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The Director’s Cut
By Ed Martin
It has been some time since our last newsletter. Most of our energy has been going into continuing our programming and the operations of the office from remote work sites. The COVID 19 pandemic presented many challenges for Maricopa County Cooperative Extension. However, through it all, the staff and faculty have done an outstanding job. Our programs have transitioned to online formats, and we continue to deliver educational programs to improve lives, communities, and the environment in Maricopa County and beyond. Below are just a few of the highlights from the past three months.
We hope to have our office open soon. We are working with University and County health officials to ensure we are following proper protocol to help mitigate the spread of COVID 19 and help protect our staff, volunteers, and clientele.
I want to thank everyone for your support and patience during these challenging times. Our volunteers have continued to increase our capacity to reach communities throughout the valley, and Maricopa County Board of Supervisors have continued to support our efforts.
Please stay safe, follow the CDC best practices, and hopefully, we will see you soon in person, instead of on a screen looking like the opening to the Brady Bunch television show.
Take Care – Ed Martin
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MCCE Donates to First Responders
Maricopa County Cooperative Extension (MCCE) showed their appreciation for Phoenix area first responders by donating personal protective equipment and supplies they can use to protect themselves while assisting others during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Donated items included over 8,000 paper towels, 14 boxes of nitrile gloves and several pair of protective coveralls.
Dr. Ayman Mostafa and Mr. Kyle Harrington of the Field Crops Integrated Pest Management program explained, “Although our clientele is mainly agricultural, when there is a need in the community in general, we are more than willing to help in any way we can.”
The donation drive coordinated by Representative Ruben Gallego, the City of Phoenix, Phoenix Fire Department and Phoenix Police was held at the Phoenix Convention Center during the week of March 23-27. 2020.
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| Turfgrass Science
By Kai Umeda
The Turfgrass Science extension program has continued as usual with its applied research projects, especially since golf was deemed essential in Arizona. Annual bluegrass, Poa annua, control was evaluated and once again, effective management was achieved with a new herbicide, PoaCure, that received approval of its federal registration this spring. Conducting local research contributes to the local turf managers’ confidence and assures product reliability and performance in the desert.
Read more
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Arizona Project WET Goes Virtual
By Pam Justice
There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that states “May you live in interesting times” and we certainly are! Flexibility and adaptability are the key operating principles behind Arizona Project WET’s new arsenal of online educational offerings. We have tweaked, twisted, and turned our already popular programs into a virtual virtuoso of offerings.
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Proud to Call 4-H Maricopa Our County
By Hannah Hanson
AZ 4-H Summit is an annual youth conference focused on academic experience, career exploration, and community engagement. This year, youth were also given a chance to participate in a Virtual 4-H Robotics Camp delivered by AZ STEM YOUniversity. Maricopa County’s AmeriCorps volunteers, Tim Lonchar and Ken Yee, were vital in the planning, training, and facilitation of the camp. They trained several youth and adult counselors to teach Coder Z Robotics modules to over 30 youth from across the state. During the Arizona 4-H Summit, youth were involved in several sessions focused on community service, career readiness, and leadership training. There were two celebration sessions on separate nights, AZ Presents and the Clover Ball. During both these sessions, Dr. Temple Grandin, a 4-H Alumni and an Animal Science Professor at Colorado State University, spoke about her experience in 4-H and what it means to never give up and keep focused on your goals.
Continue reading here.
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Ag. Literacy and STEM Education
By Gigette Webb
Instead of taking 30 teachers on a week-long tour across various parts of Arizona for the Summer Agricultural Institute (SAI), the Agricultural Literacy & STEM Education program with help from the Arizona Foundation for Agricultural Literacy provided former SAI Alumni and teachers a Virtual Academy, June 8-12.
Read more here.
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Field Crops/IPM
By Ayman Mostafa
The Field Crop Integrated Pest Management Program adapted swiftly and effectively to the tremendous challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. For our Extension activities, we immediately halted in-person meetings following the University guidelines. The program switched two major Extension events to Zoom online format. The 6th Arizona Alfalfa and Forage Crops Workshop was held on March 26th, 2020, and the 7th Workshop on New Technologies for Field Crops. Over 200 persons attended these two workshops. We provided 9 Continuing Education Units for the attendees.
Presenters of the two workshops came from three different universities and UA, plus representatives from industry. The program continued to communicate with clientele through the weekly newsletter, phone calls, individual visits, and Zoom. Many clientele sent photos or videos of the issues they had, and that was helpful to solve the problem. For our Research activities, we first secured all PPE equipment for sanitization, protection, and worker safety.
Our program carried out normal research activities during the pandemic time in our facilities at the Maricopa County Cooperative Extension office, and at Maricopa Agricultural Center. We converted and utilize spaces and equipment to increase the area of work and ensured ample distancing for the program team.
For funding, the program secured and received pledges of some grants, contracts, and gift funding during the pandemic. The total amount is about $200,000.
Finally, the program was able to respond to the calls for help and donated some PPE equipment to medical facilities in the community.
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 | The volunteer board of directors for Arizona Center for Rural leadership and itsseveral committees have met via Zoom several times over the past four months toadvance the vision of a healthy, vibrant and sustainable Rural Arizona.
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| Project CENTRL
By Scott Koeing
Sixteen members of Class 28 of Project CENTRL were meeting with Secretary of State Katie Hobbs when she stepped out of the meeting to sign Governor Ducey’s first Executive Order about COVID-19 back in March and more than anyone could expect, so many changes would be in store! What has not changed is the commitment of those sixteen members combined with the 600+ CENTRL alumni across the state to making a difference in their communities, especially in times of crisis.
Some of the changes for CENTRL were planned including reclaiming the original name of the organization: Arizona Center for Rural Leadership and the board approval of a new logo and branding to be debuted soon! Other changes proved beneficial including interviewing 30 people via Zoom and selecting sixteen new participants into Class 29. Since we need leaders now more than ever, they have committed to distance learning, with the hope of in-person programming as soon as safe. Regardless of the location, CENTRL is committed to building personal leadership skills, educating about the issues facing rural Arizona and connecting leaders and experts to broaden and strengthen the network of people committed to making a difference in Arizona.
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Family Resource Center
By Ginamarie Nieves, Program Director
The Roosevelt Early Childhood Family Resource Center has been exploring creative ideas on how we can best render services to families with children 0-5 years during Covid-19 pandemic. We have run a social media campaign of creating virtual Storytime videos in English, Spanish, and Arabic posted on our Facebook page every Wednesday at 3 pm that started on April 29, 2020. Our Storytime videos help us to continue to promote literacy and consist of an age appropriate story being read and a simple art project demonstration that parents can do with their children related to the story.
Continue reading here.
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Pesticide Safety Education Program Goes All Out Online
By Jennifer Weber
The COVID-19 pandemic created an urgency to transform several pre-scheduled pesticide applicator courses and conference presentations from in-person sessions to online educational formats.
One of the most pressing issues was how to quickly design a set of pesticide applicator certification training modules for 30 individuals enrolled in a 2-day in-person training interrupted by the pandemic. The participants were in similar situations, faced with sudden workplace adjustments and scrambling to find ways to continue their education.
Luckily, after attending UA webinars on how to record PowerPoint presentations for online courses, the Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) had a handful of virtual modules ready for viewing. These modules were well-received as an initial attempt to provide pesticide applicators with the information they needed quickly and conveniently.
Requests for online presentations continue to pour in. In fact, since early April, PSEP has designed and provided 19 unique presentations for 8 online courses and conferences. With 4 more requests on deck and the uncertainty of when and how to safely return to in-person training, it is time to move away from developing “short-term quick fix” modules. PSEP will now go all out in search of effective ways to keep participants actively engaged in their online learning experience. Stay tuned.
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Maricopa County Master Gardeners
By Michael Chamberland
The Maricopa County Master Gardener program
is on track to launch its Fall Master Gardener Training Course in early July. In response to social distancing requirements, the Training Course is being structured for online asynchronous delivery. The Course will continue to engage Master Gardeners as online Mentors for the incoming Trainees.
Master Gardeners have quickly adapted to online tools such as Zoom Meetings and Desire to Learn (D2L). Master Gardener programming including Plant Clinics, MG Updates and DIG Classes have been adapted for delivery through Zoom. The new MG Central, a web hub exclusively for Maricopa County Master Gardeners, has been launched in D2L. The Plant Help Desk continues to assist the public with answers to their garden and plant problems, thanks to the efforts of Master Gardeners. Our capacity to access to the Ticket Management System remotely has allowed this service to continue without a pause through the shutdown.
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Innovative Ideas Make SNAP-Ed Food Demonstrations a Continued Option During Online Direct Education
By Traci Armstrong Florian
The pandemic has changed many things for all of us, and our nutrition programming at MCCE is no exception. The Governor’s stay-at-home order, along with the University’s policy for employees to continue to telework, the EFNEP and SNAP-Ed programs quickly adjusted to online Zoom meetings with colleagues and community members to keep momentum of the program and many of our projects going. Additionally, these two programs along with the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) have moved to online delivery for direct education. (DPP will start classes in August 2020.)
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Smartscape
By Kirti Mathura
Although there are some challenges to integrating the Smartscape program into the COVID-19 world (mainly that the coordinator is not the most tech-savvy), we are scheduled to offer the summer/fall Smartscape course online through Zoom. The training runs from July 14th through August 13th. I did not feel confident that we could deliver a quality experience for our scheduled Spanish Smartscape course in May, so sadly it was cancelled. Fortunately, some incredible support has stepped forward to help in our upcoming course (Pima County Smartscape totally-tech-staff, some wonderful Master Gardener volunteers who helped the DIG program successfully go Zoom, and a great one-person camera crew from the MCCE Horticulture program), so we are set to offer a great learning experience to the landscape industry.
When restrictions to personal interaction were announced, we quickly rescheduled our April Advanced Smartscape: Irrigation course to November, in hopes that this more hands-on training could truly be hands-on, including attendees getting wet (too difficult to do that through Zoom!). We shall see.
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