CROPS Consortium for Secondary Agricultural Mechanics Teachers in Rural Appalachian Communities Throughout the Southeast United States

Abstract / Project Description: In this feasibility project we propose a sustainability strategy for the Cost-effective ROPS (CROPS) project that will engage all participating teachers in the overall curriculum, content delivery, CROPS construction, social media use, and CROPS evaluation procedures. Over the last four years, secondary agriculture teachers have utilized the Economics of Preventing Agricultural Injury to Adolescent and Adult Farmers program in addition to a NIOSH approved and designed CROPS plans to retrofit older tractors with ROPS. Success stories and curriculum implementation are recorded in numerous documents and journal articles and presentations at national conferences. Although CROPS successes are recorded and corrections made additional components are needed to ensure long-term project sustainability. The vehicle that successfully drives the CROPS project is a 3-Day clinic that brings together the teachers who have participated in the CROPS project along with all research counterparts (Mazur – Curriculum author; Vincent – Overall project manager and lead evaluator; Namkoong – Social media developer and evaluator; and Byrd – CROPS evaluator. The outcomes for the Clinic are: (1) pilot implementation of a social media crowd funding program among participating teachers (2) established CROPS teacher mentor partnerships of secondary agriculture teachers; (3) curriculum exposure for farm safety and CROPS construction and installation; (4) increased efficacy among the participant teachers as safety advocates; (5) acquired partnerships that improve communication between secondary teachers and NIOSH representatives, Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention, Metal distributors, Metal fabricators, and University of Kentucky agricultural education program; (6) implementing a social media reflective process through a newly designed iCROPS application for Smart Technological phones, and (7) identification of community needs for CROPS installlation and strategies for meeting those needs. Significance and Impact include local sustainability strategies for the installation of CROPS to retrofit unprotected tractors and reduce or eliminate the risk of crush and roll over injury and fatality by retrofitting tractors in the targeted communities.