Image Credit: Edwin Remsberg
The annual College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Open House was on Saturday Oct. 8th at the Central Maryland Research and Education Center, in Clarksville, Maryland.
AREC graduate students Paige Gance and Jun Zhang had posters on display highlighting their energy economics research.
“Graduate students benefit from presenting in that they get a chance to explain their work to the judges (faculty members) and also to the general public,” said Francis Allnutt, the director for the education center. “A lot of the public does not always understand the training that a graduate student undertakes.”
Gance’s poster discussed how a renewable portfolio standard, or the regulation that requires an increased production of energy from renewable energy sources, may impact manufacturing employers.
“The nicest part was meeting people outside the department and making friends,” said Gance about the event. “We were in a tent with 15 to 20 other posters, and there were several other faculty research and extension program demonstrations going on.”
Zhang’s research evaluated how a household’s excess burden of carbon tax, or the tax imposed on fossil-fuels, is imposed on energy goods, including electricity and natural gas.
“Some people were really interested in my research and asked related questions, and I answered those questions in a non-academic way that people without specific knowledge of economics could understand,” said Zhang. “Besides, there were experts who raised critical questions and suggestions about my research which could help me improve it a lot.”
One person who evaluated the graduates’ posters was Assistant Professor Mary Zaki, whose primary interests include household finance, household consumption and food insecurity.
AREC instructor and Extension agent Dale Johnson also was at the open house. He brought a rolling chicken coop where people could learn about raising chickens and the benefits of a moving coop. At the University of Maryland, he teaches courses about farm management, sustainable food production, and the commodity futures and options market.
The goal of the open house was to show the variety of things AGNR does through academics, research and extension, according to Allnutt.
