The purpose of this study was to investigate and understand the experiences of participants who become champions and succeed in adopting healthy lifestyles. The setting was a health and nutrition educational program at University of Minnesota Extension. The main research questions were: How do participants in the Community Health Education Program…

The Fall 2015 Enrollment Fact Book details current fall enrollment data including on- and off-campus enrollment by ethnicity, gender, residency, degree program level, and program category. [For the Fall 2014 Enrollment Fact Book, see ED594006.]

An online survey was developed to map Extension's presence in divorce education initiatives and to catalogue the amount, type, and availability of resources that each state has dedicated to meeting the needs of this parent audience. Requests for participation were sent to members on the National Extension Human Service listserv and resulted…

Building the cultural competencies of Extension educators to work effectively with increasingly diverse audiences has become an important goal and a timely focus for professional development. Yet reduced budgets and reductions in staff are challenging the ability to provide professional development in the traditional face-to-face delivery method.…

Participation in urban agriculture is growing throughout the United States; however, potential soil contaminants in urban environments present challenges. Individuals in direct contact with urban soil should be aware of urban soil quality and soil contamination issues to minimize environmental and human health risks. The study reported here…

With the increasing demand for accountability of Extension programming, Extension professionals need to apply rigorous evaluation designs. Randomized designs are useful to eliminate selection biases of program participants and to improve the accuracy of evaluation. However, randomized control designs are not practical to apply in Extension program…

Transformative learning can lead to great awareness of one's own and others' personal perspectives and result in changes in how participants understand important social issues and how they choose to take action or not. Three examples of Extension teaching that embrace transformative learning are presented: a phenomenological approach to…

This article describes a program for prevention of diabetic retinopathy (DR) that was designed for Extension in collaboration with optometrists. The program was created to increase knowledge and awareness about risk factors for DR and included a game and take-home materials. Participants were asked to play a game similar to Wheel of Fortune. A…

For many years, overall graduate research productivity has been reported annually by several authors in the December issue of the "Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal." The knowledge gleaned from a century's worth of Extension studies is valuable because it can improve our ability to build on prior research, particularly…

This article reviews research and offers program examples for developing social capital in youth with a range of vulnerabilities: emotional, physical, social, and developmental. Protective factors provided by developing social capital at the individual level include access to support networks, transition to employment, and community connectedness.…

Differences in vegetable production methods utilized by American growers create distinct challenges for Extension personnel providing food safety training to producer groups. A program employing computers and projectors will not be accepted by an Amish group that does not accept modern technology. We have developed an outreach program that covers…

Based on a follow-up mail survey conducted in 2009, we found that structured, one-time workshops can influence and impact participant behavior change. Survey results suggest that brief workshops, staffed by key resource personnel, can have a powerful influence on participant behavior change and fill an important gap in rural drinking water…

This article describes the development and evaluation of an online health and personal finance behavior change challenge that can be adapted for other Extension subject matter areas. The Small Steps to Health and Wealth™ Challenge is a behaviorally focused activity in which registered users self-report health and financial behaviors and receive…

Understanding one's community is essential for effective Extension programming across all program areas. The use of current and reliable demographic data is crucial for Extension to develop effective education and programming to track change and to uncover hidden community characteristics. We discuss what demographic data are, present…

Illinois soybean growers have not been satisfied with recent lagging yield trends. A yield "challenge" was created to blend the motivation and creativity of a yield contest with the learning power of teamwork and on-farm demonstration. In the initial year (2010), 123 on-farm side-by-side demonstration plots were located throughout the…