Project Summaries
2007 Agriculture in the Classroom Excellence (ACE) Awards

Following are summaries of the 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 2007. The award date for all grantees was August 1, 2007. Project duration ranged from 12-24 months and is noted in each state's summary.

State: Alaska
Project Title: Alaska Grown Agriculture—A Social Studies Unit for Grades 7-12
Award Amount: $9,000
Project Duration: 16 months
Scheduled Completion Date: December 1, 2008
Summary:
The newly released state Performance Standards for Alaska History make no mention of agriculture in the suggested topics. Thanks to a small grant from the Alaska Division of Agriculture, Alaska Ag in the Classroom is presenting a limited new curriculum covering a portion of Alaska's agricultural history. The project proposed in this grant will expand this curriculum both in scope and in depth. The original project covers 1900-1945 with 10 lesson plans using primary source documents for junior high and high school students. This project will augment the previous project by expanding the unit to cover 1946 to present, and add audiovisual presentations as well as printable lesson plans. The goal is to offer to all Alaska school districts curriculum on Alaska's agricultural history from 1900 until present in order to enhance students' and teachers' knowledge of and appreciation for agriculture.

State: Colorado
Project Title: Content-based Online Agriculture Lessons
Award Amount: $10,000
Project Duration: 24 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2009
Summary:
The Colorado Foundation for Agriculture (CFA) has been providing agriculture and natural resource educational materials to Colorado schools since 1991. During this time, CFA has produced over 100 issues of the Colorado Reader, various activity books and agriculture-related CD ROMs. For the last six years, the materials produced have been correlated to Colorado Content Standards. This project will take the individual lessons (there are, on average, three lessons per reader and 20-40 lessons per activity book and CD ROM) and develop them as stand-alone lessons that are linked to Colorado Content Standards and Benchmarks. These lessons will be added to the CFA Web site so educators can easily access lessons based on grade level and content standards or benchmarks.

State: Florida
Project Title: Florida Ag in the Classroom Interactive Online Workshop Phase II
Award Amount: $10,000
Project Duration: 18 months
Scheduled Completion Date: February 1, 2009
Summary:
Florida is one of the fastest growing states in the country. With a total teacher population of about 300,000 and a total student population of about 3 million, the task of reaching these teachers and students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade with the message of the importance of Florida agriculture is challenging. Florida Ag in the Classroom works hard each year to reach more than 5,000 teachers and more than 200,000 students with its different programs.

An interactive online workshop will be developed to reach those technologically savvy teachers who would take advantage of such a workshop if it were available, particularly if they could earn in-service points, college credit and free educational materials.

This online workshop will not replace Florida Ag in the Classroom's existing local and state workshops. It will supplement them by giving teachers another way to be trained in Florida Ag in the Classroom curricula and materials.

A graduate student Florida Ag in the Classroom hired with a 2006 ACE grant completed the template for an online teacher workshop by organizing Project Food, Land and People and Keeping Florida Green lessons and related Florida Ag in the Classroom activities by discipline and topic.

This interactive online workshop will be added to Florida Ag in the Classroom’s Web site, and a method for teachers to receive credit for their work will be developed.

State: Illinois
Project Title: Nutrition & Agriculture—An Illinois Ag Mag
Award Amount: $9,500
Project Duration: 12 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2008
Summary:
The Illinois Ag Mag on Nutrition and Agriculture will address nutrition and childhood obesity in a unique manner. The Illinois Ag Mag has long been a staple of not only Illinois Classrooms, but those around the nation. The 4-color "weekly reader-type" magazines on various topics have been very popular in Ilinois and around the country. This new ag mag featuring the agriculture link to nutrition and the component of exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle will continue to complement the materials currently available.

The project will be Illinois-specific, but it is general enough to be used in any classroom across the nation.

This project will cover the development, production and printing of 165,000 copies of a Nutrition Ag Mag that will be made available to other states. Thirty packages of 30 shrink-wrapped ag mags will be available to other states at no charge. Additional lessons will be available on the Illinois Ag in the Classroom Web site; a .pdf file of the Ag Mag can be downloaded.

State: Maine
Project Title: Advancing Agricultural Literacy through Reading and Language Arts
Award Amount: $10,000
Project Duration: 18 months
Scheduled Completion Date: February 1, 2009
Summary:
This project uses Reading, English and Language Arts to teach agricultural concepts to elementary teachers and students. MAITCA will collaborate with states that have previously been funded by the ACE Grant Program to select agricultural literature and develop lesson plans. Lessons from Project Food, Land and People; and The Wild Blueberry Curriculum with a focus on these subjects will also be used.

The project will start with the organization of 100 volunteers that will present in K – 3rd grade classrooms on Ag Week 2008. These volunteers will be arranged through The Maine Farm Bureau, Maine Agri-Women, Pomological Society, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and other MAITCA partners. They will read to the students from an appropriate children's book concerning their particular commodity grown in Maine. The volunteers will then lead a discussion about their Maine farm or agri-business. The volunteers will leave each teacher with agricultural lesson plans, The Maine Teacher Resource Guide, online links, information on MAITCA trainings for summer and fall, and the book, for use in their classroom.

Summer and Fall Workshops will be held for 100 teachers with curriculum-specific training using selected agricultural children's books to teach Reading, English and Language Arts. Lessons from Project Food, Land and People; and the Maine Wild Blueberry Curriculum, as well as those lessons used in collaboration with other state AITC programs will be supplied to attending teachers. Teachers will receive Continuing Education Units, contact hours and points on the HOUSSE Rubric for Highly Qualified Teacher designation as applicable.

State: Massachusetts
Project Title: 3 Ps of Growing a Nation—the Past, Present, and Partner of the Future
Award Amount: $9,860
Project Duration: 18 months
Scheduled Completion Date: February 1, 2009
Summary:
This initiative will bring Growing a Nation, present day agricultural practices, and partners in future and global agriculture together for educators in a package they can use to present interdisciplinary agricultural lessons to their students.

This grant is a three-part initiative about agriculture in the past, present and partners in our future and global agriculture that will train Massachusetts educators to create interdisciplinary connections within their schools, meet their teaching objectives, and succeed in producing students who can thrive in the 21st century. The first component—looking at our past—will use the Growing a Nation curriculum and workshops on-the-farm with hands-on experiences to help teachers create team teaching packages. The next component—agriculture in the present—will create connections which will strengthen our ability to further educate and inform our key stakeholders and support our programs. In the third component, we will connect with our partners through the focus of future and global agriculture.

State: Minnesota
Project Title: From Fields to Fuel; Minnesota's Renewable Energy Story (DVD)
Award Amount: $10,000
Project Duration: 12 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2008
Summary:
From Fields to Fuel; Minnesota's Renewable Energy Story will teach students and educators, in science and socials studies classes all across the state, how American agriculture has turned fields of corn and soybeans into fields of energy. It will also address other emerging technology to produce energy from agriculture, namely the growth of "farm-based" wind energy and the successful conversion of livestock-generated methane gas to electricity. Students and educators will learn how the producer has changed from growing corn or soybeans for feed and general commodity sales to being a major player in the research, production, development and marketing of renewable fuels/energy.

This project is a great opportunity for educators to teach students in a science and technology curriculum how agriculture is a major energy source. This topic will help students better understand the sophistication and relevance agriculture has to their daily lives, in many ways beyond the food they eat and the clothes they wear. From Fields to Fuel is a "new product priority" for Minnesota that provides a great collaborative opportunity for groups to work through M-AITC to reach students and educators with this renewable energy story in a proactive and credible way.

Expected outcomes will: 1) allow for M-AITC to initiate and complete an important science-based product and add to its current portfolio of resource materials; 2) produce a visually-appealing, quality DVD format; 3) successfully tell the story of agriculture’s advancing engagement in the area of renewable fuels/energy.

State: Montana
Project Title: Agriculture Literacy for Montana's Future
Award Amount: $9,740
Project Duration: 18 months
Scheduled Completion Date: February 1, 2009
Summary:
Agriculture in Montana Schools will use this ACE Grant to increase agriculture literacy in Montana and to strengthen our state's AITC program. To do this in a cost-efficient manner, AMS will develop a Web site to provide our current Montana Kids, Critters & Commodities agricultural lesson plans and other resources to Montana educators.

We will promote the use of this Web site, and the consequent increase of agriculture literacy in Montana, by exhibiting at more than 10 agriculture and educational events, and distributing two newsletters. We expect more than 2,000 educators in Montana to gain access to our agricultural lesson plans. AMS and other partner organizations will contribute $134,358 in matching funds for this project.

State: Oregon
Project Title: Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation—Program Growth & Curricula Development
Award Amount: $10,000
Project Duration: 12 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2008
Summary:
This grant will provide funding for the continued growth and expansion of the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation. Projects for the grant include updating the Get Oregonized student history book and Teacher's Guide; writing and disseminating three teacher newsletters per year; creating the design and layout of the AITC school year calendar which features student artwork; updating the Grown in Oregon poster; and Web site design with material development.

State: South Dakota
Project Title: "Bringing Biotechnology to the Classroom" Teacher Workshops
Award Amount: $10,000
Project Duration: 18 months
Scheduled Completion Date: February 1, 2009
Summary:
Bringing Biotechnology to the Classroom is a collaborative effort between our land grant university (South Dakota State University), private industry (various agribusinesses) and our non-profit organization. This workshop focuses on presenting biological sciences, biotechnology, renewable resources, environmental impacts, and agricultural careers to the middle school (6-8) and agriculture education classroom. By introducing participants to leaders in the industry, we hope to create a network that will encourage a better understanding of agriculture and its impact on daily life.

Twenty South Dakota teachers from public, private and tribal schools will be selected to participate in this workshop. An estimated 2,000 students will be reached by these 20 teachers each year. In addition, a condensed version of the workshop will be presented to approximately 40 Agriculture Education teachers through the Summer Leadership training camps across the state, reaching an additional 2,000 students annually.

State: Tennessee
Project Title: Reaching Tennessee's Newest Teachers with AITC
Award Amount: $10,000
Project Duration: 12 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2008
Summary:
The Tennessee Foundation for AITC is nurturing a new relationship with educators in Tennessee. For several years, the Foundation has offered the opportunity for training workshops to all of our major colleges that confer teacher certificates. This past year, we presented at the Student Tennessee Education Association (STEA) conference and presented each of the 150 participants with some of our lesson plans and our materials CD-ROM that contains all of our curricula. The funds from this grant will pay for expanding this STEA workshop to include the materials that are given at the inservice workshops.

The workshops will be conducted for the Foundation by paid educational consultants that hold Tennessee teaching certificates. The materials will be demonstrated and the consultants will model the lesson plans to ensure that the participants feel comfortable adopting and using the various curricula. Special attention will be given to addressing Tennessee's education standards using the lesson plans and materials.

State: Virginia
Project Title: Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom Online Course to Enhance Instruction through Agriculture
Award Amount: $9,700
Project Duration: 18 months
Scheduled Completion Date: February 1, 2009
Summary:
Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom will develop a one-credit course to be administered through the Virginia Community College System. The course will instruct educators on ways to incorporate agriculturally focused materials (which are aligned to the state Standards of Learning) into their current curriculum. The 30-hour course will be comprised of one on-site meeting, 10-15 hours spent online completing class assignments, and 10-15 hours spent completing projects.

State: Wisconsin
Project Title: Incorporating Agriculture into Academia
Award Amount: $10,000
Project Duration: 18 months
Scheduled Completion Date: February 1, 2009
Summary:
The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Foundation, through their Ag in the Classroom program, will coordinate with the Wisconsin Agribusiness Council in developing a set of seven brochures to help teachers and students understand how agriculture relates to that high school curriculum area and possible careers related to the department.

Brochures will focus on agri-math, -literacy, -history, -business, -computer technology, -hands-on careers, and -language. The desired goal is to increase the number of students taking high school agricultural education classes; increase enrollment in two- and four-year and technical schools, and to increase the number of qualified candidates for agricultural jobs.

State: Wyoming
Project Title: Country to Classroom Newspaper Publication
Award Amount: $10,000
Project Duration: 12 months
Scheduled Completion Date: August 1, 2008
Summary:
The Country to Classroom newspaper will be sent out to school children ages 10-15 in promoting Wyoming agriculture. In this publication, there are in-depth articles, activities, and information on Wyoming's rich agricultural heritage and the natural resources that are found within the state. This grant moves the annual publication to a bi-annual publication with funding going to produce the Spring 2007 edition.

This Country to Classroom newspaper is a collaborative effort with Wyoming Ag in the Classroom, the local community college, and the University of Wyoming on providing accurate, pertinent, and enjoyable information to Wyoming's young people regarding agriculture.