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STATE SUMMARY 2006 |
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MAINE
State Contact:
Ms. Willie Grenier
Coodinator
Maine AITC Assn.
28 State House Station,
Augusta, ME 04333 |
Phone: (207) 287-5522
Fax: (207) 287-7548
E-mail: maitca@maine.gov
Website |
Major projects accomplished this year
In 2004 MAITCA held 6 teacher trainings and 1 facilitator training.
We also contracted and trained 3 new organizers to conduct 6-hour
Project FLP trainings. Our 4-day Summer Teacher s Institute was
held Down East and covered wild blueberry production, aquaculture
and Native American Agriculture. We toured blueberry barrens, a
fish farm in Machias Bay and Native American lands.
MAITCA also participated in 7 student education days with 2,000
students attending each. Agricultural lessons were demonstrated
covering topics related to water, dairy, processing, conservation,
and insects. Our organization was represented at FFA, Farm Bureau,
Legislative, Audubon and health related events as well as the governor's
mansion on special invitation.
On the national level MAITCA was awarded an ACE Grant and our 2
Maine teachers were selected as national Excellence in Teaching
About Agriculture winners and awarded a trip to the conference in
Albuquerque, NM. As a result of the grant we are currently developing
a Teacher's Guide to Local Agriculture that we expect to release
this fall, which will connect teachers will local agricultural opportunities
for classroom speakers and farm field trips. Each entry will be
correlated with lessons that may be used to satisfy the Maine State
Standards.
Our newsletter was mailed 3 times to over 1,500 educators and we
awarded 4 mini-grants to classrooms planning agricultural projects.
Our resource collection is housed at Bangor Public Library and materials
are mailed free of charge to teachers upon request.
Our office at the ME Department of Agriculture supplies Ag. literacy
materials on the department s behalf to educators at no cost. Our
partners include the Soil & Water Conservation Districts, Farm
Bureau, State Grange, Wild Blueberry Commission, Potato Board, Agway,
Farm Credit, Dairy Promotion Board, Fedco Seeds, Johnny's Selected
Seeds, the Holstein Association and Farm Family Insurance.
Major impacts the program had this year
MAITCA trained over 100 teachers in 6-hour Project Food,
Land & People trainings in 2004.
MAITCA reached almost 15,000 students with agricultural lessons
in 2004.
Our program nominated a national award winning teacher team that
attended the conference in Albuquerque, NM.
Our program was awarded a $7,000 ACE Grant to develop and distribute
a Teacher's Resource Guide on Local Agriculture that will
correlate presentations with State Standards.
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