Browsing by Author "Smilnak, David"
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- Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection(2023-11-02)
The Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection contains resources for formal and non-formal agricultural educators working with middle school aged youth. Reference materials for facilitators introduce key concepts, youth-facing fact sheets present these concepts at a 6th grade level, and four hands-on activities integrate agriculture and cyberbiosecurity concepts. Cyberbiosecurity is an emerging field that focuses on creating security measures for digital aspects of our food and agriculture systems, creating a structure and opportunity for a safe food system that can meet the large needs of a growing population and world. The Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection was developed through a project aimed at supporting formal and non-formal agricultural educators in integrating cyberbiosecurity topics and research-based strategies for engaging middle-school-aged girls in STEM into their educational programs. The project is an outreach effort of the Virginia Tech Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture and was supported, in part, by the CCI Southwest Virginia Node Cyberbiosecurity Seed Grant program and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Fields (WAMS) Grants Program, award #2020-38503-31950. The open educational resources in this collection were developed through partnerships with scientists, middle school teachers, and Extension agents. Are you reviewing or adopting this collection for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. How to access the collection
The main landing page for this collection is https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity. Published as open educational resources, all resources are provided in durable (PDF) and customizable (MS Word) formats. They are also hosted on the free, open-access, open educational resource repository called GoOpenVA in a unique resource collection, Ag Cybersecurity Virginia Tech, at https://goopenva.org/curated-collections/143. ISBN for Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Reference Guide
PDF: 978-1-957213-61-3 Included resources
1: Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Reference Guide, which includes background information on key topics in agricultural cyberbiosecurity (Fact Sheets), a glossary, and context for the overall project and contributors - Agricultural_Cyberbiosecurity_Reference_Guide.pdf
2: Fact Sheets, which cover nine topics (Big Data, Bioeconomy, Biomanufacturing, Biosecurity, Biotechnology, Cyberbiosecurity, Data Literacy, Precision Agriculture, Sensor) with separate facilitator and youth versions - Big_Data_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Bioeconomy_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Biomanufacturing_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Biosecurity_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Biotechnology_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Cyberbiosecurity_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Data_Literacy_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Precision_Agriculture_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Sensors_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Big_Data_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Bioeconomy_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Biomanufacturing_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Biosecurity_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Biotechnology_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Cyberbiosecurity_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Data_Literacy_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Precision_Agriculture_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Sensors_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf
3: Activities, which includes a Facilitator Guide and a Youth Activity Guide that address vulnerabilities in agricultural systems, traceability in hydroponic greens production, cybersecurity concerns with technologies commonly used in the livestock industry, and data quality in automation of food production. - Food_System_Vulnerabilities_Facilitator_Guide.pdf - Food_System_Vulnerabilities_Youth_Guide.pdf - Hydroponics_Facilitator_Guide.pdf - Hydroponics_Youth_Guide.pdf - Livestock_Tracking_Facilitator_Guide.pdf - Livestock_Tracking_Youth_Guide.pdf - Soil_Nutrient_Facilitator_Guide.pdf - Soil_Nutrient_Youth_Guide.pdf MS Word documents are available as an editable, customizable option for items 1-3. - Fact_Sheets_Facilitator_PDF_and_Customizable.zip - Activities_Facilitator_and_Youth_Guides_PDF_and_Customizable.zip - Editable_templates.zip Resources were developed for use with a middle school youth audience, can be used in formal or non-formal educational settings, and are aligned with Virginia Standards of Learning for science and computer science and Career and Technical Education Competencies for agricultural education. About the editors
David Smilnak
David is a Ph.D. student and graduate assistant at Virginia Tech. His work involves individual research towards his dissertation as well as writing papers, giving presentations, and coordinating groups of people for those projects. Generally, he's working with graduate students and faculty members at Virginia Tech, or agricultural professionals including teachers, Extension Agents, and farmers. He is working on a couple of projects, one of which is Initiating the Rural Cyberbiosecurity Workforce Pipeline Through Empowering Agricultural Educators and Supporting Middle School Girls. He enjoys the different types of people he gets to work with and occasionally he gets to go to a farm as well! Hannah H. Scherer
Hannah is an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist at Virginia Tech. She is interested in how to make education more interesting and relevant to learners. In this role, she works with teachers, students, 4-H agents, and lots of other folks to try out new ideas for lessons and collect information to understand what works and what doesn’t. As part of this work, she was able to direct the Initiating the Rural Cyberbiosecurity Workforce Pipeline Through Empowering Agricultural Educators and Supporting Middle School Girls project and help make everything happen. Special thanks
This work is supported through the CCI Southwest Virginia Node Cyberbiosecurity Seed Grant program, the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Fields (WAMS) Grants Program, award #2020-38503-31950, with design, publication assistance, and project management support from the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Suggested citation
Smilnak, David, and Hannah H. Scherer, eds. (2023). Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Accessibility
Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Please contact openeducation@vt.edu if you are a person with a disability and have suggestions to make these resources more accessible. - CAIA Lightning Talk: North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) RecapCoartney, Jama S.; Ellis, Lisa; Johnson, Kellie; Nunoo, Nicole; Smilnak, David; Kaufman, Eric K. (2022-08-11)Are you curious about teaching in agriculture and what can be done to improve learning? That is the focus of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA). At the 2022 NACTA conference, Virginia Tech personnel were involved with 11 different presentations. This lightning talk will highlight insights and ideas from the conference.
- Resources to Engage the Cyberbiosecurity Workforce Pipeline: Empowering Agricultural Educators and Middle School Girls in STEMSmilnak, David; Scherer, Hannah H.; Walz, Anita R.; Bonnett, Erika; Grey, Kindred (2023-03-16)Initiating the Rural Cyberbiosecurity Workforce Pipeline Through Empowering Agricultural Educators & Supporting Middle School Girls: Project Resources About the Resources The resources and activities of this project were piloted in middle school agriculture classes and 4-H learning environments and revised based on educator and learner feedback. Factsheets were evaluated by scientific and cybersecurity education experts and in part by the Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture Graduate Student Affiliates. The resources have been introduced to school-based agricultural educators and extension agents at state-level professional development conferences and to members of a national cybersecurity education network. Implementation by a new cohort of educators is underway to collect further input from the field. Their Purpose To date, youth have found the activities engaging, educators are excited about the possibility of innovating their agricultural education programs, and the factsheets provide spark novel ideas for further activities that can be modified and/or developed. Produced as Open Educational Resources (OER), the materials are freely available online for educators to download and can be remixed for use in a variety of educational settings. Educators are encouraged to use our resources, revise them for their own setting, and contribute their new versions and ideas to the growing OER collection. All factsheets, facilitator guides, and handouts are available for free electronic download.