Members of the Lamm Lab attended the American Association for Agricultural Education’s national conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, from May 15-18.
With support from Dr. Alexa Lamm and the UGA ALEC Department, lab members Kristin Gibson and Allison Byrd traveled to Raleigh to network with colleagues from other universities across the U.S., learn about innovative research techniques, and learn about North Carolina agriculture. While at the conference, they enjoyed time with UGA ALEC fellows and alumni and learned about agriculture within the Research Triangle area.
Awards
Dr. Alexa Lamm received the honor of becoming a AAAE Fellow, an honor bestowed upon faculty within the ALEC disciplines in recognition of exceptional and sustained contributions to the profession throughout their career. Dr. Lamm was nominated for this prestigious award by UGA ALEC Professor Barry Croom. Congratulations, Dr. Lamm, on this outstanding career achievement!
Presentations
Communication Channel Use: Assessing Media Richness as an Approach to Graduate Student Recruitment in a College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Authors: Allison R. Byrd & Alexa J. Lamm
From the qualitative study examining communication channel preferences of prospective graduate students, Allison additionally presented a different angle on students’ preferred communication sources during their search for a graduate program and institution. Media richness theory says that the more complex a message is, the richer the communication channel should be to deliver that message. Rich communication channels are those that provide more personalization and opportunity for direct feedback – such as telephone calls or in-person conversations. However, if the message is more straightforward, the communication channel can be lean. This means that things like flyers or mass emails can convey straightforward messages effectively because they are lean and require less personalization and opportunity for feedback. Therefore, the authors determined which communication channels were being used for prospective students to seek information about graduate school and defined them according to their leanness or richness. The results indicated students began their graduate program search with lean channels, such as websites, and progressively used richer channels, such as emails then in-person visits, as they began to make their decisions about attending an institution. Learn more by finding the study in the 2023 AAAE Conference Proceedings.
Communicating with Prospective Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Graduate Students through a Uses and Gratifications Lens
Authors: Allison R. Byrd & Alexa J. Lamm
Allison presented the results of a qualitative study examining the communication tool preferences of prospective graduate students in UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Allison conducted 19 semi-structured interviews with students from each department within UGA CAES and employed qualitative analysis techniques. The authors then analyzed the data using deductive analysis and uses and gratifications theory. Because uses and gratifications theory says audiences voluntarily select specific communication channels to fulfill specific needs, the authors sought to find out which communication channels were fulfilling which needs. The findings revealed email was a powerful tool for fulfilling prospective students’ informational, social, status, and emotional needs, while lab and departmental websites were important in fulfilling specific needs as well. Learn more by finding the study in the 2023 AAAE Conference Proceedings.
Exploring the Relationship Between Systems Thinking Tendencies and Green Consumer Values to Inform Innovative Educational Connections
Authors: Allison R. Byrd, Kristin E. Gibson, Catherine E. Sanders, Rachel Corry, Kevan W. Lamm, & Alexa J. Lamm
Allison presented the results of a Lamm Lab systems thinking study. The Lamm Lab has collectively tackled the topic of systems thinking since Drs. Kevan and Alexa Lamm hosted a special summer class on the topic in 2021. During the class, students proposed a study in which quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research could be operationalized. In the following academic year, students carried out the proposed study and have since been reporting the results.
In the quantitative section of the study, the group sought to determine if there was a relationship between Generation Z students’ systems thinking tendencies and their values related to environmental consumption. Before conducting a focus-group geared toward systems thinking, the researchers gave groups of UGA CAES students a web-based survey which had two Likert-type scales. One was a systems thinking scale, and the other was a green consumption values scale. Non-parametric correlation analysis revealed there was a positive, yet weak association between students’ environmentally friendly consumption values and their systems thinking tendencies. The authors suggested further research to determine if catering to Generation Z students’ tendencies toward valuing the environment could also be useful in educating them to think in systems. Learn more by finding the study in the 2023 AAAE Conference Proceedings.
Developing Transformational Learning Tools to Increase Systems Thinking Capacity: Implications for Agricultural Education
Authors: Catherine E. Sanders, Allison R. Byrd, Kristin E. Gibson, Aaron Golson, Kevan W. Lamm, & Alexa J. Lamm
Recently graduated Lamm Lab alumni Dr. Catherine (Katie) Sanders presented the mixed-methods portion of the Lamm Lab’s larger systems thinking project . Dr. Sanders presented the results of combining seafood-based hypothetical case scenarios in a Qualtrics survey with focus-group discussions to help Generation Z students in classes within the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Dr. Sanders discussed the difficulties most students felt in finding there were no “right” answers to the hypothetical case scenarios, which all posed positive and negative consequences for the answers students chose. Sanders proposed how hypothetical case scenarios could be used in agricultural classrooms to help students think about complex, global problems and be prepared to solve the grand challenges of our evolving global food systems. Learn more by finding the study in the 2023 AAAE Conference Proceedings.
Posters
Modeling Determinants of Residential Water Conservation Behaviors to Inform Agricultural Education Programs
Authors: Kristin E. Gibson, Allison R. Byrd, Alexa J. Lamm, Kevan W. Lamm, and Jessica Holt
Kristin presented a poster about determining residential water conservation behaviors based off a fall 2022 non-probability, opt-in survey of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama residents. While operationalizing the theory of planned behavior’s (TPB’s) elements of perceived behavioral control, social norms, and attitude, Gibson sought to understand how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation influenced residents’ use of water. Through a structural equation model, results found both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation both had negative effects on consumers’ water conservation behaviors. Learn more by reading the abstract in the 2023 AAAE Poster Proceedings.
Exploring Rural Georgia Residents’ Extension Needs for Improving Food Access
Authors: Kristin E. Gibson, Catherine E. Sanders, Tatevik Markosyan, Allison R. Byrd, & Alexa J. Lamm
Kristin pulled double duty at the research poster session by simultaneously presenting two posters side-by-side and facilitating conversations about both.
Kristin’s second poster was a product of the Healthier Together High Obesity Prevention Project with UGA Extension. In this CDC-funded project, researchers sought to determine effective methods for reaching rural Georgia residents with health information. Therefore, they conducted an online survey of rural Georgia residents in fall 2022. Within the survey, respondents were asked to indicate the likelihood that they would engage in certain healthy living programs offered by Extension. Then, the respondent groups were grouped according to their responses using hierarchical cluster analysis; demographics of each group were used to describe the characteristics of each audience group. Respondents who were most likely to use Extension programs were younger, worked full time, and received SNAP benefits. Implications for formatting Extension programs and resources to meet the needs of these audience members were discussed. Learn more by reading the abstract in the 2023 AAAE Poster Proceedings.
