Latest / The Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast / Episode 55 | How Extension drives student experiences in agriculture: Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates (REEU)
Transcript
- Episode 55 | How Extension drives student experiences in agriculture: Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates (REEU) 00:00:07:04 - 00:00:34:19 Todd Gleason This is the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy podcast, episode 55. I'm the Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason. Coming up, we'll explore how extension is driving student experiences in agriculture through the research and extension experiences for undergraduate program. John McMaine is the director of Water Resources Institute at South Dakota State University. I asked him to tell me about the REEU. 00:00:34:19 - 00:00:55:19 John McMaine So the REEU or Research and Extension Experience for undergraduates is a USDA funded program to basically train what we have planned or designed to train the next generation of watershed management, extension professionals. 00:00:55:22 - 00:01:19:11 John McMaine And so kind of the the impetus for this is a lot of us in the north central region, we work in extension and it's really sometimes we have challenges with workforce. And so part of it we think is a lack of training at the undergrad level and then just a lack of awareness for undergrads for what extension is. 00:01:19:13 - 00:01:55:13 John McMaine Obviously, they know the land grant system that there's teaching because they're taking classes that their professors, many of them know about research, because research experience for undergraduates are fairly common and many have lab experience. But the extension experience is less common. And so, yeah, a group of us got together and decided to put in this grant. And so we got a five year grant to provide support for about seven undergraduates a year across seven different states in the north central region of the US. 00:01:55:16 - 00:01:59:17 Todd Gleason And in the North central region, of course, is an extension region. 00:01:59:17 - 00:02:14:22 Todd Gleason It covers from North Dakota to Kansas, bounded on the west across Missouri and Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and in the Michigan and most of the Corn Belt states. And I interrupted you. You were going to continue on. 00:02:14:24 - 00:02:23:12 John McMaine And so as far as my role, I'm the yeah, the lead on the project, but really, it's, it's a great group. 00:02:23:17 - 00:02:54:27 John McMaine There's 12 different mentors or or faculty or staff involved across the seven states that cover a range of different areas of expertise. So it makes it a really, diverse group in terms of background and experience and expertise. And so each of those mentors brings a little bit something different to the table. And so we really capitalize on that to to have their expertise shared with, interns throughout the summer. 00:02:55:00 - 00:02:58:15 Todd Gleason Tell me how you choose interns and where they're used. 00:02:58:22 - 00:03:31:14 John McMaine So the internship or intern selection process, it's a competitive process. We typically have put out a call for applications in the fall, and then we try to get those, applications confirmed, finalize selections made by around Christmas. And so then the first part of the year, we're notifying the potential candidate, and then they get a few weeks to decide, or to commit to the summer. 00:03:31:16 - 00:04:04:24 John McMaine And then, we've had, I'd say, really good success in our pool. We it's been very competitive pools the first two years we've done it. So we've been really pleased with that. But you know, we're always looking to grow, to get more students maybe from outside of our own institutions, maybe from some of the 1890 land grants in 1994, the historically black universities or the tribal universities that are in the land grant system and get some from smaller schools. 00:04:04:27 - 00:04:08:20 John McMaine We've we've had pretty good success. But yeah, we're always looking to grow that pool as well. 00:04:08:27 - 00:04:18:25 Todd Gleason So you're looking for interns from all kinds of backgrounds. What experience do you hope that they end up with? What's the goal by the time they get to the end of the summer? 00:04:18:29 - 00:04:36:13 John McMaine Our goal for each intern is that they would come out with the knowledge, the experience, the tools that prepare them to be a future watershed professional, watershed management, professional, water professional of some type. 00:04:36:15 - 00:05:04:00 John McMaine And then also they would have the network of both their cohorts as well as the mentor network as well. And so they would also have the kind of support and people they could lean on whenever they have questions, when they get into their career, and then really just, fostering an excitement and a passion for watershed management, to build that pipeline for, for future water stewards. 00:05:04:03 - 00:05:07:07 Todd Gleason How's this year's experience compared to previous years? 00:05:07:10 - 00:05:26:14 John McMaine Yeah. So this is our second year of the internship experience. And what we did this year, different than the first year was we actually had an in-person kickoff meeting at the beginning of this summer. So we met in Ames, Iowa. We spent about two days and really covered a range of different activities. 00:05:26:14 - 00:05:55:24 John McMaine So one day we were out surveying, streams that had beaver dams on them to, just a way to get some field experience as well as learn about a critical piece of many watersheds. We also had the opportunity to talk to professionals, graduate students, and again, just kind of give them a better perspective or more perspective of what different career paths look like. 00:05:55:26 - 00:06:31:24 John McMaine So then beyond that, we also meet weekly and do what we're calling a skill share session. And so each of the mentors again brings different skill sets and areas of expertise. And so we haven't talked about things like how to approach, controversial or challenging topics like climate change with some audiences, how to maybe build out an extension program to think about different modes of communication science, communication, communicating with technology, things like that. 00:06:31:26 - 00:06:47:28 John McMaine And so then they're also tasked with working together on a regional project, which this year has been a little different there. Their product is going to be a story map, that's accessible online. We're pretty excited about that. 00:06:48:00 - 00:06:49:06 Todd Gleason What is it? 00:06:49:08 - 00:07:00:02 John McMaine Yeah. So one of the interns that's located in Wisconsin, he has part of his state project is to put together story maps. 00:07:00:05 - 00:07:24:04 John McMaine And what a story map is, is it's a online landing page or portal that basically is a map. And you can click through different parts of the map. There's different pictures and videos and different media that you can access through the map. And so what we've done for the regional project is basically tied all of the different students state projects together. 00:07:24:06 - 00:07:42:13 John McMaine Into one common theme and then look, we're looking at how those kind of intertwine across the region. And then Ethan, the student in Wisconsin, is putting together this map that you can go on there, click on the different states and then look at what each student's been doing. 00:07:42:15 - 00:07:45:22 Todd Gleason Nearly sounded as if you needed a web developer to begin. 00:07:45:25 - 00:07:50:21 Todd Gleason Apparently Ethan has that covered. Yes, that's been so. That's fantastic. 00:07:50:26 - 00:08:04:17 Ethan Davis So my name is Ethan Davis. This summer I am an intern for the REEU grants, so I am working on virtual learning based around water issues in the city of Milwaukee. 00:08:04:19 - 00:08:07:21 Todd Gleason Can you tell me a little bit about, what you've been working on this summer? 00:08:07:26 - 00:08:20:16 Ethan Davis I've been tasked with creating story maps, which are a scrolling location based presentation format, and I've been integrating questions with them. 00:08:20:16 - 00:08:50:07 Ethan Davis I'm creating they're called quests, but I've been making just a more engaging, platform for students and teachers to use throughout, you know, their careers that, typically involve water based issues like an example of one I did was on green infrastructure throughout the city of Milwaukee. I am working on one right now involving bluff erosion on the shore of Lake Michigan. 00:08:50:09 - 00:09:14:14 Ethan Davis And so stuff like that. And, you know, obviously you can go into stuff like that at a very high level. But the purpose of these is for them to be engaging like you want everyone to be able to follow along. So I, yeah, just issue green issues based here in the city of Milwaukee. 00:09:14:16 - 00:09:27:07 Todd Gleason Can you talk a little bit about how what you've been doing fits into the nutrient loss theme that the cohort chose, and particularly the subtheme, which is soil and water conservation? 00:09:27:09 - 00:09:54:24 Ethan Davis Well, running back to the green infrastructure, that's, that's a great example of nutrient loss. So stormwater conservation, for example, instead of just letting all that stormwater go away, even with excess nutrients like phosphorus or nitrogen, the city of Shorewood implemented native plants that can reutilize those excessive nutrients that will help the plants grow, creating a green space. 00:09:54:27 - 00:10:50:16 Ethan Davis And then I'm also the bluff erosion one I'm working on, that, these are deposits from the last ice age. So we have the so when the ice was there, it was kind of this pattern of retreating and advancing of the ice. Like it never just completely melted away until the end. But this fluctuation of the ice created different deposits levels with different minerals, nutrients, etc., and with the erosion happening by rising water levels or wind or rainwater, stormwater damages, allows for these nutrients to go into Lake Michigan, creating more sand, along the shoreline, which in turn raises the water level of Lake Michigan. 00:10:50:18 - 00:11:02:10 Ethan Davis Yeah, I could I could go into it a lot, but there's every student throughout the cohort has some encompassing theme of nutrient loss involved in their project. 00:11:02:12 - 00:11:17:13 Todd Gleason Again, that's Ethan Davis. He goes to the University of Wisconsin and participated in this summers REEU internship program that stands for Research and Extension Experience for undergrads. Sam Henry participated as well. 00:11:17:13 - 00:11:24:20 Todd Gleason She is an ag engineering student at the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois. 00:11:24:22 - 00:11:48:10 Sam Henry The summer has been focused on mainly education and outreach for the nutrient loss reduction strategy, the NLRS, as I attended field days in different parts of the state. I've heard about wetlands, the droughts, weather effects. I've also been compiling a photo library of conservation practices for use within educational materials like brochures and webinars. 00:11:48:13 - 00:11:53:22 Sam Henry But the vast majority of my time has been spent drafting blog posts for the episodes of this podcast. 00:11:53:26 - 00:11:58:27 Todd Gleason How's your understanding of extension changed over the course of the summer? 00:11:59:00 - 00:12:14:29 Sam Henry Before this internship, I didn't fully understand what extension really meant. I had been made familiar with Penn State Extension a little bit, the wide variety of agricultural resources, but I didn't really understand what they accomplished. 00:12:14:29 - 00:12:46:05 Sam Henry Aside from creating educational materials. I feel like with Illinois, I've unlocked more of the outreach side. I've realized how involved other governmental organizations are, like the IEPA and IDOA, and even on a national level, the EPA and the USDA. I found with the NLRS specifically, how critical outreach materials have been to the spread of knowledge throughout other industry professionals and farmers alike, not only with our brochures and factsheets, but also the field days. 00:12:46:05 - 00:13:07:21 Sam Henry That extension sets up the table out to talk face to face with others about conservation practices and how those practices can improve their operations and simultaneously preserve the Earth. I think it's become very apparent that extension is for the people and the access to university research has formed a great pipeline for reaching those outside the university to. 00:13:07:23 - 00:13:24:29 Ethan Davis I am going to be quite frankly honest with you, extension was a I had no idea what it was before starting this internship, but I, I'd say it is an important part of colleges. 00:13:25:00 - 00:14:03:15 Ethan Davis It is especially important for the environment, even outreach in general, too, because like without outreach, people aren't going to know anything like regarding the environment or, I don't know, just stuff like that. It's I'd say it's pretty important. But before starting all this, I have I really didn't have a clue. There should be honestly more resources to explain what extension is, in my opinion, because I really I had to ask like what even is extension? 00:14:03:15 - 00:14:12:09 Ethan Davis Like I'm now employed by them temporarily, but I don't really know who I'm going to be doing work for. 00:14:12:12 - 00:14:20:10 Todd Gleason So do you have a do you have advice for someone who's interested in doing something similar, as an internship in the future? 00:14:20:12 - 00:14:29:17 Ethan Davis Going into this, I didn't know anything like I have. I have a really strong GIS background, but besides that, there's also other components I need to learn, like Photoshop. 00:14:29:17 - 00:14:51:27 Ethan Davis I do teach myself, editing video, just stuff like that. Don't get discouraged by the new things you have to learn. It will come in time. And don't be afraid to like, you know, reach out if you have questions, I guess. I know it can be, you can be timid at times because you're an intern, but there your mentor is there to work with you. 00:14:51:29 - 00:15:09:02 Ethan Davis You know, form that connection. Like don't be afraid to speak up. And if there's something you truly want out of your summer, then make it local. Like what you what do you want to gain from the summer? Because you're just working with gaining anything. And I don't know, like, what do you doing? 00:15:09:05 - 00:15:22:12 Sam Henry I'd say pay very close attention to what makes your favorite classes so enjoyable for me, I found out learning about soil and water was the most engaging, and that's how I decided I wanted to move forward. 00:15:22:15 - 00:15:43:19 Sam Henry This focus of the industry. Also, I think it's very, very important that students pay attention to the resources that are offered not only by the university as a whole, but also their department. I found this internship opportunity through my department's advising emails, and I could say the same for the summer before. I found the emails are filled with. 00:15:43:19 - 00:15:51:15 Sam Henry A lot of research, professional, and networking opportunities that are often overlooked. So I think students really need to take advantage of that. 00:15:51:17 - 00:16:16:22 Todd Gleason That's pretty interesting and insightful advice from two of the REEU, or Research and Extension Experience undergrads, Sam Henry and Ethan Davis. I wondered about how this impacted the mentors and asked John McCain, who we talked to earlier in the podcast, to tell me how they came together across a large geographic area as a cohesive unit. 00:16:16:29 - 00:16:19:17 John McMaine Yeah, that's a good question. 00:16:19:20 - 00:16:42:16 John McMaine So I think we've all kind of gotten to know each other, and that's probably the first piece that we have good working relationships, good professional relationships. And I'd say this is really fostered through the North Central region water network, which many of us are a part of, an extension led group across this 12 state region in the north central part of the US. 00:16:42:18 - 00:17:09:25 John McMaine And so that's probably the initial piece that we kind of all saw this need. We saw an opportunity with, USDA nifa funding, and we got together and said, hey, let's write a grant. We all enjoy working with each other. We all come from different backgrounds. And so really, it was somewhat of a grassroots or organic, group that came together to address this need. 00:17:09:28 - 00:17:25:24 John McMaine We did add some more, personnel at different universities that maybe weren't involved, with North Central Region water network, but yeah, just kind of an organic group, grassroots group that came together to address what we saw as a need. 00:17:25:24 - 00:17:27:11 Todd Gleason What kind of plans do you have for next year? 00:17:27:14 - 00:17:35:01 John McMaine We're learning every year of some of the things that work well, and maybe some things that we need to change for next year. 00:17:35:04 - 00:18:10:04 John McMaine We're going to continue to really try to push the envelope for training, for experiences, for the undergraduates. I think one thing we realized from last year and this year is it's very important for the cohort to, to really bond, and that's one of the challenges, maybe about having a virtual cohort. They're spread out across the region. And so we'll continue to try to build in opportunities for them to work together, even though they are across this kind of larger geographical space. 00:18:10:07 - 00:18:31:27 Todd Gleason And so what that will include will be another in-person meeting at the beginning of the summer, and then also another conference or some type of meeting at the end of the summer. So this year, there they're all all the students are getting to present posters at the Soil and Water Conservation Society annual meeting in Des Moines. And so we're really excited for that. 00:18:31:27 - 00:18:46:00 John McMaine And it gives them professional experience. It gives an opportunity to talk about their research, and really it gives them an opportunity to interact with professionals who may be their future colleagues, or they can at least provide some guidance on what different water careers look like. 00:18:46:04 - 00:18:52:09 Todd Gleason And finally, how do you go about recruiting or how do those who are interested get involved? 00:18:52:11 - 00:19:00:19 John McMaine Potential applicants can go on to the North Central Region Water Network website and there's a, dropdown menu. 00:19:00:19 - 00:19:26:09 John McMaine And one of those is for the watershed Management Internship program. So they can go on there as the landing page. It tells all about all the different mentors, all different locations, the different types of projects they could be working on. And then there's an application that, again, will open in probably September sometime. We do promote this to all of the all of our professional networks. 00:19:26:09 - 00:19:50:05 John McMaine So our colleagues at different universities, different land grants, more and different smaller universities, we try to do as good a job at promoting this as possible. We'll also have a webinar that tries to answer any questions that students may have about the program or the application process. And then again, it's an opportunity to, to promote the program. 00:19:50:05 - 00:19:58:12 John McMaine So we try to get it out there as much as possible. But you know, we want any students interested. We would definitely encourage them to submit an application. 00:19:58:15 - 00:20:16:12 Todd Gleason John McMaine with South Dakota State University Extension, where he's the director of the Water Resources Institute and helps to organize, along with a series of extension personnel from across the North central region of extension in the United States, the REEU. 00:20:16:12 - 00:20:39:05 Todd Gleason That's the Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates today. We talk with McMaine, along with a couple of summer interns through the REEU, including Ethan Davis and Sam Henry. She worked with the University of Illinois Extension Rachel Curry and Nicole Haverback this summer. They, of course, helped to produce this edition of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast. 00:20:39:07 - 00:20:41:14 Todd Gleason I'm extension’s Todd Gleason.