Horticulture STEM Teacher Workshop in the Texas A&M Garden
for High School, Middle School & Upper Elementary Grade Teachers

Wednesday, June 17, 2026, 9:00am-4:00pm
Texas A&M Gardens/Dept. of Horticultural Sciences
College Station, TX

Join us for a one-of-a-kind STEM workshop for elementary through middle school teachers, built around the science of gardens and natural systems.

This highly interactive professional development experience will focus on horticulture, water science, entomology, garden tech, and soil science, with plenty of hands-on learning throughout the day.

Participants will learn from outstanding speakers and explore unique learning environments across West Campus, including the Texas A&M Gardens, White Creek, as well as labs and greenhouse facilities within the Department of Horticultural Sciences.

This workshop is designed for teachers who want to strengthen and level up their science background through meaningful, real-world experiences.

Expect a busy, engaging, and fun day—you’ll get your hands dirty and leave with practical knowledge, and a host of resources to strengthen STEM learning in your classroom.

This year’s HIGH-INTEREST, HORTICULTURE-RELATED STEM session options include:

• Water Ecology

• Plant Propagation

• Hydroponics

• Entomology

• Rain Water Harvesting

• Citizen Science/iNaturalist

>>>SPACE IS LIMITED
$175 Workshop registration includes:

• Texas A&M AgriLife certification documenting your completed workshop Texas Education Agency approved 6 CPE hours & TEEAC credit hours

• Lunch, snacks, bottled water

• All workshop supplies, curriculum and/or handouts, make & take samples 

• Workshop sessions in/around areas of the Gardens at Texas A&M and Dept of Horticultural Sciences building

• AND 5 door prize drawings free rain barrels for starting a rainwater harvesting system at your school/site

>STEM ACADEMY AGENDA

9:00 Welcome & Overview (Pavilion)

9:10 Garden Tech Tour (Texas A&M Gardens)

9:30 Morning STEM Workshop Sessions (Leach Teaching Gardens & White Creek)

• WATER ECOLOGY
• RAINWATER HARVESTING 

11:45  Hydroponics Lunch Session (Hydroponics Lab)

12:30 Afternoon STEM Workshop Sessions (Texas A&M Dept of Horticultural Sciences)

• ENTOMOLGY
• PLANT PROPAGATION 

2:30 CITIZEN SCIENCE Session B (Classrooms & Garden)

3:30 HORTICULTURE STEM Closing Session (Pavilion)

Water Ecology
Larry Hysmith

Larry Hysmith has 33 years of experience with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. His first four years he served as County Extension Agent in Milam and Grimes counties. He spent 16 years providing natural resources conservation education through the Wildlife and Fisheries Extension Specialist Unit covering the state of Texas. He has worked the past 13 years with the State 4-H Office as the coordinator of the statewide 4-H Natural Resources Program. Larry’s work focuses on youth education, especially 4-H youth, around the state. However, much of his time is spent training adults to work with youth in local areas. Project areas under the 4-H Natural Resources Program include Wildlife & Fisheries, Sportfishing, Hunting, Forestry, Entomology, Range Science, Water Conservation, Shooting Sports, and Outdoor Education. Larry’s classroom is the outdoors. His favorite activities are fishing, kayaking, backpacking, gardening…being outdoors doing just about anything. Larry believes wholeheartedly in the 4-H Slogan, ‘Learning by Doing’. His wife, Fey, is a wildlife biologist and a junior high school science/engineering teacher who shares his world and interests, often traveling with him assisting with programs. They have three children and two grandchildren.

HANDS-ON Entomology
Shelby Kilpatrick

Shelby Kilpatrick is a entomologist and educator, specializing in melittology (the study of bees), insect biodiversity, and education, including Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research. Currently earning a Ph.D. in Entomology, from the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University. For more information about my research projects, teaching experiences, extracurricular activities, and a full CV, please visit my ePortfolio at https://shelbykkilpatrick.weebly.com/

Wild Texas STEM: iNaturalist, Community Science & Outdoor Learning
Mary Pearl Meuth

Mary Pearl Meuth is the Assistant State Coordinator of the Texas Master Naturalist (TMN) Program. A partnership program established in 1998, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Texas Parks & Wildlife Department proudly administer the program with the mission to develop a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities for the State of Texas. Mary Pearl was a lead editor for the TMN Statewide Curriculum published in 2016 which encompasses 24 units of material covering instruction that range from geology to ornithology to wetland ecology—all written by the state’s top scientists and experts. Mary Pearl also organizes the Texas Master Naturalist Program’s Annual Meeting each fall with three full days of professional training sessions, hands on workshops, field based events and evenings filled with food, fun and fellowship.

Mary Pearl is an avid environmentalist and educator. She is always eager to learn and eager to pass that knowledge on. Her greatest joy at the end of the day comes from watching her two sons and young daughter enjoy the outdoors, enjoy discovering the little nuances and creatures, and delight in recognizing something that they have learned about the world around them. She resides in Giddings, Texas with her three children and husband.

Rainwater Harvesting
John Smith

John Smith serves as a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Program Specialist. Raised in the Texas Panhandle at Tulia by one of Texas’ best County Agricultural Extension Agents, John grew up active in everything 4-H and on a farm producing cattle, swine, cotton, corn, soybeans, grain sorghum, beets and a variety of specialty crops from the then plentiful Ogallala Aquifer. His Dad said when he moved to Tulia “I thought I had died and gone to heaven because water was plentiful, energy was cheap and commodity prices high.” During John’s time at Tulia, that scenario certainly changed with the decline of the Ogallala. The lesson learned there taught him just how precious water is. Today, John has served teaching water conservation, water quality and rainwater harvesting for over 16 years. He is Coordinator of the popular Healthy Lawns and Healthy Waters (HLHW) program that emphasizes RWH, turf irrigation and fertilization. He has also processed over 16,000 water quality private water well samples and provided the interpretation of the results of those tests and corrective recommendations.

Plant Propagation
Lisa Whittlesey

Lisa Whittlesey serves as the program director for the International Junior Master Gardener program.  She has been an invited speaker to over 285 regional and national conferences and her recent work has focused on utilizing the Junior Master Gardener program (Learn, Grow, Eat & GO curricula) as an intervention as a part of a 5 year USDA AFRI funded Extension and Research project focused on child and family interventions for obesity prevention. Lisa is a lecturer for the freshman university course AGLS 125, guest lecturer for floral design and socio-horticulture classes at Texas A&M University and does educational videos for the public through Texas A&M AgriLife Extension social media outlets.

Hydroponics
Anahi Gallegos

Anahi Gallegos is a Student Intern with the Junior Master Gardener Program and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Horticultural Sciences with a focus on urban production, sustainable horticulture, and food security for underserved populations. She had extensive involvement in FFA during high school, which allowed her to explore her passion for horticulture through greenhouse management and localized food production.

Today, Anahi serves as President of the Horticultural Sciences Student Ambassadors and Associate Director for the 12th Can Food Pantry, where she has been able to combine her passion for horticulture with community outreach and food insecurity advocacy. As a Student Research Assistant for Dr. Shuyang Zhen, she has gained academic and hands-on experience in controlled environment horticulture, hydroponic systems, and sustainable food production practices.