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| Dr. Edwin Rajotte, associate professor of entomology, coordinates the Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management Program, headquartered at Penn State. |
| Ag Information and Communication Technologies |
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| Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management (PA IPM) staff members took the IPM “BugMobile!” to Kids Fest at the Nittany Mall in State College, Pa., to raise awareness about controlling pests by combining physical, biological and chemical tactics that are safe, economical and environmentally compatible. With the “BugMobile!”are, from left, Dr. Edwin Rajotte, associate professor of entomology and coordinator of the Pennsylvania IPM Program at Penn State; Michelle Niedermeier, curriculum development assistant, IPM; G. Washington, artistic consultant, IPM; Lyn Garling, education coordinator, IPM; and Garo Goodrow, exhibits designer, Information and Communication Technologies, College of Agricultural Sciences. |
| Howard Nuernberger—Ag Information and Communication Technologies |
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| Children get up close and personal with bugs at a display organized by the Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management (PA IPM) Program at the Outdoor Heritage Festival in Huntingdon, Pa. Each year, IPM staff members and volunteers take their outreach program on the road to a variety of public events to share their knowledge about pests and how to control them in environmentally friendly ways. |
| photos by Michelle Niedermeier— Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management |
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It is a fact that few people know the meaning of the acronym “IPM.” It is also a fact that Pennsylvania students in grades K-12 will be required not only to know what the acronym stands for, but also to learn about IPM in school. And that means teachers need to know it, too.
IPM stands for Integrated Pest Management, an ecologically based approach to managing pests in any environment, including farms, apartment buildings, forests, etc. IPM combines a variety of practices with careful monitoring of pests and their natural enemies. It aims to control pests of all kinds — insects, weeds, diseases, animals — by combining physical, biological and chemical tactics that are safe, economical and environmentally compatible. From the deer eating fruit from your apple tree to the fungus destroying your tomato plants, to the ants in your kitchens, IPM strategies work to avoid or eliminate pests using a variety of scientific and ecological management tools.
IPM is now a requirement for Pennsylvania school students as part of the Academic Standards in Environment and Ecology adopted by the Pennsylvania legislature.
“It was selected because it is a well-proven example of environmentally sound decision making,” said Dr. Edwin Rajotte, associate professor of entomology and coordinator of the Pennsylvania IPM Program, headquartered at Penn State. “IPM has been funded by the state and federal governments, but Pennsylvania is the only state that has adopted IPM as an academic standard. We supported this standard, because we wanted to educate the public to understand and appreciate the importance of IPM.”
Traditionally, Rajotte explained, the IPM program involved teaching farmers how to incorporate IPM practices.
“It’s a decision-making process that involves properly identifying pests, assessing the threat and applying multiple tactics to avoid or alleviate the pest problem. That’s the supply side of IPM. We also want to create a demand side for IPM. We want consumers, by selectively spending money in the marketplace, to create a demand for IPM from the farmers who supply their food.”
Educating school students is one way to ensure that future consumers will demand IPM, as well as apply it in their own lives. The real challenge, however, now that IPM has become an academic standard, is to teach teachers about IPM.
“The new academic standard has put a big demand on us [Penn State] to train teachers and to develop a Web site so teachers will be able to incorporate IPM in the classroom,” Rajotte said.
The school IPM program has two components. First, IPM must become part of the curriculum and, second, schools in Pennsylvania are required to have IPM programs in place for their school buildings and grounds.
“Our challenge,” Rajotte said, “is to reach the 125,000 teachers in 501 school districts in this state. Because of Act 48, teachers are required to further their education, not only in IPM, but also in many academic disciplines. Every academic standard can be affected by a Penn State program, and broad outreach efforts are necessary if we are to offer ways for teachers to learn about IPM.”
This includes developing new interactions with school districts, maintaining and updating a highly informative Web site (http://paipm.cas.psu.edu) and offering training programs at Penn State and at other sites, such as Intermediate Units and Penn State Cooperative Extension locations.
“We already have in place a very effective summer program, called IPM in the Classroom, that has been running for three years now,” Rajotte pointed out. “We thought IPM was important for students even before the new academic standards were imposed.”
Other educational tools include the “BugMobile!” IPM staff members take the vehicle around the state, using it to interact with and educate children. There are newsletters, press releases, a “how to” manual for implementing IPM use on school grounds, an IPM resources database and many other tools — all designed by Penn State in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to reach as many teachers and students as possible.
“IPM is a holistic way of thinking that improves our ability to mitigate the negative impacts of pests in agricultural production, horticulture, buildings and other situations, while at the same time reducing costs and improving environmental quality,” commented Dr. Theodore R. Alter, associate vice president for outreach, director of Cooperative Extension and associate dean in the College of Agricultural Sciences. “Penn State is a national leader in developing IPM strategies and educating farmers, consumers, children and now teachers about IPM and its use.
“Penn State Cooperative Extension will be a valuable source of information and hands-on activities for teachers looking for resources on IPM to use in their classrooms,” Alter said. “This is a wonderful opportunity for extension educators to provide educational resources and training to teachers about IPM — and also to build relationships to provide information on other topics concerning our agricultural and food system to the teachers and students of Pennsylvania.” |
