|
STATE SUMMARY 2006 |
|
WISCONSIN
State Contact:
Ms. Darlene Arneson
Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation
1241 John Q. Hammons Drive
P.O. Box 5550
Madison, WI 53705-0550 |
Phone: (608) 828-5719
Fax: (608) 828-5718
E-mail: darneson.fbcenter@wfbf.com
Website |
Major projects accomplished this year
- 45 teachers attended the Wisconsin Agriculture for Teachers—a one-credit course coordinated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin State Fair.
- Volunteer Training Workshops were held in five locations and we had 110 participants. Guides, handouts and other training resources were developed to assist volunteers with farm tours, classroom presentations and outreach to schools.
- Eleven additional Soybean Science Kits and one Soy Bio-diesel Kit were distributed to AITC coordinators and teachers around the state.
- Over 2800 Resource Guides were printed and distributed that contain contact information for teachers and volunteers.
- Our second Outstanding Teacher Award was presented to Trel Gimber, a 4th grade teacher.
- The current Alice in Dairyland, a program of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, received AITC and resource awareness training.
- One AITC Steering Committee member and State Coordinator attended National Ag in the Classroom Conference.
- Over 1100 Wisconsin Farm and Food Connections have been distributed which include a set of 18 lesson plans that have been correlated to Wisconsin State Standards. They are available in spiral bound or CDs.
- We expanded the matching grant program to $7,000 for local projects: The matching grant program allows groups conducting ag literacy projects to apply for up to $500 in matching funds to continue those projects and develop new local ag initiatives.
- The Wisconsin Agriculture in the Classroom Steering Committee and Wisconsin Agricultural Literacy Partnership provide input and direction on program activities.
- An increase of media contacts and articles was fostered by better promotion of state and local activities.
- An emphasis of working with the agricultural education teachers and FFA Advisors led to an increase in requests for resources, workshop presentations and partnerships in several activities.
Major impacts the program had this year
- Wisconsin AITC increased exhibits and/or workshops from nine to eleven teacher and other conventions.
- We improved our tracking system of what the county AITC programs are distributing to teachers, training and student contact. A more extensive county report was developed and charts were distributed to assist the counties which resulted in an increase of counties reporting from 21 to 32.
- Our 66 local AITC coordinators make local contacts with teachers and schools throughout the year to introduce materials and the AITC program. The coordinators, located in 58 counties, reached over 26,144 students according to their year-end reports.
- Local AITC Committees budgeted over a combined $98,966 and spent countless volunteer hours (estimate of 4276 hours) on local projects. A total of 444 AITC volunteers conducted more than 131 meetings, classroom presentations, and farm tours.
- We continued to work on partnerships with other groups. The State Fair Course involved the Wisconsin State Fair, agricultural education instructors working with Ag Ventures, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Eleven more Soybean Science Kits were sponsored by the Wisconsin Soybean Program and brought their in-kind support to $18,500 for the program. The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board also sponsored $1,000 toward the Essay Contest. We also received $2,674 from the GROWMARK Plant a Seed, Grow a Mind program.
- Our website usage rose from 6054 hits in 2004 to over 9040 in 2005.
|
|
|
