). He worked as a teacher in several high schools in Iowa and Minnesota. He earned a master's and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He was a professor in the political science/law enforcement department of Mankato State University (now known as Minnesota State University, Mankato) from 1961 to 1991. He taught a variety of courses, but primarily focused on American political thought. Wood demonstrated great care for his students and understood quality teaching and careful advising to be the top priorities of his academic career. He was a leader in his department and the university for many years. He was particularly active in community service. He was a member of the Mankato Housing and Redevelopment Authority, the Mankato Planning Commission for 22 years, and chair of his church administrative council for 14 years. He frequently served as a public speaker for high school commencements and service clubs, and as an election analyst. He was active in Republican party politics until the 1980s, serving as a delegate to the National Convention in 1964. When he retired, he and his wife Reta established the Wood Scholarship for political science majors who demonstrate a record of community involvement and academic excellence. Truman Wood was an inspiring teacher, a caring advisor, and a model citizen. He shaped and touched many lives.

In 1993, then OSU President John Byrne declared that: “All Extension Service faculty, county agents as well as specialists, will be assigned academic colleges, and will have an academic appointment in the appropriate college.” The selection of the academic home would involve a mutual agreement between the individual and the department and would take into consideration the faculty member's academic training, experience, and work assignment. The implementation of this decision was completed by July 1995. In the College of Agricultural Sciences, this assignment of faculty to academic homes was accommodated by adding county agents to the faculty of existing departments. The Dept. of Horticulture faculty numbers nearly doubled, with an increase from 34 to 58. The department head is now very involved in the annual review and salary administration of extension field faculty. Campus-based faculty are now involved in all of the hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions for extension field faculty and vice versa. Field faculty participate in departmental decision making. The change in the number and diversity of faculty in the department is a unique effort to unify programmatic focus for extension, research, and teaching at OSU. As a work in progress, many issues are being addressed including full faculty participation in the decision-making process, communication, evaluation of scholarship, and building departmental community. Successes, pitfalls, and challenges ahead will be discussed and illustrated.

Abstract From colonial times to the present, America has prized education as the provider of individual opportunity, as well as our national progress. The value of practical education was delineated clearly with the passage of the Land-grant “Morrill Act” by the U.S. Congress, signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1862. The Land-grant Act provided grants of federal land to every state that agreed to establish at least one college to teach agriculture and the mechanic arts along with other scientific and classical subjects. This and subsequent legislation to support research and extension developed the “trilogy of American ingenuity”—the blended roles of teaching, research, and public service that form both the mission and strength of America's land-grant universities.

Extending community extension programs at present is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic hence, the College of Arts, Sciences, and Technology embraced new strategies in extending learnings to the community in accordance with the strict implementation of health protocol. With the advent of technology, the College was able to materialize its first webinar extension programs in partnership with the Parents Teachers Association of Basic Education Department of Occidental Mindoro State College. The extension program aims to educate the parents on the importance of their mental health as well as ways of guarding their children’s mental health. The conduct of the extension activities covered various methods of interventions using an online platform. The intervention program covered different topics that focus on mental health specifically with the integration of experiential learning to give the audience the opportunity to know exactly how to understand Student’s Stress Anxiety and Depression (SAD), Positive Parenting, and Mindfulness of Parents. The intervention program was conducted through lectures, discussion, question and answer, and experiential learning methods. As a result, the overall training evaluation obtained an overall mean of 4.73, which means it is very highly effective. Furthermore, to sustain the program, it must be extended with other organizations to improve service delivery.

The 2004 report from the National Gardening Association showed that 84 million people (78% of the U.S. population) participated in one or more types of do-it-yourself lawn and garden activities. This creates a substantial consumer group, and an important audience for Cooperative Extension to reach with educational programming. In 2003, a collaborative project between the Iowa State University (ISU) Extension Service, a regional gardening magazine, and regional television stations began as a new avenue to deliver educational programming related to horticulture. Gardening in the Zone is a series of 35 two-minute segments that are broadcast weekly March through October during local morning and evening news programs. Currently, the segments are shown on television stations across the state, resulting in over 95% coverage and reaching viewers in southwestern Wisconsin, northwest Illinois, southern Minnesota, and eastern Nebraska. In just 1 year, the number of stations carrying the segments has doubled. The segments are hosted by a broadcast professional and done in a question and answer format with an introduction, content on the particular topic, and a close. To close the segment the host refers viewers to the ISU Extension Gardening in the Zone website (http://129.186.89.193/gardening/) and the magazine website, which appear on the screen. This format provides a minimum of three potential contacts with the viewer including the real time broadcast, reference to the website, and ultimately, links to Extension publications from the website. These segments provide research-based information to a large audience that traditional Extension programming methods might not otherwise reach.

In the process of promoting an agricultural appropriation bill in the 1914 legislative session, members of Congress engaged in a vigorous debate about the appropriateness of public-private collaboration in the federal government. They had discovered that the Department of Agriculture had been receiving funding directly from the General Education Board (GEB), a philanthropy established with funds from the Rockefeller family, for staff hired to engage in agricultural extension services. Representative William Kenyon of Iowa explained to his fellow Congressmen that employees “were on the pay roll of the Government; and, as I understand, the man who is at the head of the farm demonstration work received $1 per month from the Government and $625 per month from the Rockefeller Fund.” While Senator John Sharp Williams of Mississippi generally supported the use of private funding, he expressed the sentiments of many of his colleagues with his concern that it was “a very bad thing to get the employees of the Federal or of the State or of a city government in the habit of relying upon rich men and corporations for aid and assistance, because it brings around… a certain, perhaps dominating, influence upon the officials themselves that might be and probably would be finally detrimental to the public service or to self-respect and interest of the masses.”