Void filled for youth-focused teaching materials
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reza eslahi
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Void filled for youth-focused teaching materials
February 24, 2011
Taylor Fabus is passionate about horses and working with kids, so when it was time for the Michigan woman to settle on a topic for her master's degree, the perfect opportunity awaited her.
Her love for horses and working with young people, combined with her personal and academic interests in animal behaviour and welfare, teaching and curriculum development, led her to conduct a pilot study using "A Guide to Equine Welfare Assessment".
Her master's project involved revising and pilot testing a curriculum developed by former Michigan State University animal science master's student Kim Andersen and based on the collegiate animal welfare evaluation model that animal science instructor Camie Heleski was instrumental in developing.
Fabus modified Andersen's curriculum so that it was specific for 4-H programme leaders and other adults working with horses and young people.
The assessment guide serves as a teaching tool for understanding and applying animal welfare and care topics and principles.
"A Guide to Equine Welfare Assessment" is separated into eight sections: an introduction to animal welfare, behavioural indicators, physiological indicators, production measures, immunological measures, human and animal interacting, animal ethics and evaluating welfare.
Each section of the guide includes a list of objectives, life skills, materials needed and suggested student activities. Each section also includes examples of resource information for leaders.
Fabus says that her goal is to spread knowledge about equine care and welfare throughout the state.
Her objective is to equip those teaching young people with the tools they need to help prepare future industry leaders so that they in turn can share what they have learned throughout their communities.
"Though the interest in equine welfare is growing, there's been a void in youth educational materials that this assessment guide can fill," she explains.
"The great part about the guide is that it is a self-paced curriculum, so depending on the group's needs and learning style, the leader can decide what, how much and when to use the materials."
Karen Waite, a university Extension equine specialist and master's program adviser, pointed out that Fabus was a great fit for the project.
"The stars were lined up on this one," she said. "Given Taylor's interests and her background, as well as her responsibilities with regard to youth equine Extension programmes, she was uniquely positioned to interact with the intended audience."
Waite acknowledged that this project provided valuable insight into developing curriculum materials for the end-user.
"We learned quite a bit from this pilot study as it relates to designing curriculum materials for adult volunteers working with youth and the research projects associated with testing such materials," she said.
"For example, even though those of us working at the university are typically very comfortable with using technology, many people are not.
"We need to take those things into consideration when we develop curriculum, and a pilot study such as this one prevents us from using up valuable resources on something that may not be quite ready for an end-user."
Although the guide is not presently part of existing 4-H curriculum, Fabus is continuing to incorporate it into future youth programs.
"With the data produced from the pilot study, we are now in a position to revise the curriculum so that it will be more user-friendly for adult leaders and youth. That will be the next step," she explained.
"This is a terrific programme and we want people to use it."
Now that Fabus has completed her degree, she is working as a visiting instructor in the MSU Department of Animal Science and continues to be involved in developing Extension youth equine programming.
February 24, 2011
Taylor Fabus is passionate about horses and working with kids, so when it was time for the Michigan woman to settle on a topic for her master's degree, the perfect opportunity awaited her.
Her love for horses and working with young people, combined with her personal and academic interests in animal behaviour and welfare, teaching and curriculum development, led her to conduct a pilot study using "A Guide to Equine Welfare Assessment".
Her master's project involved revising and pilot testing a curriculum developed by former Michigan State University animal science master's student Kim Andersen and based on the collegiate animal welfare evaluation model that animal science instructor Camie Heleski was instrumental in developing.
Fabus modified Andersen's curriculum so that it was specific for 4-H programme leaders and other adults working with horses and young people.
The assessment guide serves as a teaching tool for understanding and applying animal welfare and care topics and principles.
"A Guide to Equine Welfare Assessment" is separated into eight sections: an introduction to animal welfare, behavioural indicators, physiological indicators, production measures, immunological measures, human and animal interacting, animal ethics and evaluating welfare.
Each section of the guide includes a list of objectives, life skills, materials needed and suggested student activities. Each section also includes examples of resource information for leaders.
Fabus says that her goal is to spread knowledge about equine care and welfare throughout the state.
Her objective is to equip those teaching young people with the tools they need to help prepare future industry leaders so that they in turn can share what they have learned throughout their communities.
"Though the interest in equine welfare is growing, there's been a void in youth educational materials that this assessment guide can fill," she explains.
"The great part about the guide is that it is a self-paced curriculum, so depending on the group's needs and learning style, the leader can decide what, how much and when to use the materials."
Karen Waite, a university Extension equine specialist and master's program adviser, pointed out that Fabus was a great fit for the project.
"The stars were lined up on this one," she said. "Given Taylor's interests and her background, as well as her responsibilities with regard to youth equine Extension programmes, she was uniquely positioned to interact with the intended audience."
Waite acknowledged that this project provided valuable insight into developing curriculum materials for the end-user.
"We learned quite a bit from this pilot study as it relates to designing curriculum materials for adult volunteers working with youth and the research projects associated with testing such materials," she said.
"For example, even though those of us working at the university are typically very comfortable with using technology, many people are not.
"We need to take those things into consideration when we develop curriculum, and a pilot study such as this one prevents us from using up valuable resources on something that may not be quite ready for an end-user."
Although the guide is not presently part of existing 4-H curriculum, Fabus is continuing to incorporate it into future youth programs.
"With the data produced from the pilot study, we are now in a position to revise the curriculum so that it will be more user-friendly for adult leaders and youth. That will be the next step," she explained.
"This is a terrific programme and we want people to use it."
Now that Fabus has completed her degree, she is working as a visiting instructor in the MSU Department of Animal Science and continues to be involved in developing Extension youth equine programming.