Engaging Learners through Digital Escape Rooms (1:15-1:30pm)
Jodi Riedel
North Carolina State University

As a former high school agricultural education teacher of 19 years, and now a lecturer at the university in horticulture, I have found success creating and using digital escape rooms to aid in content delivery.  Participants of the presentation will understand digital escape rooms and will be supplied materials to aid in creating their own digital escape room (while having access to two working digital escape rooms).  Digital escape rooms engage students in a virtual platform where they are presented with a problem by a character. The character tasks the students with solving a problem through a series of rooms or objects where content is housed. Each room is filled with content and a corresponding puzzle. To solve each room's puzzle, the student explores the corresponding content through videos, reading, infographics and more. Once the puzzle has been solved, the student then enters their answer into a Google Form. The entire time the student engages in the digital escape room, a clock is running in the background and the anxious feeling of winning a game or the pressure to succeed with the time constraints encourages a competitive nature in the students.  Finding tools that entice students to learn can be difficult in distance learning. Students often feel disconnected from their peers and complain of being passive learners, who are exposed solely to lectures, videos, and readings. Digital escape rooms put students in the driver's seat of learning. The digital escape room acts as a unique vehicle for knowledge transfer and engagement for asynchronous learning. This methodology need not be limited to distance learning. Additionally, instructors may choose to include digital escape rooms as a means of introduction or review of content.

Undergraduate Student Reflections on Cross-institutional High Impact Experience: A Content Analysis (1:30-1:45pm)
Daniel Foster
Pennsylvania State University

The topic of global food security is not often instructed as an independent unit of instruction or topic in traditional agricultural education, although agriculture is an essential element related to world hunger. Experts recommend exposing post-secondary agriculture students to issues related to global food security. To meet this recommendation, we conducted an immersive program for post-secondary agriculture students with career aspirations of becoming future secondary agricultural educators (N =16) from two institutions in conjunction with the Borlaug Dialogues as curated by the World Food Prize Foundation in Des Moines, IA, the preeminent conference for global policy conversations. This qualitative content analysis allowed us to address the research question 'What do postsecondary students reflect on following a cross-institutional experience related to global food security issues?" Researchers note the importance of reflection during high-impact experiences as a method for determining impact of experience, knowledge gained, and behavioral intentions following the experience. We conducted a content analysis of written personal reflections from all participants following completion of programming. We employed peer debriefing, calibration, triangulation, and audit trail monitoring for all data points to establish trustworthiness. The most prominent themes were noted increases in personal growth and confidence, efficacy for continued growth, desire to teach others, need for quality food security education, and the importance of agriculture. Findings from this content analysis yield recommendations for developing high-impact experiences with the potential to stimulate increased confidence and motivation controls, working with cross-institutional partners, integration of global food security as a topic in postsecondary agriculture courses, and the need for additional educational efforts in global agriculture initiatives.

Promoting Student Well-being Through Wellness Week (1:45-2:00pm)
Wendy Warner
North Carolina State University

Research conducted during the outbreak of COVID-19 concluded the pandemic had a significant negative impact on the mental health of college students and proactive efforts were needed to support their well-being. Following a conversation with undergraduate students in which they expressed anxiety and feeling overwhelmed with courses, personal concerns, and feelings of isolation, course instructors determined a Wellness Week should be instituted. During Wellness Week, no class or lab activities were held and instead, students were asked to spend a little time each day to engage in a wellness activity. A Wellness Week document was created and posted in the learning management system with 25 choices of activities. Activities ranged from creating an upbeat playlist or playing a board game to trying a new food. There was also an option to engage in a wellness activity of their choice. From the list, students were asked to select five to complete over the week. Using Flipgrid or a written response, students explained their activities and provided a brief description of how they will continue to prioritize time on a regular basis to engage in personal wellness efforts as a pre-service teacher. After Wellness Week, students had numerous positive comments about the experience and provided encouraging feedback to each other through Flipgrid responses. As a result, the course instructors have continued to incorporate a Wellness Day or Week into their courses. The mental health of students should remain a key priority even post-COVID.