UVM’s Innovation Hall buzzed with excitement last Friday as middle and high school students from around New England gathered to pitch their ideas for promoting the use of agricultural technologies to a panel of experts and judges. The event, UVM’s first AgroTek Innovation Slam, represented the culmination of a summer-long program that paired middle and high schoolers with undergraduate students, faculty and staff at UVM to gain technical research skills and the opportunity to explore different technologies in the field of agricultural innovation.

“It’s been a huge, collaborative effort,” said Sarah Kleinman, director of the Vermont 4-H program with UVM Extension. “Relationships are the foundation of everything we do. The program was intentionally designed to get young people on campus and dig deep, while building relationships that will support their spark and potential career paths.”

The program kicked off with a week-long residency on campus in June where participants were split into two Summer Academies – one focused on learning about the microbes and fungi that contribute to healthy soils and the other centered on creating new uses or products from agricultural waste. Towards the end of the week, the students were broken into groups to create a final project based on their learning that they would later present at the Innovation Slam competition. After returning home, they continued working virtually to create presentations and prototypes with support from undergraduate student mentors.

One team from each Summer Academy received the “Judges Choice” award, given to the team with the highest score from judges Anson Tebbetts, Vermont Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets; Will Stevens, outreach representative for Senator Bernie Sanders; and Kate Finley Woodruff, Senior Associate Dean for the UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  

Winners included high schoolers Sydney Feitz, Mia Cannizzaro, Jordan King and Rose Hsu who created an information guide on the Indigenous intercropping method of planting corn, beans and squash together. Known as the Three Sisters, the practice has been used for centuries by Indigenous tribes who discovered the unique symbiotic relationships amongst the crops when planted together.  Isabella Wilbur, Benji Kaplan-Block, Charlie Levine, Alyssa Vandermolen also received a Judges Choice award for their project offering new ways to make paper from agricultural waste products. Both teams were given the opportunity to present their projects at a 4-H Teen Science café this fall.

Ava Abeck, an Agroecology Extension Summer Research Fellow, working with high school students Rose Hsu and Jordan King during a field experiment at the UVM Horticulture Research and Education Center. (Photo: Liz Kenton)

“I learned a lot about collaboration during the program,” said award recipient Jordan King, a rising senior from the Putney School in Vermont who applied to AgroTek to get a taste of life as a UVM student. “I took a lot of knowledge around healthier soils home with me and found some really wonderful people to create something with.”

A third team received the “People’s Choice” award, determined by a popular vote of Innovation Slam attendees. The award was given to Memphis Everest, Amelia Circosta and Leo Circosta for their interactive board game based on teaching the concept of the Three Sisters planting method. The project was inspired by a presentation during AgroTek week from GameTheory where the students learned how games can be used to convey information in a fun and different way.  The team was mentored by Gigi Walsh, a food systems major at UVM and one of 10 Agroecology Extension Summer Research Fellows who were partnered with the AgroTek students for the summer.

“I’m just really impressed and proud of the young people I worked with. They went above and beyond and took the experiences we learned during the week of AgroTek and turned it into a really cool, interactive project,” said Walsh.

UVM student GiGi Walsh working in the lab with mentee Leo Circosta. (Photo: Liz Kenton)

While three teams walked away with prizes from the Innovation Slam, all students left with new experiences and relationships that will support them in their career growth and exploration. For Memphis Everest, a rising junior at South Burlington High School, the program led to an internship in the lab of Eric Bishop von Wettberg this fall.

“It’s important to get real life lab experience,” said Everest. “It’s something colleges will be looking for and it’s also an important part of learning. This program has allowed me to get new information and new skills I really wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.”

This summer marked the first year of the program, funded with a three-year grant from the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The program will continue for the next two summers, and plans to add an additional Summer Academy topic each year. It is a collaborative effort led by Kleinman (PI), Scott Lewins with UVM Extension (co-PI), faculty researchers Steve Kostell, Eric Bishop von Wettberg and postdoctoral researcher Giovanna Sassi.