Todd Brashears - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Todd Brashears

Animals, 2022

The effects of castration, supplementation, and implant protocol (IP) on growth, carcass characte... more The effects of castration, supplementation, and implant protocol (IP) on growth, carcass characteristics, and meat quality of grass-fed cattle were evaluated. Two experiments followed a two-way ANOVA and a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement. Experiment-I, 99 bulls were evaluated for: (a) supplementation (mineral (MS) or strategic protein-energy supplementation (SS), and (b) IP (repeated (day-0 and day-90) Zeranol-72 mg implantation (Zeranol–Zeranol) or Trenbolone Acetate-140 mg/Estradiol-20 mg (day-0) followed by Zeranol-72 mg (day-90) (TBA/E2–Zeranol). Experiment II, 50 animals were evaluated for: (a) IP (like Experiment-I), and (b) male class (steers vs. bulls). In Experiment-I, SS bulls had greater growth rate, carcass yield, and yield of high-valued boneless lean cuts than MS bulls, while decreasing (p < 0.05) time to harvest. Steaks from SS-bulls on TBA/E2–Zeranol IP were more (p = 0.05) tender than SS/Zeranol–Zeranol counterparts. Experiment-II bulls had greater growth than steers...

Participants at a regional fair petting zoo were randomly solicited to answer questions to determ... more Participants at a regional fair petting zoo were randomly solicited to answer questions to determine their knowledge level about the dangers of E. coli 0157:H7. The instrument contained questions in four construct areas: general knowledge, transmission, prevention and implications. Demographic information was also collected from the 382 respondents. Statistical analysis of this descriptive/correlational research project indicated that, while 73% of the participants were aware that hand washing was recommended for prevention of illness, participants provided correct responses at a much lower rate in the areas of general knowledge of E. coli, implications of contracting and transmission of the bacteria. Correlational analysis indicated that several low correlations existed between demographic variables and individual items as well as construct areas. Previous participation in FFA or 4-H was positively correlated to construct areas 2 and 3. This participation also had a low positive co...

The impact of participation on freshmen experiences in a college of agriculture

Utilization of career service by undergraduate students in a college of agriculture

Introduction Theoretical Framework The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great... more Introduction Theoretical Framework The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great promise and rewards for both educators and learners alike, but little research has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of incorporating multimedia components within an electronically-delivered unit of instruction. This research tested the theory of cue-summation (multiple cues across multiple channels) in a high school agricultural education setting and measured the effectiveness of the instruction and satisfaction level of the student. Curriculum materials were created and placed on compact disks (CD-ROM) for asynchronous delivery capability. Materials comprised a week-long unit of instruction on milk processing and were developed in three treatments; text-only materials, text and an audio/video component, and audio/video and still images. These three treatments represented single cue, redundancy, and cue summation, respectively. One-hundred and five high school agriculture e...

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education, 2019

Sub Saharan Africa is a region that has been struggling with food insecurity for decades. Though ... more Sub Saharan Africa is a region that has been struggling with food insecurity for decades. Though the percentage of undernourished people in the region has decreased over the last 25 years, the actual number of undernourished people increased by more than forty million. Combatting food insecurity in the region requires an arsenal of skills, knowledge, and abilities across a broad range of disciplines. One way to target food insecurity is through education and capacity building. The purpose of this study was to identify the courses and topics that should be included in a food security (FS) graduate certificate focused on Sub Saharan Africa. Identification of the topics and courses came from faculty and professionals working in the FS field in Sub Saharan Africa. A three-round Delphi technique was conducted to accomplish the purpose of the study with a total of 63 experts. Of the original 101 topics that the expert panel proposed in Round One, 80 reached the level of agreement. Researc...

Knowledge as an Intervention

Priority Research Areas Extension Education Agricultural Communication Teaching and Learning in Undergraduate and Graduate Academic Programs Understanding the Food and Fiber System (Agricultural Literacy) Agricultural Leadership Teacher Education and School-Based Agricultural Education

Texas Journal of Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2016

Research was conducted to determine what should be included on a promotional DVD for the Internat... more Research was conducted to determine what should be included on a promotional DVD for the International Center for Food Industry Excellence, or ICFIE, an animal and food science research center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. The researcher utilized a three-round Delphi using online questionnaires. Faculty and industry board members and center staff agreed to participate on the panel of experts. The panel gave 97 items in Round 1 to be considered. In Round 2, panelists reached a 100% consensus on 14 items received 100% consensus and reached the minimum 80% consensus on a total of 65 items. For Round 3, panelists again rated items from Round 2 which not make consensus, and four of these items received at least an 80% consensus. The researcher proposed items receiving 100% consensus should be the focus of the promotional DVD, and items which received more than an 80% but less than 100% consensus should also be shown on the DVD, but should have less focus.

Effects of text, audio/video, and still images as asynchronous instructional delivery methods upon cognition and satisfaction of high school agricultural science students

The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great promise and rewards for both educa... more The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great promise and rewards for both educators and learners alike, but little research has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of incorporating multimedia components within a electronically delivered unit of instruction. This research tested the theory of cuesummation (multiple cues across multiple channels) in a high school agricultural education setting and measured the effectiveness of the instruction. Curriculum materials were created and placed on CD-ROM for asynchronous delivery capability. Materials comprised a week-long unit of instruction on milk processing and were developed in three Treatments (Tx). The first Tx consisted of textonly materials, the second consisted of text and an audio/video component and the third consisted of audio/video and still images. These three Txs represented single cue, redundancy and cue summation, respectively. One hundred five high school agriculture science students participate...

Student Perceptions of International Agriculture: The Effects of Vicarious International Experience Intergration in High School Agriculture Education Curriculum

Journal of Agricultural Education, Jun 30, 2017

Secondary agricultural education has consistently faced a shortage of teachers for the past sever... more Secondary agricultural education has consistently faced a shortage of teachers for the past several decades. Because there are not enough newly qualified teachers certified annually to fill all the vacancies, attrition must be addressed. The purpose of this research was to develop and pilot test an attrition risk assessment instrument. Items were written and included in a preliminary instrument based on existing literature as well as a qualitative study we conducted previously. Principal components analysis resulted in a 25-question instrument, with 17 questions measuring attrition risk in four constructs including alternative career opportunities, expectations versus realities, passions, and people frustrations. Cronbach's alpha indicated overall instrument reliability was α = .76. Individual construct reliabilities ranged from α = .57 to α = .85. Recommendations include further development and refinement of constructs and questions. Additionally, longitudinal data should be collected in order to identify the threshold magnitude of each risk factor that results in actual exit of a teacher from the profession. Finally, implementation of the instrument could assist researchers and teacher educators in identifying the most prevalent risks contributing to teacher attrition in a population.

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education

The purpose of the study was to determine the topics and courses of a graduate certificate focusi... more The purpose of the study was to determine the topics and courses of a graduate certificate focusing on Global Food Security (GFS) for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) through critical action inquiry. GFS is a major issue worldwide that will continue to expand in years to come. Almost 795 million people are estimated to have suffered from chronic hunger globally in 2014-2016. Studies have shown the strong relationship between education and food security and we do not argue for causation, merely association. For this reason, curricula focused on teaching GFS to graduate students will enable professionals in international settings to manage the complexities of food security more effectively. For this critical action inquiry study, identification of the content was the result of a three-round Delphi study performed with experts from LAC and its comparison with the result of the Texas Tech University (TTU) professors survey to determine the topics and courses. Of the 91-originally-i...

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education

Global trends are demanding agricultural students have a broader perspective of agriculture and c... more Global trends are demanding agricultural students have a broader perspective of agriculture and competitiveness and they become responsible global citizens. This study compared United States and Latin American undergraduate students’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding international agricultural issues, as well as their attitudes about global citizenship. Overall, students’ results indicated a lack of knowledge regarding international agricultural issues, with only 3.6% obtaining a score above 60%. Students’ recorded positive attitudes and beliefs about international agricultural issues but had mixed feelings regarding global citizenship attitudes. Scores on all constructs were found to be significantly different between the studied academic institutions (p < .05). The stepwise multiple linear regression indicated the predictors of university of enrollment and students’ attitudes and beliefs about international agricultural issues were significantly related to their globa...

The Effects of Cue Summation on Student Cognition and Satisfaction in an Electronically- Delivered Secondary Agricultural Sciences Unit of Instruction

ABSTRACT The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great promise and rewards for b... more ABSTRACT The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great promise and rewards for both educators and learners alike, but little research has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of incorporating multimedia components within an electronically-delivered unit of instruction. This research tested the theory of cue-summation (multiple cues across multiple channels) in a high school agricultural education setting and measured the effectiveness of the instruction and satisfaction level of the student. Curriculum materials were created and placed on CD-ROM for asynchronous delivery capability. Materials comprised a week-long unit of instruction on milk processing and were developed in three treatments; text-only materials, text and an audio/video component, and audio/video and still images. These three treatments represented single cue, redundancy and cue summation, respectively. one hundred five high school agriculture education students participated in the study. Instrumentation used included a pretest/posttest for cognition as well as researcher-developed satisfaction and demographic instruments. The researchers found that students in treatments containing audio/video components scored significantly higher on the posttest than students who received text-only. Redundancy and cue-summation produced statistically similar posttest scores; however, students in the cue summation treatment group reported significantly higher satisfaction scores than students in the redundant condition group.

A National Evaluation of the Beef Cattle Industry's Use of Communication Channels to Obtain Information Regarding Food Safety

... Scott Burris, Assistant Professor Texas Tech University Department of Agricultural Education ... more ... Scott Burris, Assistant Professor Texas Tech University Department of Agricultural Education and Communications Scott.burris@ttu.edu ... A researcher-developed instrument was used to gather information at the 2006 National Cattlemen's Beef Association in Denver, Colorado. ...

Journal of Agricultural Education, 2015

There exists in our profession a persistent shortage of quality teachers in our high school agric... more There exists in our profession a persistent shortage of quality teachers in our high school agricultural education classrooms. A multitude of studies have identified challenges faced by agriculture teachers, however, few, if any, have investigated reasons for attrition by directly asking leavers why they left. This study sought to identify reasons for leaving the profession as perceived by former high school agriculture teachers. Nine former secondary agriculture teachers were interviewed. Themes emerging from this qualitative case study include 1) passions for the profession, 2) alternative opportunities, 3) expectations, 4) burdens, retrospectively and 5) people. Teachers were passionate about their students, their content area and competition inherent in agricultural education. All of the participants had chosen to accept alternative employment opportunities. Former teachers recalled having high expectations for themselves and their career, and perceiving others to have high expectations as well. The teachers recalled the burdens of their job retrospectively, and people played an integral role in their career as well as their decision to leave the profession. Former teachers were satisfied while teaching, but found greater benefit in alternative opportunities. Recommendations include encouraging realistic expectations, developing mentor programs for novice teachers, and strengthening the benefits of remaining in the profession.

Evaluation of Participants’ Knowledge scores in an International HACCP Workshop

Testing Efficieny of the Cotton Futures Market Using Japanese Candlestick Charts

Animals, 2022

The effects of castration, supplementation, and implant protocol (IP) on growth, carcass characte... more The effects of castration, supplementation, and implant protocol (IP) on growth, carcass characteristics, and meat quality of grass-fed cattle were evaluated. Two experiments followed a two-way ANOVA and a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement. Experiment-I, 99 bulls were evaluated for: (a) supplementation (mineral (MS) or strategic protein-energy supplementation (SS), and (b) IP (repeated (day-0 and day-90) Zeranol-72 mg implantation (Zeranol–Zeranol) or Trenbolone Acetate-140 mg/Estradiol-20 mg (day-0) followed by Zeranol-72 mg (day-90) (TBA/E2–Zeranol). Experiment II, 50 animals were evaluated for: (a) IP (like Experiment-I), and (b) male class (steers vs. bulls). In Experiment-I, SS bulls had greater growth rate, carcass yield, and yield of high-valued boneless lean cuts than MS bulls, while decreasing (p < 0.05) time to harvest. Steaks from SS-bulls on TBA/E2–Zeranol IP were more (p = 0.05) tender than SS/Zeranol–Zeranol counterparts. Experiment-II bulls had greater growth than steers...

Participants at a regional fair petting zoo were randomly solicited to answer questions to determ... more Participants at a regional fair petting zoo were randomly solicited to answer questions to determine their knowledge level about the dangers of E. coli 0157:H7. The instrument contained questions in four construct areas: general knowledge, transmission, prevention and implications. Demographic information was also collected from the 382 respondents. Statistical analysis of this descriptive/correlational research project indicated that, while 73% of the participants were aware that hand washing was recommended for prevention of illness, participants provided correct responses at a much lower rate in the areas of general knowledge of E. coli, implications of contracting and transmission of the bacteria. Correlational analysis indicated that several low correlations existed between demographic variables and individual items as well as construct areas. Previous participation in FFA or 4-H was positively correlated to construct areas 2 and 3. This participation also had a low positive co...

The impact of participation on freshmen experiences in a college of agriculture

Utilization of career service by undergraduate students in a college of agriculture

Introduction Theoretical Framework The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great... more Introduction Theoretical Framework The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great promise and rewards for both educators and learners alike, but little research has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of incorporating multimedia components within an electronically-delivered unit of instruction. This research tested the theory of cue-summation (multiple cues across multiple channels) in a high school agricultural education setting and measured the effectiveness of the instruction and satisfaction level of the student. Curriculum materials were created and placed on compact disks (CD-ROM) for asynchronous delivery capability. Materials comprised a week-long unit of instruction on milk processing and were developed in three treatments; text-only materials, text and an audio/video component, and audio/video and still images. These three treatments represented single cue, redundancy, and cue summation, respectively. One-hundred and five high school agriculture e...

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education, 2019

Sub Saharan Africa is a region that has been struggling with food insecurity for decades. Though ... more Sub Saharan Africa is a region that has been struggling with food insecurity for decades. Though the percentage of undernourished people in the region has decreased over the last 25 years, the actual number of undernourished people increased by more than forty million. Combatting food insecurity in the region requires an arsenal of skills, knowledge, and abilities across a broad range of disciplines. One way to target food insecurity is through education and capacity building. The purpose of this study was to identify the courses and topics that should be included in a food security (FS) graduate certificate focused on Sub Saharan Africa. Identification of the topics and courses came from faculty and professionals working in the FS field in Sub Saharan Africa. A three-round Delphi technique was conducted to accomplish the purpose of the study with a total of 63 experts. Of the original 101 topics that the expert panel proposed in Round One, 80 reached the level of agreement. Researc...

Knowledge as an Intervention

Priority Research Areas Extension Education Agricultural Communication Teaching and Learning in Undergraduate and Graduate Academic Programs Understanding the Food and Fiber System (Agricultural Literacy) Agricultural Leadership Teacher Education and School-Based Agricultural Education

Texas Journal of Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2016

Research was conducted to determine what should be included on a promotional DVD for the Internat... more Research was conducted to determine what should be included on a promotional DVD for the International Center for Food Industry Excellence, or ICFIE, an animal and food science research center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. The researcher utilized a three-round Delphi using online questionnaires. Faculty and industry board members and center staff agreed to participate on the panel of experts. The panel gave 97 items in Round 1 to be considered. In Round 2, panelists reached a 100% consensus on 14 items received 100% consensus and reached the minimum 80% consensus on a total of 65 items. For Round 3, panelists again rated items from Round 2 which not make consensus, and four of these items received at least an 80% consensus. The researcher proposed items receiving 100% consensus should be the focus of the promotional DVD, and items which received more than an 80% but less than 100% consensus should also be shown on the DVD, but should have less focus.

Effects of text, audio/video, and still images as asynchronous instructional delivery methods upon cognition and satisfaction of high school agricultural science students

The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great promise and rewards for both educa... more The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great promise and rewards for both educators and learners alike, but little research has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of incorporating multimedia components within a electronically delivered unit of instruction. This research tested the theory of cuesummation (multiple cues across multiple channels) in a high school agricultural education setting and measured the effectiveness of the instruction. Curriculum materials were created and placed on CD-ROM for asynchronous delivery capability. Materials comprised a week-long unit of instruction on milk processing and were developed in three Treatments (Tx). The first Tx consisted of textonly materials, the second consisted of text and an audio/video component and the third consisted of audio/video and still images. These three Txs represented single cue, redundancy and cue summation, respectively. One hundred five high school agriculture science students participate...

Student Perceptions of International Agriculture: The Effects of Vicarious International Experience Intergration in High School Agriculture Education Curriculum

Journal of Agricultural Education, Jun 30, 2017

Secondary agricultural education has consistently faced a shortage of teachers for the past sever... more Secondary agricultural education has consistently faced a shortage of teachers for the past several decades. Because there are not enough newly qualified teachers certified annually to fill all the vacancies, attrition must be addressed. The purpose of this research was to develop and pilot test an attrition risk assessment instrument. Items were written and included in a preliminary instrument based on existing literature as well as a qualitative study we conducted previously. Principal components analysis resulted in a 25-question instrument, with 17 questions measuring attrition risk in four constructs including alternative career opportunities, expectations versus realities, passions, and people frustrations. Cronbach's alpha indicated overall instrument reliability was α = .76. Individual construct reliabilities ranged from α = .57 to α = .85. Recommendations include further development and refinement of constructs and questions. Additionally, longitudinal data should be collected in order to identify the threshold magnitude of each risk factor that results in actual exit of a teacher from the profession. Finally, implementation of the instrument could assist researchers and teacher educators in identifying the most prevalent risks contributing to teacher attrition in a population.

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education

The purpose of the study was to determine the topics and courses of a graduate certificate focusi... more The purpose of the study was to determine the topics and courses of a graduate certificate focusing on Global Food Security (GFS) for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) through critical action inquiry. GFS is a major issue worldwide that will continue to expand in years to come. Almost 795 million people are estimated to have suffered from chronic hunger globally in 2014-2016. Studies have shown the strong relationship between education and food security and we do not argue for causation, merely association. For this reason, curricula focused on teaching GFS to graduate students will enable professionals in international settings to manage the complexities of food security more effectively. For this critical action inquiry study, identification of the content was the result of a three-round Delphi study performed with experts from LAC and its comparison with the result of the Texas Tech University (TTU) professors survey to determine the topics and courses. Of the 91-originally-i...

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education

Global trends are demanding agricultural students have a broader perspective of agriculture and c... more Global trends are demanding agricultural students have a broader perspective of agriculture and competitiveness and they become responsible global citizens. This study compared United States and Latin American undergraduate students’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding international agricultural issues, as well as their attitudes about global citizenship. Overall, students’ results indicated a lack of knowledge regarding international agricultural issues, with only 3.6% obtaining a score above 60%. Students’ recorded positive attitudes and beliefs about international agricultural issues but had mixed feelings regarding global citizenship attitudes. Scores on all constructs were found to be significantly different between the studied academic institutions (p < .05). The stepwise multiple linear regression indicated the predictors of university of enrollment and students’ attitudes and beliefs about international agricultural issues were significantly related to their globa...

The Effects of Cue Summation on Student Cognition and Satisfaction in an Electronically- Delivered Secondary Agricultural Sciences Unit of Instruction

ABSTRACT The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great promise and rewards for b... more ABSTRACT The development of electronic curriculum materials holds great promise and rewards for both educators and learners alike, but little research has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of incorporating multimedia components within an electronically-delivered unit of instruction. This research tested the theory of cue-summation (multiple cues across multiple channels) in a high school agricultural education setting and measured the effectiveness of the instruction and satisfaction level of the student. Curriculum materials were created and placed on CD-ROM for asynchronous delivery capability. Materials comprised a week-long unit of instruction on milk processing and were developed in three treatments; text-only materials, text and an audio/video component, and audio/video and still images. These three treatments represented single cue, redundancy and cue summation, respectively. one hundred five high school agriculture education students participated in the study. Instrumentation used included a pretest/posttest for cognition as well as researcher-developed satisfaction and demographic instruments. The researchers found that students in treatments containing audio/video components scored significantly higher on the posttest than students who received text-only. Redundancy and cue-summation produced statistically similar posttest scores; however, students in the cue summation treatment group reported significantly higher satisfaction scores than students in the redundant condition group.

A National Evaluation of the Beef Cattle Industry's Use of Communication Channels to Obtain Information Regarding Food Safety

... Scott Burris, Assistant Professor Texas Tech University Department of Agricultural Education ... more ... Scott Burris, Assistant Professor Texas Tech University Department of Agricultural Education and Communications Scott.burris@ttu.edu ... A researcher-developed instrument was used to gather information at the 2006 National Cattlemen's Beef Association in Denver, Colorado. ...

Journal of Agricultural Education, 2015

There exists in our profession a persistent shortage of quality teachers in our high school agric... more There exists in our profession a persistent shortage of quality teachers in our high school agricultural education classrooms. A multitude of studies have identified challenges faced by agriculture teachers, however, few, if any, have investigated reasons for attrition by directly asking leavers why they left. This study sought to identify reasons for leaving the profession as perceived by former high school agriculture teachers. Nine former secondary agriculture teachers were interviewed. Themes emerging from this qualitative case study include 1) passions for the profession, 2) alternative opportunities, 3) expectations, 4) burdens, retrospectively and 5) people. Teachers were passionate about their students, their content area and competition inherent in agricultural education. All of the participants had chosen to accept alternative employment opportunities. Former teachers recalled having high expectations for themselves and their career, and perceiving others to have high expectations as well. The teachers recalled the burdens of their job retrospectively, and people played an integral role in their career as well as their decision to leave the profession. Former teachers were satisfied while teaching, but found greater benefit in alternative opportunities. Recommendations include encouraging realistic expectations, developing mentor programs for novice teachers, and strengthening the benefits of remaining in the profession.

Evaluation of Participants’ Knowledge scores in an International HACCP Workshop

Testing Efficieny of the Cotton Futures Market Using Japanese Candlestick Charts