The world demands individuals with knowledge and skills in agriculture, food, and natural resources (AFNR) paired with proficiency in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts. Current models for STEM education call for interdisciplinary approaches in which learners address real-world challenges, indicating high potential…

This study attempted to scrutinize the disciplinary and cross-disciplinary generic variations of textbook introductions in humanities and basic sciences with reference to the onion model. The data included a sample of 60 introductions (i.e. ten each from applied linguistics, sociology, and psychology within humanities, and ten each from biology,…

Demands for increases in student achievement have led education professionals to incorporate various and rigorous teaching strategies into classrooms across the United States. Within school-based agricultural education (SBAE), agriculture teachers have responded to these challenges quite well. SBAE incorporates a wide variety of teaching and…

Within the communicative approach, often the assumption has been that with the right exposure, students will simply "pick up" the vocabulary required for learning and using English, and thus there is no need to focus on or teach it. Yet, as many teachers can attest, this is frequently not the case, and there have been recent efforts to…

The extension and research systems of land-grant institutions are in trouble. Six factors demonstrate the scope of the problem: significant cuts for agriculture in the Clinton administration budget; lawmakers opposed to extension research; federal budget deficit; state budget constraints; decreased power of agriculture in Congress; and…

This research project examined the potential role of agricultural experiences as a vehicle for meeting the diverse learning needs of rural primary students in developing countries. Volume 1 of the project report represents a literature review that investigated a "new role" for agriculture as a key element for developing rural students'…

This document is a resource for information on distance education research in Iowa. The material is divided into three sections. The first section describes distance education in Iowa, the Iowa Communications Network (ICN), the Iowa Distance Education Alliance (IDEA), and the research plan underway. The second section contains a review of the…

This document is a resource for distance education research in Iowa, including information on developing, implementing, and administering distance education systems. This second edition contains the original 16 research papers published previously, as well as 8 additional, more recent research studies. The first section describes distance…

Biology knowledge and understanding is important not only for the conversion of the loftiest dreams into reality for a better life of individuals but also for preparing secondary pupils for such fields as agriculture, medicine, biotechnology, and genetic engineering. But a recent study has revealed that many aspects of school science (biology…