Tag: eXtension

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Announcements Information Newsroom Tools and Services Webinars

eXtension Webinar To Review Recent Changes and New Opportunities for Extension Professionals

Announcement: On Wednesday, May 4, 2016, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET, the eXtension Foundation will host a webinar for all Extension professionals to review recent changes and new opportunities now available for member institutions. On hand to present will be eXtension CEO Christine Geith and members of the leadership team to answer questions and provide examples of how eXtension’s new tools, services and initiatives can be used by Cooperative Extension Service teams and professionals.

For more information and the option to add this event to your calendar, please visit http://learn.extension.org/events/2621.

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Food Systems i-Three Corps

i-Three Issue Corps – Clark County Kentucky Seafood Nutrition Partnership

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Each year Americans consume an average of about 14 pounds of seafood per person but nearly 140 pounds of sugar.

The United States Department of Agriculture recommends at least two servings of seafood each week, but most Americans are not coming close.  About 80-90 percent of U.S. consumers do not meet the recommendations. One-third of the population eats seafood once a week; about one-half occasionally includes seafood in their diets, while some never do. Low-income individuals tend to have the lowest seafood intake.

Seafood 4Price, access, dislike for seafood, and lack of knowledge of how to prepare seafood are often as deterrents for use.  Seafood contains high-quality protein, vitamins, and minerals and is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids that have been shown to reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, hypertension, and other chronic conditions. Eating seafood may also improve memory and prevent the onset of dementia.

The Team

As a result of these benefits, the Clark County Cooperative Extension collaborated with Clark County Community Services, Clark Regional Hospital and the Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) to implement Eating Heart Healthy;  an interactive four-week, cooking and nutrition workshop designed for low income audiences in Clark County who are at high risk for cardiovascular disease .

What We Did

Community Services advertised and registered participants from their family enrollments.  Clark Regional Hospital tested the Omega-3 index level measurements before the program began so participants could track their progress.  Clark Regional provided a dietitian to teach about heart health and nutrition and the Clark County Extension Agent implemented the 4-week hands on cooking segment.

Hands On

Seafood Consumption- USDARecipes from SNP and the University of Kentucky were adapted to be easy to read and to incorporate available, affordable ingredients.  Tuna Salad Sandwiches, Gluten Free Grilled Tilapia Tacos, Apple Harvest Salad with Popcorn Shrimp, and Salmon Burgers were prepared. The tuna salad was well accepted but the grilled tilapia tacos and popcorn shrimp salad stretched participants to try different combinations of food that were not familiar to them. Participants received a cooking incentive (canned foods) at the end of each session to encourage them to try the recipes at home.

 

The Final Cook-off

Participants were divided into three kitchens and given a box of supplies for salmon burgers for a “cook-off”.  Kitchen 1 used a gas stove, minimal amount of cooking oil, canned salmon with liquid, bones, and skin.  Kitchen 2 used an electric range, cooking spray, drained canned salmon, with bones and skin removed.  Kitchen 3 used an electric range, cooking oil, drained canned salmon, skin and bones removed, with added shredded cheese, minced onion and garlic, and a cookie cutter to cut their salmon uniformly. Upon completion, each kitchen’s dish was judged on appearance and taste.  All participants sampled each dish and comments were made on how much easier it was to eat something good for you when you could make different recipes with it. Kitchen 3 was given the award for “best taste.”

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Source of photos above: Jennifer Austin, Clark County FCS Agent

 

What’s Next?

To complete the Seafood Nutrition Partnership Eating Heart Healthy program, a reunion will be held in approximately 3 months to determine whether the increased awareness about the nutritional benefits of seafood consumption improved health.  Participants’ Omega-3 index will be reassessed to determine if intake of seafood increased after the intervention. Additionally,  low income groups generally lack the time needed to commit to long interventions. As such, we also plan to test the use of a one-session format in increasing the consumption of seafood among a low-income population in Lexington, Kentucky. Can low income audiences obtain the same health benefits with shorter educational sessions? This will be the main focus of our next intervention. It is likely that shorter sessions, if effective, will result in a cost savings that can be used for marketing or to cover other program costs for low income audiences. We look forward to sharing best practice guidelines.

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Announcements i-Three Corps

eXtension Launches 2016 i-Three Issue Corps

 

rocket launch night trajectoryeXtension is pleased to name the first eXtension i-Three Issue Corps! These 127 individuals comprise 72 projects that will move forward over the next several weeks and months in 2016. Focused on either Food Systems or Climate these individuals will collaborate with eXtension staff, key subject matter informants, experts in project design, technology, and marketing, and each other to enhance and improve their projects and experiments.

Teams and individuals represent 31 states and 33 institutions.  They represent all levels of Cooperative Extension staff and include public and private sector members.  Projects or experiments are in various stages but all appear in plans of work nationwide for the Corps members.

During the next few weeks Corps members will engage in a variety of professional development sessions and activities targeted at their work.  They’ll be exposed to new project management, communication, and innovation assessment tools with the goal of integrating such tools into their work now and in the future. At the 2016 National eXtension Conference in San Antonio, March 22-25, the Corps will move through a “design-a-thon” experience to further refine their projects or experiments

A complete roster of the Corps membership can be found here.

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Information

Continuing and Changing

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Photo from Flickr https://flic.kr/p/5JHLsJ CC by 2.0

In the summer of 1986 as a graduate student, I took the hardest class in my educational career. Dr. Patricia Duffy was teaching for the first time duality theory in economics. Today, I don’t remember the math, but I do remember reaching different but “right” conclusions by using different methods. These different conclusions ended up being the limits for possible solutions.

After almost 30 years, I am reminded of the hardest class I have ever taken—duality theory in economics—and the confusion I had when we worked through different methods and coming to different conclusions. The notions of this mathematical class applies today in complex problem solving. There are many solutions and those solutions are bound by the physical, environmental, societal, and economic constraints, We have to understand the different perspectives to understand the different constraint dimensions. To make sure we have the best range of solutions, we need to seek many different potential perspectives and try some of those possible creative solutions. There is no one absolute answer.

eXtension, like Cooperative Extension, has always been caught in a quandary of staying true to our traditional clients and methods while changing to adopt new research and technologies. This duality—great possibilities within constraints—however also presents seeming conflicting thoughts. We know Cooperative Extension needs to do more and work differently to connect with potential community members who don’t know us. The duality is that for eXtension and Cooperative Extension to continue we must change but also to continue we must stay true to those who know and support us—who may or may not realize the technological, behavioral, demographic, and societal changes. We are bound by our traditional clients who support us and by what we know is changing.

Victor flying a small droneeXtension is changing. To meet the demands and requirements of Cooperative Extension, we are focusing on serving and providing professional development for Cooperative Extension educators in order to provide greater impact to their programs. We are looking for tools—some of these tools are technological and online. And, some of these tools are talents, connections, and networks that can enhance local programs—beyond local dynamics.

In our first phase, we are depending on a subset of Cooperative Extension professionals to tell or show us where they need help and to help us shape eXtension (and possibly a Cooperative Extension) path. In this process, this subset will develop short burst experiments and some lab experiments to test ideas and to provide a safe way to be creative and try new ideas for connecting and reaching new audiences in order to have a greater impact.

The duality is that we do not intend to forget our past and present and yet we know we need to realize the potential of a different focus. We are not abandoning our current communities of practice who have built eXtension and who have served the public. We are committed by our past—the collection and the networks of the communities of practice—and by our future—new audiences and greater impact through innovation and developing and advancing our own workforce. We will be depending on existing communities of practice to add value and to shape our future.

eXtension’s goal is to increase visibility and measurable impact of Cooperative Extension through its greatest resource its own Extension’s professionals. Our goal may be a bit lofty. Can eXtension help individual Extension professionals have greater reach and impact? We will be trying by providing a safe-fail place for new ideas. We want individuals who want to try something different in their existing programs, who want to connect with others who are working in the same areas, and who know there is something else we can do and achieve greater impact in our local Cooperative Extension programs. While Cooperative Extension can show public value throughout our system, we also know that increasingly fewer people know who Cooperative Extension is and how we might affect theiPeople Resources and Toolsr lives and communities.

Starting in January, eXtension wants to enable the 200 Extension professionals in the i-Three Corps in the work that they are already doing, who are seeking ways to enhance their work, who want access to talents they don’t have, and to be willing to work in a process that can generate creative and innovative ideas.

eXtension’s new mission provides exciting opportunities for Extension professionals and for Cooperative Extension.

We want to know:

  • What you think of eXtension’s new mission  and path?
  • Who do you think in your organization can be part of the first 200 i-Three corps working in Climate and Food Systems? For example:
    • Climate variability mitigation for agriculture production, forestry, home ownership including gardening and yards, and communities.
    • Food systems including production to consumption, rural and urban, big production, small production, local, backyard, and community systems.
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Announcements Information

What a Ride!!! Putting professional development and innovation to work

If it seems like I’m short of breath it’s because for the last three months I’ve been running a “Summer Sprint” (if you know me you’re laughing right now).  So named and led by Chris Geith, eXtension’s new CEO, the eXtension team, Board of Directors, and innovation partners nationwide who have been swiftly reimagining Cooperative Extension for the future.

eXtension’s Board has given us three imperatives:  to increase professional development for Cooperative Extension; to improve the Cooperative Extension System’s ability to co-create and disseminate programs and knowledge for their publics; and to expand the number of Extension innovations creating new tools and new methods to achieve local impact.  Quite a mouthful.  Yes?

In fewer words…in fact just three: eXtension will create new methods for addressing critical issues; explore innovations for application in Extension; and prototype and offer professional development to deliver fast, effective results (impact). Issues, innovation, impact.  We call them i-Three.

Exciting times are ahead!  We’re now entering our “Fast and Furious Fall”.  First we’re recruiting a pilot group of Extension professionals, 200 of the best and brightest individuals Cooperative Extension has to offer.  We’ll bring them together in a cohort to explore projects and ideas that will help to increase Extension professionals’ ability to deliver a visible and measureable impact, locally and system wide.

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Starting January 1 these 200, this i-Three Issue Corps, will work independently or in teams to identify projects with a focus on Climate or Food Systems.  Projects will feed into two other areas of eXtension:  the i-Three Innovation Labs and the i-Three Rapid Solutions.  More about those two aspects will come in future blog articles.

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But, as I said, all of this is a pilot.  This coming week we’re sharing these plans with Extension Directors and Administrators from across the country.  We’re hoping they’ll be affirming our ideas and concepts as presented by our Board of Directors and recommending their faculty, staff, educators, and agents to be a part of this first 200 Corps members.  In 2016 these 200 will set the stage for 2017 and an i-Three Corps of 2000 with more issues and more outstanding Extension professionals working with us!