Major projects accomplished this year

• We held a two-day Summer Agriculture Institute in 2006 with 80 teachers attending. We are planning our 2006 Institute to teach another 80 teachers. We are providing AITC materials to Extension Agents who have a lot of contacts in counties throughout West Virginia in hopes of increasing exposure to Ag in the Classroom.
• Two WVU Extension Agents attended the National Conference to learn new ways to increase WVAITC activities. We are using electronic media in place of mailing materials to help minimize costs where possible. Seventy-one educators were trained in a county effort to increase awareness of agriculture in the fastest growing county in West Virginia. We are recruiting teachers to attend the National AITC Conference with the help of a USDA grant. We are including state standards in the units being developed to assist teachers and make it easier for them to teach the WVAITC units. We are distributing copies of Growing a Nation to all teachers attending one of our Institutes and have sent copies to all Extension Offices in West Virginia.

Major impacts the program had this year

• A majority of the teachers participating in the WVSAI indicated that they were excited about using the materials provided to teach their students. We are still working on this and looking for creative ways to increase the use of WVAITC materials.
• We trained 151 educators in 2005 better than doubling the number of educators trained in West Virginia.