Journal of Agriculture
and Environmental Sciences

Importance of Agricultural Renewable Energy Curriculum Topics
Michael D. McDermott

Abstract
The rationale for this study was that Kentucky high agriculture students were scoring very low on the state agriculture mechanics’ skills test in the area of alternative energy. The researcher wanted to investigate this problem to determine potential causes for the low performance. Alternative energy is a relatively “new” subject in the agricultural mechanics’ curriculum. Teacher familiarity with the subject and curriculum resources availability could impact the instruction of this topic. The objectives of this study were to establish the importance of agricultural renewable energy as a curriculum topic, determine the topics of relevance, and to ascertain the amount of instructional time that would be devoted to such topics as perceived by Kentucky secondary agriculture instructors. One hundred and fifty six secondary agriculture teachers were surveyed and their responses were coded and subjected to statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics were utilized to describe the demographics of the sample surveyed such as teaching experience, age, gender, and the school’s urbanicity. Pertinent findings based on the data were the following. Agricultural renewable energy was very important for inclusion into the secondary curriculum. Teachers would dedicate up to nine class periods of instructional time. Six renewable energy topics were ranked for selection into the curriculum. An outcome of this study will be the development of agricultural renewable energy instructional units to distribute to agriculture teachers.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jaes.v8n2a1