The goal of this Open House agriculture science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (ag-STEM) Day Community Outreach Event was to provide an avenue for Kentucky State University (KSU) to reach out, collaborate with, and build a pipeline with community members in the region. Another goal was to increase their awareness of the importance of agriculture and the role agriculture products play in their daily lives. Hence, demonstrations and hands-on activities at the Harold R. Benson Research and Demonstration Farm were provided for participants as they were actively engaged in “learning by doing” and “seeing” which helped increase their understanding in STEM disciplines. Further, the aim was to broaden awareness of KSU’s College of Agriculture, Community and the Sciences (CACS) and Agriculture, Food, and Environment (AFE) education programs. 

A one-day “Open House ag-STEM Day Event” at the farm was held on July 16 2022. KSU’s Cooperative Extension Program collaborated with Alltech and provided interactive, complementary "hands-on" learning activities that enabled youth to discover (or uncover) STEM knowledge and understanding while also building stronger relationships with local community members. Notably, approximately 100 local community members of all ages were in attendance.  

My role in this community outreach event was to help educate participants specifically about the importance of aquaculture both locally, nationally, and globally. In addition, STEM education was intentionally shared to the audience to help increase their awareness, interest, and knowledge of how aquaculture and aquaponics actively engages students in STEM-related areas and job pathways that could be pursued in the future.

The hands-on demonstration exhibits consisted of not only live aquatic animals which included paddlefish, largemouth bass, Japanese Koi carp, Australian red claw crayfish, and freshwater prawns, but also many other STEM fields of study such as engineering (robotics), environmental science (freshwater mussel research), and horticulture (pawpaw research) to name a few.  

The targeted long-term outcomes of this event was to get participants interested in ag-STEM related fields of study while at the same time forging relationships with local community members. In addition, increase participants’ awareness about KSU and their ag-STEM education degree programs. This event was a success.  It is my goal that KSU can continue to build partnerships and relationships with local community members going forward.