Students in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication have the unique opportunity to gain a lot of unique experiences through the coursework needed to complete the major. Not only are they learning how to be effective communicators, but they are also getting hands-on experience of technology and equipment that everyday communicators use in the field.
AEC4035 Communication Practices in Agricultural and Life Sciences course taught by Dr. Jamie Loizzo is one of those really cool experiences that allows students to get their hands dirty and truly see what it feels like to be scientific communicators. The entire class is focused on building your skills on how to use all types of equipment and technology, including, but not limited to, Indesign, Lightroom, Ricoh Theta cameras, and DSLRs.
During this semester, all of the students' projects were focused on Austin Cary Forest (ACF) and the effects their research has on climate change. We went out to the forest to interview scientists within the School of Forest Resources and Conservation (SFRC) department and then we created a one page summary of our projects in Indesign and an Adobe Spark page to go on to the Streaming Science website. This project allowed us to experience what it is like to be agricultural communicators being the voice for our scientists by effectively communicating their message to our online audience.
Streaming Science is an online platform used to communicate projects that real-world scientists are working on to their audience through the creation of videos, Adobe Spark pages, podcasts, and electronic field trips. This programs allows agricultural communicators to bring the research to all types of people to introduce students, teachers, and other scientists to inform and engage them on research going on that impacts their lives.
An example of one of the projects that will be featured on Streaming Science from this course was done by Julia Tiplea and Bailey Hutchinson. For their project, they interviewed Dr. Jason Vogel and his colleague, Dr. Rosvel Bracho, about a research project they are currently working on that focuses on the carbon emissions of various ecosystems through the usage of an Eddy Covariance tower.
"This class combined the two things I am interested in: communicating about agricultural topics and environmental issues," stated Bailey Hutchinson, a student in the AEC department. She thought that the class and project was very impactful, and that it taught her more about Florida's resilient ecosystems that prosper, regardless of the negative changes occurring in the environment.
If you would like to see more of these students' projects or learn more about the research being done at ACF, feel free to check out streamingscience.com to see more of this content or set up a time to check out Austin Cary Forest for yourself!
Maya Kelly is a biology and agricultural education and communication student with a specialization in communication and leadership development, and a minor in leadership. She aspires to be a veterinarian, but also wants to be an advocate for the environment and communicator of how we can conserve the world around us.