The Texas A&M Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications (ALEC) recently returned from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) conference held in Ames, Iowa on June 12-15.

The NACTA professional society focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning agriculture and related disciplines at the postsecondary level.

The ALEC department was well represented with 11 attendees taking home awards in the categories of graduate student teaching, educator awards, teaching scholar awards and journal awards.

Graduate Student Teaching

Lori Costello, Ph.D. student

David Walther, Ph.D. student

NACTA Educator Awards

Dr. Chanda Elbert, associate professor

Dr. Holli Leggette-Archer, assistant professor

Dr. Summer Odom, associate professor

Dr. Tobin Redwine, assistant professor

NACTA Teaching Scholar Awards

Dr. Tracy Rutherford, professor and associate department head for graduate and undergraduate programs

Jack Everly Journal Award

Assistant professors Tobin Redwine, Ph.D. and OP McCubbins, Ph.D. were recognized for their research in experiential learning. The manuscript documents the foundations and future potential of experiential learning, current examples of experiential learning, the hurdles to widespread adoption of the teaching method and the future of experiential learning.

E.B. Knight Journal Award

In addition to the previously mentioned recipients, associate professor Barry Boyd, Ph.D., professor and associate dean for academic operations Kim Dooley, Ph.D. and program manager Jenna Kurten were all recognized with the E.B. Knight journal award. The article documents the quest of educating students on how to think critically, provides an in-depth look at how critical thinking is currently evaluated by instructors and offers a new method to implement intentional strategies for teaching critical thinking.