Call for Chapters: Urban Agriculture and STEM learning

Call for Chapters: Urban Agriculture and STEM learning

As part of a new Springer series on urban agriculture this is a call
for book chapters for an edited volume that focuses on the design,
implementation, and educational outcomes on learners as they
participate in an urban agricultural experience. We have a focus on
agricultural programs (urban gardening, urban farming, hydroponics,
aquaculture, etc...) that take place in or out of school in cities
(urbanized areas) and working with students or residents who are
underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
fields

Purpose of the Book
Previous research has shown that when youth participate in
agricultural based programs such programs can build upon youths’
background and interests and excite them to pursue STEM fields,
particularly those youth who grew up in more agrarian
societies/communities with rich connections to their cultural and
family history. As such this book will explore how agriculture can
engage urban youth in learning science where other methods and
approaches often fail. In addition, this book will explore how urban
agriculture can serve as an innovative and creative approach to
engaging youth in truly integrated science studies. In fact, one of
the most frequent and widely supported calls for change in STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education is for
newly envisioned curriculum that integrates, science, technology,
engineering, and math content and skills (Honey, Pearson, &
Schweingruber, 2014). Yet, most curriculum that currently exists is
still focused on individual disciplines with little connection between
the disciplines. This approach often leaves youth without an
understanding of how the scientific disciplines are connected to each
other which is problematic given that many of the more important
scientific discoveries are occurring at the boundaries of the
traditional scientific disciplines. Authors in this volume will
examine how urban agriculture programs support student learning across
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) areas, the
challenges in doing so in both in-school and out-of-school contexts,
and how to design curriculum for urban agricultural educational
experiences that capitalize upon its inherently interdisciplinary
nature.

We are looking for chapter from both practitioners and researchers in
urban agriculture who design and implement programs that engage youth
or adults in STEM learning experiences. These chapters will focus on,
but not limited to (1) the design principles followed, (2)
implementation challenges, (3) strategies and features of program that
led to sustainability and/or scalability, (4) implementation
challenges and successes across contexts. Other topics are most
welcome and encouraged.

We are also seeking empirically based research chapters that examine
learning and assessment in urban agriculture related to STEM. Such
chapters can explore such issues as (1) the impact of urban
agriculture experiences in terms of development of 21st century
skills, STEM disciplinary learning, (2) how urban agricultural
experiences impact affective domains such as interest and motivation
in regards to STEM, (3) impact of urban agricultural experiences on
student beliefs around sustainability, (4) how students from a wide
array of backgrounds view and learn from urban agricultural
experiences, and (5) impact of urban agricultural experiences of
student cultural, gender, and ethnic identities and how those
constructs support learning. Similar to the practitioner based
chapters, other topics are most and welcome and encouraged.

Timelines
Dec 15th: A 1-2 page proposal that summarizes the chapter. The
proposal should have the following components:
1. A description of the program or research context
2. A description of the design framework or research framework
3. A description of lessons learned or findings
January 19th – Notification of decision of chapter acceptance March
1st - 1st version of chapter due
March 27th – reviews returned to authors
April 15th – final revisions of chapter due
May 10th – final version of book and chapters sent to Springer

Please send your chapter proposal submissions to Amie Patchen at
patchena@bc.edu and
Michael Barnett at barnetge@bc.edu by December 15th.

If you have any questions regarding whether the work that you are
currently engaged is a good fit for this book please don’t hesitate to
contact the editors below.

Michael Barnett, barnetge@bc.edu, Boston College
Amie Patchen, patchena@bc.edu, Boston College
Levon Esthers, lesters@purdue.edu, Purdue University
Neil Kloboch, knobloc@purdue.edu, Purdue University