May 18, 2023
Agronomy professor receives NIFA Higher Education Challenge Grant
Colby Moorberg, associate professor in agronomy, has been awarded a grant to plan the development of an open-source college textbook for introductory soil science. The $30,000 grant is one of 18 awarded and is part of the USDA's National Institute for Food and Agriculture Higher Education Challenge Grant Program.
The rising cost of textbooks has become a barrier to affordable higher education. One solution is open textbooks, or textbooks that have been released under intellectual property licenses allowing their free use and repurposing. The objectives of Moorberg’s project are to engage soil science educators, recruit potential chapter authors, promote diversity among textbook contributors and users, finalize a textbook outline, and develop a proposal to the USDA Higher Education Challenge Program for a Collaborative Grant Type 2.
This project is in collaboration with Shalin Hai-Jew, Kansas State University Information Technology; Tony Hartshorn, Montana State University; Donald McGahan, Tarleton State University; Yamina Pressler, California Polytechnic State University; and Karen Vaughan, University of Wyoming
Moorberg received his bachelor's degree from Iowa State University in 2008 and his master's and doctorate in soil science from North Carolina State University in 2010 and 2014. He is internationally recognized for soil science education and has published two open textbooks. He teaches Introductory Soil Science, Soil and Water Conservation, and Soil Judging. His research is focused on hydropedology and root ecology and spans from corn fields to riparian buffer strips to Alaskan thermokarst bogs.
This work is supported by the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program, grant no. 2023-70003-38782, project accession no. A23-0298, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.