Hannah Scherer

Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ

I am an Assistant 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.

Workshop Leader, Webinar Participant, Website Contributor

Website Content Contributions

Course Modules (7), Conference Presentations (11), Other Contributions (9)

Course Modules (7)

A Growing Concern: Sustaining Soil Resources through Local Decision Making part of A Growing Concern
Educating undergraduates about soil sustainability is central to our agricultural future. Soil erosion outpaces soil production and soil management is key. This teaching module provides undergraduates with ...

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

Conference Presentations (11)

Civic Agriculture and Food Systems: A systems approach in content and practice part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Abstracts
The Civic Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) minor at Virginia Tech uses a systems approach to teach undergraduate students about sustainable agriculture and food systems. The CAFS minor is unique in that it ...

Other Contributions (9)

Research on Teaching about Earth in the Context of Societal Problems part of NAGT:Geoscience Education Research:Community Framework for GER:Societal Problems
Download a of of this chapterRachel Teasdale, California State University-Chico; Hannah Scherer, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ; Lauren Holder, Texas A & M University; Rebecca Boger, CUNY ...

Communities

Earth Educators' Rendezvous 2017 Attendees
July 2017 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2015
July 2015 Planning CommitteeEarth Educators' Rendezvous Interest Group
Teach the Earth
InTeGrate Systems Thinking Interest Group
InTeGrate Materials Developers
Earth Educators' Rendezvous 2016
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

Workshop Participant (12 workshops)

Earth Educators' Rendezvous 2019 Attendees
July 2019 Advancing Transdisciplinary Dialogue in Geoscience Education Research
July 2018 Earth Educators' Rendezvous 2018 Attendees
July 2018

Webinar Participant

Lessons Learned from InTeGrate’s Materials Development Program and What Remains Undone
October 2019 Earth Education for a Sustainable Future: Supporting departments and programs through InTeGrate
September 2019 ITG Soils 2016 Webinar
April 2016 Presenter