Use of decision‐support tools by students to link crop management practices with greenhouse gas emissions: A case study

Abstract

Global food systems contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, and the mitigation of these emissions is a critical component of addressing the challenge of climate change. A variety of decision-support tools are available for agricultural producers to use to estimate how their management decisions affect emissions. These tools, often free and online, can be incorporated into agriculture and natural sciences courses, providing an engaging and interactive way for students to learn about climate change mitigation in online courses. Here, we focus on three tools: COMET-Planner, COMET-Farm, and Cool Farm Tool. Each of these tools link agricultural management with estimated emissions but differ according to the scope of analysis and type of functionality. Our case study navigates how to best incorporate each tool into undergraduate courses -providing detailed examples focused on crop production. Teaching notes provide guidance on pairing these activities with lessons related to agricultural policy, science communication, and farm nutrient budgets. Instructors have considerable opportunity to incorporate agricultural decision-support tools into courses to support students connecting scientific concepts to real-world application.

Engaging secondary school students in sustainability assessments through farm nutrient mass balances

“…Calsamiglia et al (2020) successfully incorporated a virtual dairy herd as a DST to improve students' knowledge of dairy production and management. In general, favorable results of simulation models and computer software include the opportunity to connect theory to real-world applications, incorporate a systemic approach when thinking of farming systems, and gaining practical data and computer software management skills (Basche et al, 2021;Graves et al, 2002;Jabbour et al, 2021;Sami et al, 2020;Soberon et al, 2013). However, exposure of future agriculture workers to DSTs and other ag-tech tools related to agriculture data management and environmental stewardship in farming is limited, particularly in secondary agriculture education (Manning et al, 2022).…”

Natural sciences education in a COVID‐19 world

“…A second group of papers focuses on technological approaches to enhance online education. These papers focused on the use of both high-and low-tech solutions to F I G U R E 1 The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 required modification of teaching practices for science classes at most educational institutions in North America (Photo credit: Paul H. Joseph / UBC Brand & Marketing) F I G U R E 2 Modified teaching strategies such as using zoom were utilized at most universities during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 (Photo credit: Paul H. Joseph / UBC Brand & Marketing) teach soil science (Mashtare et al, 2021), rural broadband on teaching with Zoom (Beorngen & Rickard, 2021), different types of teaching technologies (de Koff, 2021), the Science of Agriculture digital tools (Brevik et al, 2021), decision support tools to link management practices with environmental emissions (Jabbour et al, 2021), and podcasts to enhance agricultural education (Barnes et al, 2021).…”

“…A second group of papers focuses on technological approaches to enhance online education. These papers focused on the use of both high-and low-tech solutions to teach soil science (Mashtare et al, 2021), rural broadband on teaching with Zoom (Beorngen & Rickard, 2021), different types of teaching technologies (de Koff, 2021), the Science of Agriculture digital tools (Brevik et al, 2021), decision support tools to link management practices with environmental emissions (Jabbour et al, 2021), and podcasts to enhance agricultural education (Barnes et al, 2021).…”