ILLINOIS

State Contact: Mr. Kevin Daugherty Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom 1701 Towanda Avenue Bloomington, IL 61702

Phone: (309) 557-3334 Fax: (309) 557-2098 E-mail: kdaugherty@ilfb.org Website

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Major projects accomplished this year

• 35% increase in number of local schools participating in AITC efforts.
• 12,987 classrooms had AITC efforts (reaching more than 384,000 students).
• Continued efforts in making AITC easily integrated into county membership, promotions, and legislative areas.
• 68 City of Chicago teachers participated in our Adopt a Classroom program.
• Continued efforts to measure student and teacher perceptions and retention of AITC efforts.
• Continue releasing new materials that are sensitive to gender, race and impairments.
• Continued to offer graduate credit for our Summer Agricultural Institutes through our unique partnership with Illinois universities.
• Continuing as Official Education Provider for teachers offering 29 workshops for Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDUs) to 1843 teachers.
• 27 pre-service workshops conducted for 1203 pre-service teachers.

Major impacts the program had this year

• 74% of Summer Ag Institute graduates incorporate agriculture into lessons on a daily or weekly basis AFTER attending an intensive training course on agriculture.
• 71% of Illinois teachers who have completed a Summer Agriculture Institute list the environment as the top agriculture topic taught in classrooms. Followed by food pyramid (67%), Earth Day and plants (65%), natural resources and water (63%) and conservation (61%).
  
• 94% of IL teachers strongly agree or agree that Illinois learning standards can be met through incorporating agriculture.