Introduction
Each year, the Florida Forestry Teachers’ Tour brings 45 teachers from across the state to Fernandina Beach to visit a research forest, privately-owned tree farm, paper mill, saw mill and chemical lab that manufactures fragrances from tree by-products. Learning that more than 5,000 products are made from trees, the teachers see how chemical by-products from the paper-making process are used in products like soap, fabrics and even food.
Participants were asked to complete an evaluation of the program that included questions about their knowledge gained during the week and how they planned to use the information they learned as well as an opportunity to offer their suggestions for modifications for the next tour.
Historically, the tour’s end-of-week evaluations have been extremely positive and participants have described their experience as beneficial. However, the Florida Forestry Tour had not explored measuring the change in participants’ knowledge in a quantitative manner. The Florida Forestry Tour representatives worked with PIE Center researchers to establish a baseline of the 2011 participants’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors towards the Florida forestry industry before and after their exposure during the tour.
Key findings
Scores indicate comprehension increased for each question after the tour, indicating the teachers felt more knowledgeable about Florida forestry, had stronger positive attitudes toward the industry.
The largest increase was with the teachers’ self-reporting of knowledge gained. The pre-test results indicated that 0% of teachers felt they were “knowledgeable” or “very knowledgeable” about the Florida forestry industry. After the tour, 81% of the teachers felt “knowledgeable” or “very knowledgeable.” Other large increases showed that teachers learned more about the industry’s natural resources conservation efforts and sustainability.
Recommendations
Based on the findings, the PIE Center recommended the continuation of the Florida Forestry Teachers Tour as it currently stands. In the future, tour representatives may want to expand the number of teachers involved in the tour each year in order to increase knowledge and awareness of Florida forestry. Additionally, a longitudinal study of forestry knowledge retention could be conducted with the 2011 teacher group. Regardless, the tour should conduct similar evaluations every few years to establish the program’s success.
The evaluation of the Forestry Teachers Tour sounds like a great idea for The Florida Christmas Tree Association (FCTA). Many people do not have any idea of how long it takes for a Christmas tree to grow to 6 feet and all the operations of pruning that has to go on prior to the time the tree is harvestable. It’s possible that you could give us a representative of who we might contact to have teachers come to a conference we are holding in Marianna, FL, on the 20th of September. There they will find a conference held at a Christmas tree farm where they can get information about the techniques of raising Christmas trees.
Thank you for the consideration of this request.
John Gregory
FCTA Treasurer
jgregory@coe.ufl.edu
Hi John, thanks for the message! We will be in touch soon.