Hands On: Real-World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms

Extension educators will receive extensive training to help support and train teachers in their counties. There are many benefits to being an extension educator with the Hands On program, such as professional development, access to resources and expertise to create sustainable programs, opportunities to collaboration with teachers in your area, and all the supplies and materials necessary to implement the program in your county.

Extension Educators participating in the Hands On program are expected to:

Participate in 22 hours of program training

18 hours of workshop training

Three days of training (6 hours/day) conducted by Hands On project staff on the UT Campus

4 hours independent study

Identify schools within your district to participate

Establish contact with school administrators and teachers to secure permission
Curriculum is targeted at 7^th grade students
Math, science, social studies, and language arts classes will teach the Food Safety curriculum during the same 1-2 week time period
Funding for materials and supplies for 2 schools within your district

Curriculum, materials, and supplies will be provided by the Hands On Project

Train participating teachers

Two 6 hour training days to be held in your district over the summer
Extension educators will be responsible for training participating teachers
Participating teachers will receive a stipend for their training.

Cooperate with teachers to define your role in their classroom

What days you should attend
How active you will be in the lessons and activities

Communicate dates of training and implementation to UT staff
Send supply orders to UT staff at least 8 weeks prior to implementation
Collect student and teacher assessment data

Benefits for Extension Educators include:

Professional Development in

Food Safety Science
Program Evaluation
Effective Leadership and Communication Skills

Resources that support the Safe Food for Tennessee initiative and Training

Access to resources and expertise to create sustainable programs
Expansion of your Individual Action Agendas
Evidence-based curriculum with outcomes that can be reported in the System for University Evaluation, Planning and Reporting (SUPER)
$500 for travel and supplies per county
$500 stipend per county
Access to expertise of teaching, research and Extension faculty from the University of Tennessee
Integration into yearly goal

In the Classroom

Collaboration with teachers and administrators in your region
Recruitment of students for other extension programs such as 4-H and Tennessee Nutrition and Consumer Education Program (TNCEP)

Outside of the classroom

New curricula/resources for other after school or summer camp projects