Project Summaries
2005 Agriculture in the Classroom Excellence (ACE) Awards

Following are summaries of the current status of the projects funded by USDA and the National Agriculture in the Classroom Consortium through the AITC Excellence (ACE) grant program for the year 2005. The Award date for all grantees was August 1, 2005. Project Duration ranged from 12-24 months and is noted in each state’s summary.

State: Alaska
Project Title: Delivering Ag in the Classroom Workshops to Alaska Teachers
Award Amount: $7,500
Project Duration: 24 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2007
Summary:
Alaska’s school-age population lacks knowledge and understanding about agricultural activities within the state, the role of agriculture in everyday life, the value and importance of agricultural commodities, and the stewardship of our soil and water resources. Thanks to earlier grant funding from the AITC Consortium and the Alaska Division of Agriculture, Alaska AITC has positive, agricultural-based curricula that emphasize Alaska-specific commodities to students. The most pressing need is to train teachers to use that curricula and increase its use in Alaska classrooms.

The statewide project of training teachers to use the curricula will be carried out by Victoria Naegele, executive director of Alaska’s AITC program, with the assistance of an education professional that will act as a consultant and assist with the workshops. Four population centers will be targeted in this first effort: Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna area, Fairbanks and Kenai. Teachers will be invited from all areas of the state. The goal is five workshops (two in Anchorage) within the grant period, serving at least an average of 25 teachers in each.

State: Maine
Project Title: "Finding the Food and Clothing Around You" Implementation of an Agricultural Resource Guide for Educators
Award Amount: $7,500
Project Duration: 24 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2007
Summary:
The Maine Agriculture in the Classroom Association (MAITCA), a member of the National Agriculture in the Classroom Consortium, is proposing to enhance educator development, education and instructional delivery strategies.

In 2004 MAITCA received an Agriculture in the Classroom Excellence Grant to create a database and educator’s resource directory of Maine farms and agri-businesses. The 2005 proposal is for implementation of this directory by increasing teacher awareness, training teachers how to effectively use the guide to satisfy the State Standards, and evaluation of their usage of the guide and correlated lessons.

The entries in the resource guide are aligned with the lessons from The Project Food, Land and People Resource for Learning, The Wild Blueberry Curriculum, and additional agricultural and natural resource based lessons that were previously correlated with the Maine State Learning Results and will assist teachers in meeting the State Standards during each trip or visit. During a 4-day Teacher Workshop, Maine farms and agribusinesses that are entries in the guide will be visited, classroom visits will be previewed, and the correlated lessons will be demonstrated.

This project will utilize our existing newsletter and website to announce the teacher training and showcase activities from the curricula that are recognized as public domain lessons. This will help teachers become aware of the lessons and the resource guide even without previous training. Workshop participants will be supplied with materials and knowledge that we request they share with constituents in their schools and school districts.

State: Nebraska
Project Title: Crop and Livestock Cards
Award Amount: $6,640
Project Duration: 18 months
Scheduled Completion Date: February 1, 2007
Summary:
The "Crop and Livestock Cards" are being revised and updated. These instructional materials are used by classroom teachers to educate students about the most widely produced crop and livestock species in the U.S. The cards' content enables teachers to integrate this information about agriculture into their school district's curriculum, state content standards or national content standards for science and social studies for grades 2-5.

The Crop Cards were originally developed in 1992 and the Livestock Cards in 1994. They were developed in response to teachers who did not have good visual representations and information about these commodities easily available to them. The 8-1/2 x 11-inch cards are designed so that students can see the crop or livestock species on the front of the card while the teacher reads from the back. See cards at www.nefb.org/ag-ed/cards_index.aspx The project includes 10 crop cards and six livestock cards.

We are requesting grant funding solely for the printing of these materials; development costs will be borne by the Nebraska Agriculture in the Classroom program. Printing of these materials is expected by December 2006.

State: New Jersey
Project Title: Learning Through Gardening
Award Amount: $7,500
Project Duration: 12 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2006
Summary:
The Learning Through Gardening project, sponsored by the NJ Agricultural Society, provides schools with an outdoor laboratory (the garden) where students can actually see, touch and feel much of what they are learning. For example, a 3rd grade teacher teaching area and perimeter can use the garden as a real life project to measure and calculate. A 4th grade science project on life cycles can create a butterfly garden and watch the butterfly develop from egg to larvae to pupa to butterfly. The Society enables participating schools to incorporate agriculture into the regularly taught curriculum, in every classroom, at every grade level throughout the school year.

A critical piece of the program is that the NJ Agricultural Society will support participating schools financially for as much as three years. First year schools receive a $3,000 grant. Second and third year schools receive grants for approximately $2,000 and $1,000 respectively, with actual grant awards determined by the school’s proposed budget plan. During the three years that the school is participating in the program, the school also receives significant classroom support, gardening advice, and encouragement from the Society. The Society believes that after three years with significant support, the garden and agriculture will be an integral part of the school’s educational culture. The Society will continue to support these schools with as much information, materials, and coaching as they request. After three years, they should have a close and productive relationship with the Society's staff.

The program was piloted in the 2002-03 school year with four schools. In the 2003-04 school year, two schools continued and three new schools were brought on. In 2004-05, all five schools continued and four new schools were brought on. With the completion of the first 3-year cycle, the first two schools to use this approach have made great strides in using their garden(s) as an effective teaching tool. And, while they will continue to receive program support from the Ag Society, they will not receive additional financial support. In 2005-06 we will bring on five new schools, each requiring a $3,000 grant.

We are currently working with nine schools located in Bergen, Essex, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties and reaching about 4,500 students who create school gardens and learn about agriculture in their science, social studies, literature, math and art classes. We teach teachers to use agriculture as the vehicle for all subjects, providing them with lesson plans and activities which meet the NJ Department of Education’s Core Curriculum Content Standards. The funding we are seeking will help us to expand the program from 9 schools to 12 schools in the 2005-06 school year.

State: New York
Project Title: Growing Connections to the Curriculum
Award Amount: $7,500
Project Duration: 24 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2007
Summary:
New York Agriculture in the Classroom (NYAITC) proposes to advance agricultural literacy in the state, including New York City, by developing lessons to accompany its successful Kids Growing Food school garden program. Since 1998, the NYAITC-supported school food gardens, established at over 260 sites throughout the state, have proven to be an ideal context for integrating food and fiber systems literacy, as well as enhancing student academic achievement and life skills. As the program has grown, so have the need and requests for garden-based, standards-linked lessons. The proposed Kids Growing Food lessons, developed by teachers involved with Kids Growing Food gardens, will be aligned with New York State Learning Standards. The Food and Fiber Systems Literacy Framework (FFSL), an effective tool for integrating agricultural literacy in the classroom, will guide the lesson development process.

A critical analysis of the NYAITC Kids Growing Food school garden program, as well as annual teacher surveys, have resulted in the recommendation that garden-based, standards-linked lessons are needed to intentionally infuse agricultural literacy into the core school curriculum and help teachers make direct classroom connections to the food garden. Although the Kids Growing Food gardens have been tremendously successful, the lack of a common curricular component has made it difficult to measure any gains that the garden experience might have produced in agricultural literacy, the primary mission of NYAITC. Therefore, the development of an intentional curricular component, aligned with New York State Learning Standards and the Food and Fiber Systems Literacy Framework (FFSL) standards, which can be more systematically measured and evaluated, is a critical ‘next step’ for Kids Growing Food and NYAITC.

The proposed curriculum project for the Kids Growing Food school garden program will produce a set of 2nd – 5th garden-based, standards-linked lessons. The use of these teacher-developed lessons, along with other recommended enrichment activities and resources, will increase agricultural literacy among participating Kids Growing Food students and increase teacher integration of food and fiber systems literacy, based on the FFSL standards, into instruction across the curriculum.

State: North Dakota
Project Title: Online Professional Development Course for Educators utilizing Agriculture in the Classroom resources and Food, Land and People Program
Award Amount: $7,500
Project Duration: 18-20 months
Scheduled Completion Date: February 1, 2007
Summary:
The North Dakota Agriculture in the Classroom Council would like to expand our programs by offering educators the opportunity to receive materials, training and continuing education credits by participating in a Distance Education Professional Development Course. The format of the class and instructional materials would be similar to the ASTE 6400 Food, Land & People course offered by the Utah State University Extension. This grant will provide an opportunity to develop a similar course in North Dakota. The North Dakota State University Education Department is currently working on aligning Project Food, Land & People materials with the State Standards for North Dakota. Upon completion of this project, they are ready to work with the ND AITC to include this online course in their curriculum and provide educational credit.

The rural demographics of North Dakota make it difficult to offer on-site classes in close proximity to the educators who are interested in attending. This creates additional expense for educators to drive to and from the class or to secure overnight lodging. The travel time for the presenters to be onsite is also significant, sometimes resulting in 10-12 hours or more of round trip time to reach a location. In addition, the popularity of on-line courses is increasing and NDSU is looking at this as being a viable option to on-site training and education.

The current Project Food, Land & People onsite classes that have been offered by the ND AITC are expanding their enrollment each year. This past summer, two part-time facilitators trained teachers with Project Food, Land & People. As more educators have completed the course, they are sharing their positive experiences with other educators, which has resulted in more interest across the state. Because of the increased demand and growth in enrollment for the current 15-hour continuing education class, it is expected that the interest in the online course will be significant. In the previous years, limitations due to finances, time, and personnel have allowed only 4-5 workshops, reaching 70-80 educators. The ability to offer the online course has the potential of doubling the numbers reached in just one year. As more educators in our state complete the course, they will have expanded their own knowledge about agriculture, including the interrelationships of food, land and people and will have resources they need to easily integrate these concepts into their classroom.

State: Oklahoma/New Mexico
Project Title: Translating Oklahoma and New Mexico Ag in the Classroom Curriculum to Spanish
Award Amount: $15,000
Project Duration: 24 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2007
Summary:
The Oklahoma and New Mexico Ag in the Classroom programs are collaborating in a proposal to translate existing curriculum to Spanish. Both state programs have written research-based curriculum that meets the Priority Academic Student Skills in Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Visual Arts as mandated by the Oklahoma State Board of Education and the Educational Benchmarks for the same core subjects as mandated by the New Mexico State Board of Education. Both states consider Foreign Language as a core subject. To further meet the needs of educators and students, the creation of a Spanish curriculum that teaches agriculture literacy would be invaluable.

The primary goal of Ag in the Classroom programs is to provide educators with curriculum and resources that can be incorporated into the classroom curriculum to teach students agriculture literacy. Oklahoma has experienced an influx of Hispanic students. According to Oklahoma Superintendent, Sandy Garrett, the number of Hispanic students enrolled in Oklahoma schools more than doubled during the last decade. In 1994, Hispanic students accounted for 3.7 percent of student enrollment. The percentage now has grown to 8.7 percent where the Hispanic student population in New Mexico is 25 percent.

Realizing that the educational mandates for all states include foreign language instruction, the curriculum translated will be made available on the Oklahoma and New Mexico Ag in the Classroom web sites. Also, the intent is to translate curriculum that is not only region specific, but agriculture literacy that relates to United States agriculture.

Professional development training which meets the criteria of No Child Left Behind, will be made available in both states to disseminate the Spanish curriculum to educators. Because of the educational mandates in both states to teach foreign language, beginning in Kindergarten, we anticipate wide-spread use of this curriculum. Agriculture literacy is interesting, fun, hands-on and interactive.

State: Oregon
Project Title: Oregon AITC Teacher Resource Guide
Award Amount: $7,500
Project Duration: 10 months
Scheduled Completion Date: June 1, 2006
Summary:
The Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation wants to develop and print 10,000 Teacher Resource Guides. At this time, most of our resources are listed on our website. A printed resource guide would include general program information, descriptions of available resources, details about Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) activities including our elementary calendar contest and high school essay contest, and contact information for Extension offices and FFA programs.

A resource guide would reach teachers who don’t have access to the web or are not familiar with our program and website. This guide would be distributed across the state through Oregon State University (OSU) county Extension offices, Education Service District (ESD) offices, FFA chapters, AITC newsletter mailings, and at Ag Fest and Farm to Market presentations. We have hired staff with the qualifications to develop this Teacher Resource Guide. The guide will link each resource to math, science, social studies, language arts, or other curriculum areas. The materials will be organized similarly to our website, by topic and grade level. Teachers can quickly and conveniently find resources to meet their teaching objectives.

State: Tennessee
Project Title: Exploring The Link Between Agricultural Research and Medical Breakthroughs
Award Amount: $7,500
Project Duration: 18 months
Scheduled Completion Date: February 1, 2007
Summary:
This project involves the development of lesson plans for secondary agriculture and biology teachers to introduce the connection between agricultural research and breakthroughs in human medicine. Dr. Lannette Edwards, embryologist with the University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture will assist certified teachers in developing lesson plans to be used in high school biology and agriculture science courses. The inclusion of biology teachers will increase the number of students that will benefit from this project.

Agriculture Education students are made aware of careers in the agricultural industry during their classes. Students not enrolled in Agriculture Education receive a very limited view of the industry that feeds, clothes, and someday, will supply the fuel used by a growing population. Interest can be created by looking at the dramatic breakthroughs we are seeing in treating human diseases using techniques and processes that were developed for the livestock industry.

The budgeted funds will be used to publish and distribute the lessons that are developed by the group. The University Workshops will be funded by the Tennessee Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. Our workshop budget for 500 teachers is in excess of $160,000 per year.

The expected outcomes for this project include lesson plans that link agricultural research with breakthroughs in medicine. High school students will be made aware of the career opportunities in the emerging fields of biotechnology through the inclusion of lessons in required courses.