Presented By: Saifur Rahman, North Carolina State University
Co-Authors: Audie Cherry, Clemson University
Joseph Donaldson, North Carolina State University

The Studies of Occupations, Culture, and Innovations toward Agricultural Literacy (SOCIAL) initiative is a collaboration of faculty from two colleges of agriculture. The SOCIAL goal is to support middle school teachers in becoming better-informed food and agricultural advocates who will foster student career interests across agriculture and the allied sciences. Middle school is a particularly important time for youth to explore careers, build self-awareness of occupational interests, and set academic and career goals. SOCIAL provides professional development for South Carolina's eighth grade social studies teachers to integrate agriculture into the history curriculum. As a part of this initiative, 13 teachers engaged in a SOCIAL Studies Academy ”a statewide tour of the Clemson Research Education Center (REC) System highlighting agricultural faculty, history, modern technologies, and career opportunities. After the tour, participants were surveyed using a retrospective post-then-pre assessment of knowledge, instructional practices, and personal practices in the food and agricultural sciences. More than 70% of teachers reported gaining knowledge in precision agriculture, integrated pest management, turf production, and agricultural research. Regarding instructional practices, all teachers reported their intentions to provide agricultural resources to students and encourage students to consider agricultural careers. Notably, none of the teachers reported these practices prior to the tour. To a lesser extent, teachers reported that the tour prompted them to adopt personal practices such as shopping for locally grown food and producing their own food. The overall findings demonstrate that the tour was an effective method for increasing awareness of agricultural career opportunities among the teachers, and the REC System is an important continuing education tool. Key recommendations from the teachers for future professional development were to: (a) provide more extensive marketing to attract additional teachers to the program, and (b) engage science and agricultural teachers in building local support for agricultural career exploration.