Assistant Professor Nicole Kraft received the 2017 Academic Programs Section’s Innovation in Teaching Award for her proposal, “Blending agricultural and journalism students and faculty in the classroom to increase agricultural communication and awareness.”

The APS Teaching Awards are awarded to faculty at different institutions that provide innovative teaching and learning experiences toward learning in the food, agricultural and natural resources areas. Kraft is working with Jason DeKoff, an associate professor in the college of agricultural, human and natural sciences at Tennessee State University.

With this proposal, Kraft and DeKoff aim to increase communication skills of ag science students and increase the agricultural literacy of journalism students. They plan to assign agriculture students communication-based assignments while assigning communication students agriculture based assignments. They will also have their students engage with students in journalism and agriculture departments to help achieve their ultimate goal of increasing agriculture awareness.

During the fall 2017 semester, Kraft will be working with DeKoff to blend her undergraduate-level course, COMM 4202 Magazine Writing, with a graduate-level research methods course DeKoff will teach at Tennessee State. With this course, Kraft hopes to build up awareness of agriculture so that her journalism students can report better on the topic.

Kraft and DeKoff are one of 10 recipients for the APS Innovation in Teaching Award. They will receive a $3,000 stipend to use to attend the 2018 North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture.