Soybean Science Challenge: Growing Soybean Education.

The Soybean Science Challenge (SSC) continues to support Arkansas STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) educational goals and is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which engages junior high and high-school students in active learning and the co-creation of knowledge through support of classroombased lessons and applied student research. The SSC educates and engages junior high and high school science students and teachers in "real-world" Arkansas-specific soybean science education through original NGSS-aligned curriculum in 7E and GRC-3D format, and a continuum of educational methods, which include teacher workshops, online and virtual live stream education, virtual NGSS aligned mini-lessons for the science classroom, community gardens, personal mentoring, student-led research and corresponding award recognition, and partnerships with state and national educators, agencies and the popular media. Even as in-person instruction returned to a new normal postpandemic, the educational landscape looked different in 2022. The nature of the existing design and methodology of the SSC facilitated the launching of online Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Aligned Gathering Reasoning and Communicating (GRC)-3D and 7E lesson plans for teachers. An additional online course was added that included NGSS-aligned mini-lesson videos for the science classroom and additional virtual field trips to the list on the Soybean Science Challenge website. The Soybean Science Challenge was active in science fairs across the state, judging regional and state participants. In addition, the SSC is in its third year of the junior-level award at regional science fairs. Through the SSC, teachers now have access to many educational instructions that bring real-world agricultural critical thinking into the classroom and homes of students. The SSC has learned that Arkansas teachers and students benefit from these additional resources, and teachers and students from other states also benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]