Hannah Scherer

Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ

I am an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist for STEM Education in Agriculture in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education at Virginia Tech. The primary purpose of my integrated program is to build educator capacity for developing and facilitating educational programs that engage learners in authentic, culturally relevant, and equitable STEM learning in Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) contexts. Through my scholarship, which is embedded in and supports my teaching and Extension program, I seek to understand: What are effective methods and models for promoting, supporting, and facilitating STEM teaching and learning in AFNR contexts? I approach this work from the position of a “boundary crosser;” someone who moves fluidly between the worlds of research and practice to affect change in both arenas through engaged scholarship. In my Extension role, I provide leadership for 4-H STEM programming in Virginia and support secondary agriculture teachers through professional development and grant-funded partnerships. I have co-authored agricultural sustainability curriculum materials, developed web resources on curriculum design to support systems thinking, and presented workshops and webinars with the InTeGrate project. I was the 2017 and 2018 co-chair of the Earth Educators’ Rendezvous, an interdisciplinary national conference focused on teaching about the Earth in a wide range of contexts. Please visit my departmental website for more information about my work.

Webinar Leader, Workshop Leader, Website Contributor

Website Content Contributions

Course Modules (7), Conference Presentations (13), Other Contributions (11)

Course Modules (7)

Unit 4: Using SoilWebTMto Investigate the Soil Beneath You part of A Growing Concern
Students will use SoilWeb™, a smartphone and web application that pulls detailed soil survey data from both the 1:24,0000 Soil Survey Geographic database (SSURGO) and the 1:250,000 scale State Soil Geographic ...

InTeGrate Developed This material was developed and reviewed through the InTeGrate curricular materials development process.
Learn more about this review process.

Conference Presentations (13)

Supporting teaching and learning in the Food-Energy-Water (FEW)-Nexus through a National Collaborative part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2024:Program:Poster Sessions:Monday Poster Session
The Food-Energy-Water (FEW)-Nexus has emerged as a powerful framework for teaching and learning that supports systems thinking and decision making in coupled human-natural systems. The National Collaborative for ...

Other Contributions (11)

Improving Food-Energy-Water-Nexus-based Education: Defining new research directions from problems of practice part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2024:Program:Afternoon Mini-Workshops
The Food-Energy-Water (FEW)-Nexus framework helps describe and address natural resource challenges in complex coupled human-natural systems. As this framework gains traction in informal, non-formal, K-12, and ...

Communities

Member of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers
Far Western Section, Geoscience Education Research Division
Earth Educators Rendezvous 2021
July 2021 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2020
July 2020 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2019
July 2019 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2018
July 2018 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2017
July 2017 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2016
July 2016 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2015
July 2015 Planning CommitteeInTeGrate Systems Thinking Interest Group
Education Icon
Earth Educators' Rendezvous Interest Group
ICON Education Interest List
InTeGrate Materials Developers
NC-FEW Advisory Board
Teach the Earth
NAGT All

Workshop Leader

Using Conceptual Frameworks of Earth Systems to Frame Future Directions in Systems Thinking Research
July 2018Earth Education for Sustainable Societies Workshop 2019
EER 2024 - Improving Food-Energy-Water-Nexus-based Education: Defining new research directions from problems of practice LEADs

Workshop Participant (29 workshops)

NC-FEW 2023 Invited Workshop
May 2023 EER 2020 Science Communication
July 2020 Advancing Transdisciplinary Dialogue in Geoscience Education Research
July 2018

Webinar Leader (4 webinars)

Fulfilling the Land-Grant Mission in a Modern Context: Ensuring Equitable Education via Cooperative Extension
January 2024A revised dual approach for implementing the FEW Nexus into the curriculum: Combining Design Thinking across Experiential Learning
November 2023NC FEW Kickoff and Introduction
December 2022

Webinar Participant (6 webinars)

Interdisciplinary Training, Education and Research in Food-Energy-Water Systems (InTERFEWS) Program at Colorado State University
August 2023 2023 NC-FEW Invited Workshop Plenary Presentation
May 2023 Lessons Learned from InTeGrate’s Materials Development Program and What Remains Undone
October 2019