Version 31 Oct 2007Sony.c.challenge2002 final report.docUSDA Cooperative States Research, Education, and Extension ServiceChallenge Grant ProgramDiscovery-Based Research Opportunities:Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs)Final Report31 October 2007Florence V. Dunkel, Ph.D.Principal InvestigatorAssociate Professor of EntomologyDepartment of Plant Sciences and Plant PathologyMontana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717 1Version 31 Oct 2007Sony.c.challenge2002 final report.docUndergraduate students in agriculture and related fields at U.S. institutions lack understanding of agriculture in developing nations. In this project now completed we proposed that we would strengthen higher education agricultural science programs by developing synergistic collaborations between undergraduate education and US Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs) in developing nations. We proposed that this project wouldlink undergraduate instruction at four Land Grant institutions, including a tribal college, as well as a network of private institutions, with the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) CRSP research in Mali. Through this linkage, we predicted that two major impacts on undergraduate education would take place:1) Undergraduate students would have the opportunity for hands-on discovery-based learning in Africa working with IPM CRSP researchers, and 2) Additional students (estimated 2,800 students in 3 years of grant) will benefit from the infusion of actual problems and issues derivedfrom the research activities of the IPM CRSP into popular, existing undergraduate courses in entomology and other subjects. This model was initially tested at Montana State University (MSU)-Bozeman since the 1999/2000 academic year, including two-week “externships” for US students in Mali, with exceptionally encouraging results.We proposed that the project just ending would enlarge on this pilot program2Version 31 Oct 2007Sony.c.challenge2002 final report.docto include additional institutions and researchers and teaching professors.By means of evaluation and dissemination activities, we predicted that this collaborative model would benefit a much larger student population as it expands to involve more of the 9 CRSPs and the 51 Land Grant institutions currently involved in their activities in 52 developing countries throughout the world, as well as other institutions.The impacts discussed in the following pages originated from thisproject. During the course of the project, faculty exploration and linkagesthat developed, as well as student research in this specific project, led to 3other grants. These 3 parallel grants were:- “Linking Biotechnology and Bioengineering with Mali Agribusiness for health, safetyand exports” US Agency for International Development –Washington through HigherEducation for Development (HED, formerly ALO). $399,000, 2004-2007.- “Discovery-Based Undergraduate Education: Farmer-to-Farmer Teaching andLearning” USDA CSREES Higher Education Challenge Grant Program. $298,000.2007-2008 (includes a 1-year no-cost extension).- “Discovery-Based Secondary Education: Global teacher-to-scientist, student-to-student teaching and learning.” USDA CSREES Secondary Education ChallengeGrant Program. $49,000, 2005-2008 (includes a 1-year no-cost extension.) In this report from the original grant initiated in 2002, impacts can be seenstrongly augmented by the parallel funding. This final report will focus onidentifying changes in the teaching curriculum and teaching methods in USinstitutions of higher education, changes that resulted from the 2002 grant.. What has changed in undergraduate (and graduate) teachingat Montana State University-Bozeman as a result of this project3Version 31 Oct 2007Sony.c.challenge2002 final report.doc(Table 1)?- Subsistence farming is now discussed in many College of Agriculturecourses (for details of how this process evolved and how the levels ofthis discussion progressed see Appendix 1.0.).- Aspects of traditional wisdom, material poverty, cultural wealth, health,and agriculture are topics that have been incorporated into courses in5 departments in 3 colleges at Montana State University (MSU)-Bozeman.- Agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture and small scalefarming, is a topic interwoven now into courses in Modern Languagesand Literatures (French), Media and Theater Arts, and Business(Finance and Information Systems). This semester, the suite of grants,beginning with the one initiated in 2002 has led to introducing thesetopics, subsistence agriculture, small-scale farming, material poverty,into the University Seminar, a required course for freshmen in theUniversity Studies program (in 2007, there were 750 students in thiscourse).- Faculty from these unlikely combinations of disciplines are nowcollaborating in substantive ways. For example, faculty are:1. participating in weekly book discussion group on books recentlypublished on development issues 2. participating in weekly teaching methods discussions3. co-teaching4Version 31 Oct 2007Sony.c.challenge2002 final report.doc4. guest lecturing in each others’ classes5. collaboratively designing courses6. co-mentoring undergraduates in on-campus and in-Mali researchprojects7. publishing in scholarly teaching journals (in contrast to only inscientific journals).- MSU-Bozeman faculty involved with this grant have increased theirinteractions with secondary school teachers/students and in guestteaching for local secondary schools also part of the Mali suite ofprojects.How has this change been transferred to other institutions?- Weekly project meetings by telephone conference- Informal on-campus meetings with faculty and students. Dr. Dunkelvisited each campus at least once a year (University of St. Thomas,Virginia Tech, University of California-Davis). Faculty and studentsfrom Montana State met in Bozeman with faculty and students fromthe partner school (Chief Dull Knife College) several times per year. - National symposia. Faculty and former externs presented a 4-hoursymposium jointly sponsored by the International Affairs Committee,and the Committee on Youth and Education, at the