In Kentucky, only 2.6% of workers are currently engaged in STEM occupations, one of the lowest rates of STEM employment in the U.S. (Kentucky Center for Education & Workforce Statistics, n.d.). Dawson (2007) posited young people need to be highly literate in science to be prepared to research issues, think critically and question issues and claims in society today, especially in the field of biotechnology. In addressing biotechnology education, Boone, Gartin, et al. (2006) and Wilson, et al. (2002) found agricultural science teachers in two states lacked knowledge in biotechnology. Only seven secondary schools in Kentucky (C. Davis, personal communication, December 4, 2017) out of 143 agricultural education programs (NAAE Kentucky, 2017) had students in the Agribiotechnology Career Pathway in the 2016-2017 school year. In Louisiana, there is not yet a statewide Agribiotechnology Career Pathway, but there is interest in beginning one. There is currently no approved statewide curriculum or resources in which agriscience teachers are encouraged to use in KY.

The Introduction to Biotechnology Unit was created to help fill this gap of agribiotechnology curriculum and resources for teachers. The Unit is made up of five lessons on complex topics, including systems, sustainability, biotechnology, ethics in agriculture, and rethinking ethics. The Unit, developed the prior year, was revised for better class utilization and slide show presentations were created to enhance student understanding. Two undergraduate summer interns assisted with the development of slide show presentations and received training from the Principal Extension Specialist and STEM Outreach Education Coordinator on curriculum and instruction development.  

Secondary agricultural science teachers were recruited from Kentucky and Louisiana to pilot test the curriculum, as a part of the NSF EPSCoR II, R-2 project with collaborators at Louisiana State University, through invitations to KY teachers at schools teaching the Agribiotechnology Career Pathway. The Principal Extension Specialist and STEM Outreach Education Coordinator hosted four webinars for 17 Kentucky and Louisiana agricultural science teachers in fall 2018. A total of seven teachers (4 KY; 3 LA) completed the online teacher follow-up survey, as instructed, indicating they taught all five lessons and provided feedback on the Unit. A pre- and post-test was completed by students. There were 253 total student pre-tests and 223 total student post-tests completed online. Institutional Review Board approval was made for the pre- and post-test data to be collected from students, as well as for teachers to complete a pilot follow-up survey to help us improve the curriculum before releasing it publicly and to learn about topics within biotechnology in which agricultural science teachers need curriculum/resources for future units to be developed.

Students improved their knowledge most on the history of biotechnology, of whom coined the term biotechnology (20%) and when biotechnology began (13%) from pre-test to post-test. Teachers indicated 57% of their students were interested in learning more about biotechnology by the end of the Unit. Teacher comments on their overall impression to the Unit included “Easy to use and would definitely use it again next year;” “I liked it but my students weren’t interested in it;” and “I think this is a great curriculum for Biotechnology, especially for those teachers who have little knowledge about Biosystems or Sustainability. This gives them a great resource to pull from for a short unit over Biosystems.” When asked if they plan to implement this Unit in their class in the future, 71% of the teachers said “yes.” Eighty-five percent (85%) of the teachers indicated they are likely to recommend this Unit to a colleague.

The Unit will be published soon on the http://bit.ly/SustainabilitythroughScience website for educators to widely utilize, and it will be distributed to agricultural science teachers nation wide through the National Association of Agricultural Educators’ Communities of Practice website for distribution.