Agricultural Education

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The Division of Agricultural Education is dedicated to serving the needs of all students and agricultural professionals through a dynamic and comprehensive program of rural leadership, technological advancement, and proven scientific and educational practices. The program is grounded in basic and applied research aimed at improving professional and technical skills in the realm of Montana agriculture.

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Agricultural Machinery Safety Behavior Among Youth
(American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, 2023-01) Pate, Michael L.; Lawver, Rebecca G.; Perry, Dustin K.; Smalley, Scott W.; Wille, Celina; Edgar, Don; Hafer, Jim; Young, Marvin
The Supervised Agricultural Experience Safety Award program was launched with Montana, South Dakota, and Utah agriculture teachers. A combination of video conferencing and in-person training workshops were offered to school-based agriculture teachers in Montana, South Dakota, and Utah. Zoom webinar workshops were held with teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The five annual training topics were Year 1) Tractor/Equipment Roll over hazards, Year 2) ATV/UTV operation hazards, Year 3) Tractor/Equipment Operation Hazards, Year 4) PTO/Entanglement hazards, and Year 5) agricultural machinery transport hazards associated with use on public roadways. To assess the influence of agricultural machinery safety training on students’ student work-based, journal reflections were collected through the Agricultural Experience Tracker to qualitatively describe students’ production-based agricultural experiences as coded by NASS Commodity codes, describe students’ safety reporting using Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) journal entries, and quantify teachers’ workshop participation as related to student safety reporting. A total of 2215 journal entries were reviewed from Montana, Utah, and South Dakota. A total of 905 journal entries were associated with a teacher participating in the training program. Most student journal entries focused on machinery operations. A total of 80 journal entries specifically reported safety as the main topic. A total of 204 journal entries reported the use of tractors. A total of 82 entries (25.1%) noted Hay production as the agricultural production work experience. The results provide recommendations for developing an application model for translation using an FFA Award structure.
Assessing Youth Safety Knowledge with the Agricultural Experience Tracker (AET)
(American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, 2022-01) Smalley, Scott W.; Perry, Dustin K.; Shultz, Alyx; Lawver, Rebecca G.; Pate, Michael Lynn; Hanagriff, Roger; Ewell, Clay
The purpose of this study was to assess the safety knowledge of youth in high school agricultural education. The target population consisted of youth ages 14 to 18 who were enrolled in school-based agricultural education (SBAE) programs that used the Agricultural Experience Tracker (AET) safety knowledge assessment between May 2019 and June 2020 (N = 1,451). The safety knowledge questions were randomly generated from the curriculum resources of the National Safe Tractor and Machinery Operation Program (NSTMOP). The test consisted of 50 multiple-choice questions, with one point awarded for each correct answer, and covered topics such as safety basics, agricultural hazards, tractors, connecting and using implements with tractors, and materials handling. The majority of students were male (n = 847, 58.4%). The highest proportion of students were enrolled in the 11th grade at the time of the test. Most respondents indicated that they were from a rural area (52.0%). Test scores for the 1,451 students ranged from a minimum of 4% to a maximum of 98%. Within each independent variable, test scores averaged in the low 60s, with the exception of test scores for students in 9th grade, which averaged 56.43%. Research and continuing education are needed to influence the behavior of young workers in agricultural settings.