Twenty-two instructors from across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico attended a two-day intensive seminar on irrigation at the 4th Annual Irrigation Faculty Academy, held earlier this summer in San Marcos, Calif., sponsored by the Irrigation Association Education Foundation (IAEF).
The Irrigation Faculty Academy was established in 2003 to provide college-level educators with instruction in best practices and latest technologies in irrigation curriculum to encourage them to include irrigation in their classrooms. Since its inception, a total of 65 instructors have participated in IAEF Academies. In the years 1950-2000, the U.S. population grew by 89 percent but water usage grew a whopping 209 percent. With demand outstripping supply, 36 states anticipate some degree of water shortage by 2013.
The result is overwhelming growth and demand for qualified irrigation instructors and for new hires by the industry. The IAEF Faculty Academy was established by the irrigation industry to help meet those needs. Currently, the irrigation industry employs over 200,000 people in the U.S. in an estimated 40,000-50,000 landscape irrigation firms, according to estimates, with an estimated $7 billion spent on irrigation in the turf/landscape/golf sectors.
This year the two-day intensive Faculty Academy curriculum included sessions on Design Capacity, Pumps, Pipe Sizing, Electrical Troubleshooting, Efficiency & Uniformity, and Scheduling. The IAEF uses Academy attendees as a sounding board to critique upcoming IAEF irrigation instructional modules under development. Each year, participants’ comments provide an important component to the module development process.
In addition to in-class sessions, the group toured the factory floor observing the entire process from design to final product, including demonstrations of hydraulics, pressure and flows tests conducted at the Hunter Industries facility, which hosted this year’s Academy. Each year the Academy has been held near a major manufacturing company to give instructors a first-hand look at the manufacturing and testing processes. The tour was cited as a highlight in participant feedback forms which were circulated at the end of the two-day session.
The IAEF Faculty Academy not only serves as an important networking forum for instructors, according to roundtable discussion at the end of the session, but it is an annual must-attend event that many participants have already put into their annual budgets. Fifty-percent of attendees since 2004 have been returnees.
During the roundtable discussion which is held at the end of every Faculty Academy, instructors suggested topics for next year’s academy such as construction, smart technologies, GPS applications, cost estimating and sprinkler head layout.