PRECISION AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS MENTORS (PAMM)

Precision Agricultural Mechanics Mentors (PAMM) is a teacher professional development and mentoring program with the major goal of equippingand empoweringfemale secondary agricultural mechanics teachers to teach precision agriculture mechanics curriculum.PAMM also seeks to increase the self-confidence and technical skills of female agricultural mechanics teachers in precision agriculture specifically, and agricultural mechanics, broadly. PAMM incorporates both faculty and near-peer mentoring with a goal to develop a Community of Practice for providing technical and social support to female agricultural mechanics teachers.Objectives:Create an inquiry/problem-solving based secondary precision agriculture curriculum.Deliver face-to-face teacher professional development workshops where completers can 1) describe fundamental precision agriculture concepts and technologies, 2) demonstrate data management and analysis techniques, 3) create crop management plans, and 4) evaluate the economic and environmental implications of precision agriculture.Each PAMM participant will teach precision agriculture curriculum unit to agricultural mechanics annually to students in their local schools.Develop a faculty and near-peer mentoring network with thegoal to develop a Community of Practice for providing technical and social support to female agricultural mechanics teachers.Investigate barriers to adoption of precision agriculture technology and the interplay of curriculum training and mentoring in the self-efficacy and practices of female agricultural mechanics teachers in implementing workforce training for secondary students.Develop a repository of precision agriculture curriculum and activities to facilitate adoption of precision agriculture curriculum across all secondary agricultural mechanics programs.