This case study examines the efforts of the Michigan Agricultural College (Michigan State University, hereafter MAC) to promote agricultural science and agricultural education. It promoted both, simultaneously, by collaborating with farmers' organizations to conduct agricultural education (extension) through, most notably, institutes, bulletins,…

Attention to stress and mental health among agricultural producers has increased over recent years, and Cooperative Extension has been active in offering educational workshops and resources to agricultural audiences. This article describes the process and effectiveness of expanding two Michigan State University Extension farm stress management…

Gain and loss framing has been used in risk communication across many fields as a technique for shaping individuals' behaviors. Via community-engaged research conducted with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, we tested five message frames to determine efficacy for outreach programs. We made the following determinations: (1) for…

Understanding how farmers prefer to learn is critical for the development and delivery of successful extension programming. Therefore, Michigan State University Extension specialists conducted an interactive hands-on demonstration workshop (Potato University) addressing pressing issues to Michigan potato production at the Michigan Winter Potato…

Mitigating complex problems is increasingly essential to sustaining life on Earth. Empowering current and future generations to address these problems requires rethinking traditional education approaches. This article serves as a primer for land-based learning--defined as a pedagogical approach in which learners collaborate with community members…

This paper will discuss a Virtual Exchange (VE) between the University of Michigan (USA) and the High Institute of Technological Studies of Béja (Tunisia) that took place between October and December 2019. Students from Tunisia and USA were enrolled in two entrepreneurship courses in their respective universities and joined together to work in…

Increasingly, farmers are looking to private sector advisors to inform their nitrogen decisions, but little is known about these important actors. We held a Sustainable Nitrogen Roundtable workshop to bring together important groups--private sector farm advisors, Extension educators, scientists, and farmers--to discuss new research and more…

As early-career Extension educators challenged by societal, structural, agricultural, and fiscal trends, we designed a multiyear educational program to support the diverse needs of emerging specialty crop producers in northwest Michigan. This article presents outcomes of that program. We explore how Extension professionals can develop impactful…

This article describes an innovative evaluation plan we employed to capture outcomes of a multiyear beginning farmer program and, specifically, highlights the facilitation technique we used to document short-term and intermediate goals of the program that matched U.S. Department of Agriculture grant requirements and Extension administration…

This survey and interview-based study examined the perspectives of 30 of the 38 migrant directors in Michigan, covering 26 summer migrant programs. Among the findings of this study were an unexpected inverse relationship between the size of programs and the frequency and number of external services and referrals they are able to provide for…

Two land-grant institutions, Michigan State University (MSU) and Texas A&M University (TAMU) used funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to partner with the National University of Rwanda (NUR) to support the agriculture faculty in Rwanda following the 1994 genocide. In addition, the three institutions…

Although Michigan is often called the "Wolverine State," its more common nickname is the "Great Lakes State." This name comes from the fact that Michigan is the only state in the United States that borders four of the five Great Lakes. Also referred to as the "Water Wonderland," Michigan has 11,000 additional lakes,…

The aim of AgShare is to create a scalable and sustainable collaboration of existing organizations for African publishing, localizing, and sharing of science-based teaching and learning materials that fill critical resource gaps in African MSc agriculture curriculum. Shared innovative practices are emerging through the AgShare projects, not only…

In 2008 MSU Extension evaluated their program to identify the major areas of educational need for Michigan farmers and agribusiness operators. Surveys were mailed to a stratified random sample from Michigan Agricultural Statistics Service records of dairy, livestock, swine, cash crops, fruit, vegetable, and nursery/greenhouse producers. Findings…

This is the final volume of a four-volume report of a research project designed to (1) identify job needs for agricultural occupations which will result from the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System and perform a task analysis on each occupation, (2) develop instructional modules and determine their place in either high school or 2-year…