Category Archives: Extension

Oregon 4-H students experience hands-on science in Florida

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Contributed by guest blogger Dani Douglass

Participants come face-to-face with alligators, sharks and snakes

The study tour, designed for students who have an interest in natural or marine science, strives to spark a young person’s interest in these fields and help them learn the importance of teamwork. Students were accompanied by state 4-H program director Virginia Bourdeau and county 4-H staff Emily Anderson (Lane County), Robin Galloway (Linn County) and Todd Williver (Lincoln County).

The seven-day Florida trip included outdoor activities and learning experiences for the students, which included sampling the habitats the students had studied over the past seven months. They interacted with the big scrub habitat at the Archbold Biological Station in Venus, Fla. and in Everglades National Park, students saw pine flatwoods, hydric hammock, hardwood swamp, Cypress swamp, Sawgrass marsh and slough habitats.

Four days were spent at Newfound Harbor Marine Institute’s Seacamp in Big Pine Key, Fla. studying coral reef ecology and various marine ecosystems, which they accessed by boat. The students participated in three lessons each day, including a thrilling snorkel in a nurse shark pond.

Students gained knowledge and lasting memories from the trip and some now have an idea of what they would like to study in college. “Judging by the evaluation comments received from parents after the program concluded, several youth found their spark for education by participating in the program,” Virginia says. She adds that one participant plans to apply to the internship program at Archbold and another hopes to work at Seacamp someday.

sharkpond
Snorkeling in the shark nurse pond in Florida

“This trip to Florida was so amazing. I made so many new friends that I hope to have forever,” says participant Shannon Feinauer of Klamath County. “My favorite part at sea camp was meeting Shelby, our teacher and friend, and snorkeling the reef. We had the best chaperones!”

Faith Black of Linn County says she’s always loved the ocean and marine life. “Attending this study tour in Florida has opened my eyes to the impact we have on our ocean’s wildlife,” she says. “I was a little undecided on what I would like to study in college, and the Florida Study Tour has made me realize that I have a great interest in our marine life.”

“Getting to join the 4-H trip to Florida this year helps solidify my dreams of working in the science field,” says Korrina Wirfs of Linn County. “I applied some knowledge I already have attained and learned about other ecosystems, but as a senior I really value how the trip allowed me to see science occupation in action. This was invaluable for me as I try to decide what and where to study in college.”

The Oregon 4-H Youth Development Program is part of the Oregon State Extension Service and is housed in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences. There are more than 6 million 4-H members nationwide and thousands of Oregon young people participate in the program each year. The four Hs stand for head, heart, hands and health. More information about 4-H can be found here.

There Once was a Farmer…

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Written by Ann Marie Murphy –
Aaron Avner
Aaron Avner, farmer. September 24, 2015

Perusing my Facebook feed, I came across this gem of a story. I tried to verify the truth of it and was unable to do so, but the morale of the story was one that resonated . In part, it resonated because it resembles the work that the people in the Division of University Outreach and Engagement, and OSU, do every day: they work with communities to help people and industry prosper. Because when we do this work, we all have a better lives.

So if you’ll indulge me by reading on, this is the story of Aaron Avner, a farmer.

There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year, he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

So is with our lives…Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.


Call it power of collectivity…
Call it a principle of success…
Call it a law of life.


The fact is, none of us truly wins, until we all win!

Extension Project will Deepen Understanding of Underserved Population

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Written by Ann Marie Murphy –
Latino ag worker. Photo credit: Lynn Ketchum OSU EESC
Latino ag worker. Photo credit: Lynn Ketchum OSU EESC

Congratulations are in order.

 

The team of Ariel Ginsburg, Dionisia Morales, and Luisa Santamaria will help OSU Extension Service broaden its audience base and increase confidence that we are serving the needs of an underserved population.

 

The team received a Professional Development Fund grant from the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) for their project titled “What Workers Think: Communication Needs Assessment for Latino Farm and Nursery Workers.”

 

Ginsburg and Morales are publishing managers with Extension & Experiment Station Communications (EESC) and Santamaria is an Extension plant pathology specialist and assistant professor focusing on farm and nursery pests and integrated pest management (IPM). She is also a bi-lingual educator, providing hands-on training to nursery and farm workers on a range of issues related to IPM, food safety, plant pathology, and pest life cycle.

 

Why did the team think the needs assessment was necessary? Here’s a quote from the grant application: Spanish-speaking workers make up the majority of the labor force in Oregon’s agriculture and horticulture industries, and yet few publications and multimedia materials are designed to meet their vocational and linguistic needs. Many publications from the Extension catalog have been translated into Spanish, but feedback suggests that the translated topics aren’t always well suited to farm and horticultural workers because it is too technical, is written at too high of a reading level, or requires a computer to download and print.

 

The grant will help Extension learn what people don’t want, but more importantly, the three proposed focus group sessions will discover what Spanish-speaking workers in the farm and horticultural fields do want.

 

This is exactly the type of research that we need to do more of across age, geographic and cultural audiences in order to deepen our understanding of why, how, and when people want and need the knowledge residing within OSU.

 

The project begins September 2016 and wraps up September 2017. Proposed outcomes include:

 

  • Identify the key topics Spanish-speaking farm and horticultural workers find most relevant to their work and lives;
  • Create a set of criteria for gauging whether new and existing OSU Extension publications should be translated/re-conceptualized for the Spanish-speaking work audience;
  • Create guidelines for Extension faculty with the kinds of questions and activities that will help them identify the most effective communication materials for Spanish-speaking workers; and
  • Build collaborative relationships with local farm and horticultural operators to encourage future focus sessions and expand our knowledge of workers’ emerging needs and interests.

 

Looking outside the boundaries of Oregon, this information can be applied in any state where immigrant, migrant, or non-English speaking populations are an essential part of the food and plant production economy.

 

The ACE grant selection committee looked for projects with broad application across the country. As a requirement, project leaders will submit a final report for publication on the ACE website, making research results widely available. The OSU team also will be encouraged to talk about the project at next year’s ACE conference and to contribute to the Journal of Applied Communications. Additional 2016 ACE grant-funded projects include Scott Swanson, North Dakota State University, How to Capture High-Quality Video and Kristina Boone and Gloria Holcombe, Kansas State University, Exploration of Digital Asset Management Systems.

Not Your Grandparents’ Extension Service

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First Monday Video, April 2016 —

In 2007, the OSU Extension Service and Educational Outreach, which includes Ecampus, PACE and EESC, joined forces and created the Division of University Outreach and Engagement. Provost Sabah Randhawa wanted to know what new initiatives are taking place as a result of the reorganization. After compiling a survey of 36 county Extension offices, Vice Provost Scott Reed reports on new initiatives in April’s First Monday Video. Hint: Extension offices are proctoring online exams, have established new community partnerships and programs, and are directing thousands of inquiring parents and students to OSU resources, filling the pipeline for new OSU Beavers. There’s more, too, but you’ll have to watch the video

 

Tell Scott what Extension innovations you see in the “Leave a Reply” section below. He looks forward to reading your comments.

 

 

Predicting the Future

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Written by Ann Marie Murphy –
County Health Rankings Approach
COUNTY HEALTH RANKINGS & ROADMAPS APPROACH

Four health factors contribute to how long we live and how well we live according to County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

 

Health outcomes are a snapshot of today’s community health. Health factors are a view to the future health of our communities.

 

HEALTH OUTCOMES: Length of Life, Quality of Life

HEALTH FACTORS: Health Behaviors,Clinical Care,Social & Economic Factors, Physical Environment

 

“The County Health Rankings illustrate what we know when it comes to what is making people sick or healthy. The Roadmaps shows what we can do to create healthier places to live, learn, work, and play,” states the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps website.

 

The Division of University Outreach and Engagement (Division) is positively impacting the future well-being of those living in Oregon by directly impacting its health factors.

 

Healthy People. Healthy Planet. Healthy Economy.

 

For seven years, the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program, has been an important tool for counties striving to build a culture of health. It’s a tool to benchmark community efforts and also to identify how investments in healthy living factors—or lack thereof—are changing health outcomes. Health factors and gaps are tracked annually for almost every county in the U.S.

 

Check out Oregon’s county rankings.

 

The work being done by the Division makes a dramatic difference in the lives of Oregonians, from today’s youth to tomorrow entrepreneurs and farmers. A presence in every county in Oregon and responsiveness to local concerns magnify the Division’s impact.

 

Let’s take a closer look.

 

Moving from Awareness to Action

 

CHR-Action-Center
COUNTY HEALTH RANKINGS & ROADMAPS ACTION CYCLE

Using the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps model, how long and how well we live are impacted by four major health factors (80% of which are not related to healthcare): Health behaviors (30%), Clinical Care (20%), Social & Economic Factors (40%), and Physical Environment (10%). Programs and services offered through the Division of University Outreach and Engagement—Extension Service, Ecampus, and PACE—directly improve the factors and measurements that move the gauge on better living.

 

The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program offers an action model similar to our outreach and engagement work. The online action model provides guidance to move from awareness to community action; identifies effective, research-based policies and programs; and a coaching resource is available to advance a culture of health (Raquel Bournhonesque is the community coach located in Oregon and serving the Northwest).

 

Here are a few examples of how Division efforts correspond directly to the action model advocated by The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program (quotes are from the program website):

 

“Better educated individuals live longer, healthier lives than those with less education, and their children are more likely to thrive.” OSU Open Campus, Ecampus and PACE support this area of individual and community health.

 

“Lifelong health habits, such as good nutrition, physical fitness and stress management, are developed in childhood.” 4-H tackles this head-on.

 

County maps large“A county’s health greatly affects its economic competitiveness. Achieving lower health care costs, fewer sick days, and increased productivity are all critical to economic growth.” SNAP-Ed and Family Community Health are devoted to healthy living education.

 

“The Community Development sector…shares a common focus on improving low- and moderate-income communities.” Extension helps agriculture, marine fisheries and other industries improve productivity, safety, and profitability with research-based and community supported initiatives.

 

“State and local government officials can…identify the barriers to good health in their communities, and mobilize community leaders to take action – investing in programs and policy changes that help residents lead healthier lives.” OSU Extension works hand-in-hand with county commissioners and other community leaders to identify needs and develop programs to meet those needs. State and county funding ensures Extension is integral to state and county efforts to nurture healthy communities.

 

“Clean air and safe water are prerequisites for health.” Poor water quality sickens people, threatens wildlife, and diminishes recreational opportunities. Needless to say, OSU Extension is at the forefront of supporting healthy, sustainable environments.

 

And that’s just the tip of the Division’s programs and actions.

 

“The Rankings data are only as valuable as the action it inspires and the lives it improves,” said Bridget Catlin, PhD, MHSA, co-director of the County Health Rankings. “…targeting resources to the people and places in greatest need is essential to building a Culture of Health. The Rankings are an important springboard for conversations on how to expand opportunity for all to be healthy.” And the Division is at the heart of addressing the root causes of health risk factors in Oregon’s 36 counties.

 

 

 

Scholarship of Engagement

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Author: Sam Angima, Extension Ag Program Leader –

 

Sam Angima, Assistant Dean, Outreach & Engagement
Sam Angima, Extension Ag Program Leader, OSU Extension Service

Editor’s Note: Sam Angima shared with me his Scholarship of Engagement Summary, written January 25, 2016, and agreed to let me post it in its entirety on the O&E blog. As Communications and Marketing Manager for University Outreach and Engagement, I am immersing myself in community engagement information to gain a comprehensive understanding of what it is, the role it plays at OSU and other land-grant universities, and how OSU delivers on its outreach and engagement promise.

Sam’s summary clarified my understanding. Because engaged scholarship is integral to the work of the Division and the university, it is worth sharing with you. Thank you, Sam! [The emphasis is mine.]

Sincerely,

Ann Marie Murphy, Communications & Marketing Manager, University Outreach and Engagement

 

Scholarship of Engagement Summary

Scholarship is all about creating, synthesizing, and apply knowledge to address community issues. Scholarship of engagement (also known as engaged scholarship) is as rigorous as traditional academic work, but it cuts across the categories of academic scholarship and outreach in a reciprocal, collaborative relationship with the public or a specific interest group or community. The scholarship of engagement incorporates reciprocal practices of civic engagement into the production of knowledge. Through instruction, discovery, and outreach, educators communicate and work with communities. This approach encourages public participation in the production of scholarship and creates scholarship that addresses public issues.

Here are different ways of looking at scholarship of engagement:

  • It broadens access to information. The scholarship of engagement is a challenge to mainstream academic scholarship, which tends to favor specialization of academic knowledge into discrete disciplines, each of which produces highly complex and technical knowledge that is not effectively communicated to the public. Service learning and experiential learning are two well-known practices that incorporate civic involvement in teaching because they emphasize scholarship rather than just learning. These two practices as well as outreach and Extension work incorporate community involvement.
  • It enhances research. By working with communities in the research process, engaged scholars can generate research questions, widen the field of potential data sources, and test findings as well as (and sometimes better than) colleagues practicing traditional academic work. Engagement requires not only communication to public audiences, but also collaboration with these communities in the production of knowledge. Instead of seeing the public as passive recipients of expert knowledge, engaged scholarship stresses that the public can contribute to knowledge creation.
  • It’s integrated. Community engagement is not just charity or volunteer activities that educators do on their own time in addition to their work. Rather, collaboration with the public should constitute scholarly practices. These reciprocal and collaborative elements should be explicitly and consciously cultivated in the scholarship of engagement.

Engagement, especially for Extension educators, is easily recognized in many routine, ongoing practices and programs. The challenge is to be deliberate and intentional about developing a greater sense of rigor and clarity in the production of knowledge through engaged scholarship.

Here are some areas in which Extension educators can exemplify engaged scholarship:

  • Public scholarship is academic work that incorporates deliberative practices such as forums and town meetings to enhance scholarship and address public problems. Public scholarship generally emphasizes deliberation over participation. An example is an open forum held to address an issue of wide concern to the community, such as regional development, environmental health, or race relations. This approach is used in situations where the public good is not well understood. By aggregating preexisting interests, solutions are generated through collective knowledge and action. Deliberative practices enable participants to gain a greater understanding of the complexity of public problems as they benefit from encounters with fellow citizens, professionals, and scholars. At the same time, public scholarship practices can help scholars generate new research questions, verify hypotheses, and generalize conclusions as knowledge is produced in the course of deliberation.
  • Participatory research (participatory action research) stresses the active role members of communities can play in the production of knowledge. The emphasis here is on participation rather than deliberation. Participatory research tends to respond to problems of exclusion by reaching out to marginalized or previously excluded groups. An example is where an oppressed group of people or a community identifies a problem, collects information, analyzes, and acts upon the problem to solve it—therefore promoting public transformation. The educator’s role is to be a convener and trusted entity who can oversee the processes while developing scholarship that can be shared with others.

    Richard Little talks to a class participant about taking care of Mason Bees cocoons at Linn County Extension.
    Richard Little talks to a class participant about taking care of Mason Bees cocoons at Linn County Extension.
  • Community partnerships, where partners are engaged as equals, tend to focus on power, resources, and social transformations. Community partnerships do not have to operate through deliberative forums or other direct contact with the public. Instead, scholars typically engage through contact with public agencies, local schools, activist groups, and community organizations. Engaged scholarship developed through this process helps strengthen the community as well as partners’ relationships with Extension and the university.
  • Public information networks help communities identify resources and assets by providing comprehensive databases of locally available services. Although development of these networks is not as deliberative as other forms of engaged scholarship, the creation, maintenance and use always involves engagement with groups who are not fully aware of available resources. This is often due to a lack of organization or communication. Extension educators realize the importance of accessing and contributing to these networks.
  • Civic literacy (civic skills) enables communities to make educated and informed decisions. Through teaching, research, and outreach, engaged scholars help enhance community processes by ensuring that their academic disciplines are providing the public with the knowledge necessary for reflective judgements on public issues and problems. This approach deepens engagement with the specific aim of reducing the separation between experts and the lay public. It also emphasizes skills that facilitate participation and democratic decision-making. Civic literacy approaches focus on relatively broad and long-term trends in public knowledge rather than specific, immediate problems.

“Outreach and engagement is that aspect of teaching that enables learning beyond the campus walls, research that makes what we discover useful beyond the academic community, and service that directly benefits the public.” – Ohio State University

 

References

Barker, D. (2004). The scholarship of engagement: A taxonomy of five emerging practices. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 9(2), 122-137.

Alter, T. R. (2003, December). “Where is Extension Scholarship Falling Short and What Can We Do about it?” Journal of Extension, 41(6).

 

Resources

Engagement Scholarship Consortium

Kellogg Commission reports

Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship

Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement

Community Works Journal

Journal of Extension

Science Education and Civic Engagement: An International Journal

A Maker Campus and a Maker State: Hacking, Crafting, and Creating @ OSU and throughout Oregon

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Posted by Ann Marie Murphy —

To tinker is to study. To fail is to be human. To make is to empower.

 

OSU Extension Service is evolving as the world changes. The Division of Outreach and Engagement (O&E) is on the evolutionary frontline, thanks in part to Charles Robinson’s exploration of cross-college collaborations. One such collaboration explores how the “maker” culture can support OSU’s land grant mission. (You can learn more about another of his collaborations by reading the blog posted January 25  titled: Arts Engagement Inspires Innovative Partnerships.)

 

This year O&E is once again supporting a two-day maker celebration with a focus on education and engagement. Organized by The CO• (more about the organization in a moment), the event will take place Friday, April 8, and Saturday, April 9. Mark your calendars!

 

Last year, this free community event brought over 1,000 visitors (including more than 150 K-8 students) to OSU’s Corvallis campus and had more than 45 interactive exhibits, including robotics, 3D printing, costume design and laser etching. This year, as in the past, visitors will come for hands-on demonstrations and insightful discussions. Or, if you’re a maker, a tinkerer, an artist, a builder, an engineer, a craftsperson, a machinist, an innovator, etc., etc., you might like to share your craft with visitors and other makers. If so, here’s a link to exhibitor information. Or volunteer! Volunteers are needed on both days of the event.

 

“Maker” culture is a popular movement honoring craftsmanship and technology and the sharing of knowledge, skills and resources. The maker events offer the OSU community and the general public the opportunity to collaborate, innovate and create. It also provides a forum for research and teaching the value of hands-on learning in K-20 classrooms.

 

A new addition to the annual event is the Friday “STEM to STEAM” symposium featuring Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici and five other noteworthy panelists. The free event will be held in the Learning Innovation Center, Room 100, from 4 to 6 p.m. It’s an opportunity to bring together the makers of policies and the makers of objects to examine the challenges and rewards of integrating the Arts – the “A” – into STEM education. More about the panelists can be found at The CO•’s website.

 

On Saturday, kids and adults alike will enjoy the maker fair with more than 40 exhibitors offering hands-on learning experiences, including an interactive session on making skateboards. The maker fair will be held in the MU ballroom and Student Experience Center plaza.

 

Co logoThe CO• is an OSU campus-Corvallis community collaboration that brings together makers from across campus, Corvallis, and the whole state of Oregon to celebrate and share their methods for hands-on learning. From the creative problem-solving skills so crucial to education in the 21st century to the benefits of quick prototyping tools needed to drive an innovative economy, every discipline and every individual has something to learn and something to teach.

 

“The CO• is also is a concept,” said Charles Robinson, a director of The CO• who also works on special initiatives for O&E, College of Liberal Arts and the Graduate School. “The CO• is the start of a larger conversation around the educational, socioeconomic and cultural benefits of hands-on learning. It’s a gateway for anyone in the Willamette Valley who is interested in learning more about the power of making.”

 

Do you have a maker talent? Share it with us! (In case you’re shy about sharing, I make mosaic art and stupendous banana bread!)

 

Because it is humbling and astounding at the same time, I wanted to share The CO•’s Manifesto with you. It will give you a better sense of what’s to come at the April event – and beyond.

The CO• Manifesto

At The CO• we believe that hands-on, creative exploration helps encourage risk taking, cement learning, boost self-confidence, connect individuals and communities, and serve as a guide for understanding our individual and collective place in the world. As a space and a concept, The CO• makes the room necessary for the uncertainty and experimentation of the learning process. This process has many labels such as making, tinkering, exploring, creating, hacking, building, and prototyping. It occurs across various mediums—digital, technological, industrial, domestic, analog, and artistic. However, neither the label nor the tool is the most critical piece of this innovation equation. Rather, it is the time allotted for discovery, the self-directed time spent thinking critically and honing hands-on problem-solving skills, which cultivates innovation. Trying, failing, and trying again is a fundamental component of learning. At The CO• we advocate for an equitable distribution of time devoted to making, tinkering, creating, building, hacking, sharing, questioning, and connecting. We champion the liminal space where such exploration resides and the critical discourse that follows. We must ensure that all engaged in this creative process work through prejudice. Experimentation must be open to all regardless of race, class, gender, sexuality, abilities, age, geography, education level, and discipline.

 

Sponsor and partners for the event include:

The College of Liberal Arts

The Division of Outreach and Engagement

The Valley Library

The OSU Foundation

The College of Forestry

The Corvallis Benton County Public Library

HP

Oregon State University Advantage

Oregon State ADVANCE

Rethinking One Oregon – Part II

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OSU_PSU Collaboration 2Posted by Ann Marie Murphy

Scott Reed, vice provost for OSU University Outreach and Engagement, and Stephen Percy, dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University, created an OSU-PSU Collaboration Fund, to offer start-up funds for joint pilot projects between OSU and PSU faculty. Healthy people, prosperous communities and flourishing agriculture and natural resources are the three areas of focus of the initiative.

You can learn more about the meeting and initiative in the November 23 post on the O&E Blog.

The fund is meant to accelerate opportunities for research collaborations serving Oregon communities. Recognizing that these experiences often require extra resources beyond faculty time, the fund offers seed monies to faculty teams for fiscal year 2015-2016 to support expenses associated with community-engaged inter-institutional projects.

Review of the submitted proposals was led by Patrick Proden, regional administrator for OSU Extension in Multnomah and Washington counties, and Sheila Martin, director of the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies at PSU. Grant funds must be expended by June 30, 2016.

Check out what your colleagues are working on:

2016 Joint Pilot Projects

Farmland Succession and Ownership in Oregon 

Project Leads:
Megan Horst, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, PSU
Christine Anderson Brekken, College of Agriculture and Sciences, OSU
This grant is important in leveraging Portland State University’s participation with Oregon State University on a project to examine farmland tenure and access issues in Oregon. Specifically, this project will lead to a better understanding of patterns in recent farmland transfers in four pilot counties (Benton, Clackamas, Polk, and Washington). A second objective is to understand the implications of different farmland ownership models on local food systems. A final objective is to engage stakeholders in a dialogue about the feasibility of strategies to enable access to farmland by aspiring farmers.

Developing a Citizens Science Training Program for Extension Volunteers and Others 

Project leads:
Brooke Edmunds, OSU Extension
Marion Dresner, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Management, PSU
Citizen science, the practice of involving volunteers in scientific research, has drastically increased in popularity. Despite the documented benefits to both volunteers and researchers, citizen science has yet to be formalized in Extension education and volunteer efforts. This collaborative project will coordinate OSU and PSU graduate and undergraduate students to develop an online citizen science training program targeted to OSU Extension Master Gardener volunteers. Through this program, future volunteer citizen scientists will learn the scientific method and process and be trained to assist scientists at PSU, OSU and beyond with future ecological research in community and private gardens.

Developing a Competitive Proposal for Multi-year Socio-Ecological Research in Urban Agriculture 

Project leads:
Gail Langellotto, Associate Professor of Horticulture, OSU
Nathan McClintock, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University
Relative to their surroundings, urban landscapes are more fragmented, paved, polluted and warmer, which influences biodiversity, crop development and yield in urban farms and gardens. We currently lack a basic understanding of the biodiversity and abiotic conditions of urban agriculture sites. Underlying all of these factors are the motivation, knowledge and socio-economic status of urban farmers and gardeners, and how these relate to management practices, ecosystem services and yield of urban agriculture sites. We will work to identify funding opportunities and develop a competitive proposal to collaborate on a multi-year socio-ecological research program serving urban home and community gardeners.

Keeping Waterways Clean One Boat at a Time

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Jenny East
Jenny East, a new boater outreach coordinator with Oregon Sea Grant Extension, holds one of many new signs set to appear along the Oregon coast and Columbia River. The signs inform recreational boaters about the location of pumpout and dumping facilities for sewage. Photo by Vanessa Ciccone

How do you talk with people about a subject matter that is emphatically avoided in polite conversations?

 

That is the question Oregon Sea Grant Extension’s new boating outreach coordinator, Jenny East, has been asking. She’s charged with informing recreational boaters about the location of facilities for properly disposing of their sewage along the Oregon coast and Columbia River and in the Portland-metro area in an effort to keep waterways clean.

 

The breadth of Extension work is, well, breathtaking. This new position takes Extension work in a new direction.

 

“My job is all about finding innovative ways to engage with Oregon’s recreational boaters. The key will be trying different avenues such as face-to-face interactions at events where boaters are, walking the docks, and spending time meeting with marina managers and private industries that provide supplies for boaters,” said East, who is based out of Oregon State University’s Extension office in Washington County.

 

“Through my conversations with boaters I will learn more about how they prefer to receive information. Engagement is a two-way street. It isn’t about me lecturing them, but more a conversation about their connections to the aquatic environment and being proactive about the health of that environment. I am also thinking about how I can get other boaters to be communicators and educators as well.”

 

As part of her job, she will work with the Oregon State Marine Board to post signs showing where recreational boaters can empty their portable toilets and holding tanks. East added that talking about the proper disposal of human waste will take some humor. She’s got a good start. Oregon Sea Grant has produced two light-hearted public service announcements about floating restrooms and dockside stations for emptying porta-potties.

 

Oregon Sea Grant serves the state, region and nation through an integrated program of research, outreach, and education that helps people understand, rationally use and conserve marine and coastal resources. The best available science is applied to timely and important ocean and coastal issues, and they engage with coastal stakeholders to help them reach informed decisions. Sea Grant supports scientific excellence and innovation, fosters new generations of marine scientists and encourages ocean science literacy among people of all ages.

 

Based at Oregon State University and working with scientists, scholars and communities statewide, Oregon is part of the national network of NOAA Sea Grant College Programs.

 

Oregon State is the state’s Land Grant university and is the only university in the U.S. to have Sea Grant, Space Grant and Sun Grant designations.

 

 

 

 

 

Arts Engagement Inspires Innovative Partnerships

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Students learn how art can work hand-in-hand with Oregon communities

The mission of OSU Extension Service essentially is to understand the needs of Oregon communities then develop collaborative partnerships to find ways to solve community challenges with research-based solutions. Historically, much of the outreach has been based in agriculture, but that has been changing. This blog introduces you to Extension Reconsidered.

 

photoExtension Reconsidered (ExtRe), an Outreach and Engagement initiative introduced at OSU in 2014, addresses community needs via the arts, humanities, design and humanitarian engineering. By working with new and traditional partners, ExtRe explores the ways in which the OSU Extension Service can evolve to best support the people of Oregon.

 

2015-11-20 10.35.14In fall 2015, the Art 406 course was offered for the first time. The course — a partnership between OSU Extension and the College of Liberal Arts — teaches both arts engagement methods and studio art techniques in a single class. The course is designed as a collaborative arts experience that engages and supports OSU arts students, Tillamook High School students and the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum.

 

2015-11-20 17.53.25The innovative course involved mentoring partnerships between the OSU and Tillamook students and culminated in a joint art exhibit curated by all the students at the Pioneer Museum. Coastal identities experienced as residents of Tillamook and the Oregon Coast emerged as themes in many of the high school students’ art pieces.

 

In tune with OSU’s Marine Studies Initiative, the OSU students built on a tradition of arts involvement in coastal discussions. They took part in the State of the Coast conference, which brings together communities of people that live, work or study the Oregon coast. Through their participation as artists, resulting work and subsequent inspiration, the OSU students contribute to the evolving understanding of Oregon’s coastal environment.

 

OSU plans to offer Art 406 again in spring 2016.

 

2015-11-20 13.32.44To learn more about the innovative approach Extension Reconsidered takes to engage and serve the needs of communities, talk with Charles Robinson. We’ll be hearing more from him as we approach the dates of the maker fair in April. Charles works with the College of Liberal Arts, the Division of Outreach & Engagement, the Graduate School and The CO.