|
 Ag in the Classroom is a product of the Farm Bureau. In most all
cases, the Farm Bureau partners with other agriculture based
agencies and companies to bring the program to local school
children. In Logan County that partnership began Hyde at the
Extension, but also includes The St. Louis Dairy Council, the
Facilitating Coordination in Agricultural Education (FCAE), and the
Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
This year the Ag in the Classroom program is offered locally in 12
schools and impacts approximately 940 students kindergarten through
fifth grade.
The interactive program serves to make children aware that
agriculture has an impact on every stage of their lives from the
food they eat to the clothing they wear, even to the dollar bills
that they spend. Hyde said for many of them, even though Logan
County is an agricultural community, the thought that their clothing
right down to their underwear comes from agriculture is a real eye
opener.
She added that even for herself, as someone raised on the farm and
with a working knowledge of grain and livestock production, some of
the topics covered in the lesson plans have renewed her
understanding on the importance of agriculture in our daily lives.
 Hyde said that she had a wide variety of lesson plans to choose from
for her monthly visits to the classrooms. She visits classrooms on
Wednesday and Thursday of each week and covers all 12 schools
monthly. For this school year, topics have included pizza, corn,
turkey, cotton, the water cycle, and chickens. In April, the topic
will be Earth Day, and in May the lesson will challenge kids to
imagine a day without agriculture, something virtually impossible to
do.
Hyde said that lesson plans were designed for the student ages, with
kindergarten and first-grader classes being simple and basic, and
the complexity of the topic increasing as she works through the
grade levels. A typical class may include reading a book and
discussing it, watching a video and discussing it, doing hands-on
projects like craft items that can be taken home, or worksheets such
as word puzzles.
Ag in the Classroom requires the cooperation of the individual
schools as well as the individual teachers. Hyde said the program
continues to grow as schools and teachers are recognizing its value.
She said it’s hard to believe that in this area there are children
who don’t understand where their food comes from, but there are. For
example, she said she asked a class “Where do your chicken nuggets
come from?” The answers she got, was mom buys them in a plastic bag
at the grocery store, or all the food at the school arrives in a big
truck. The children didn't realize that the chicken nugget comes
from a real chicken and that real chicken is grown on a farm.
She went on to say, sometimes working with these young children is
just funny. Remembering the classes on cotton, she said the room was
full of pink faces and giggles when she began talking about their
underwear, and what many of the students were wearing is a product
made from cotton, which of course is grown on a farm.
Kids were also surprised to learn that dollar bills are not made of
paper. Hyde said explains this by talking about how a dollar bill
does not fall apart the way paper would when it gets wet. That is
because though it may look like paper, the bill is a fabric
containing cotton.
 Another fun part of the classroom experience is introducing kids to
a raw food product. Hyde said one Thanksgiving-time lesson plan
included talking about cranberries. The kids had to taste food
products made from cranberries and even the raw cranberry. She said
the reaction to the raw product, which is quite sour and bitter, was
comical. But kids came to understand that the cranberry sauce that
comes in a can is the result of a berry that is grown on the farm.
Hyde said that Ag in the Classroom teachers have a lot of resources
and a great support network. She meets with a regional group where
they learn to instruct certain topics, share successes and garner
new ideas from one another.
This year "Teen Teachers" is being kicked off in Logan County in
addition to Ag in the Classroom. The Teen Teachers involves local
4-H youth who are also involved in Future Farmers of America. The
program teaches the students to be the teacher in the classroom.
Teen Teachers is made possible in Illinois by Evelyn Brandt and the
Brandt Foundation, and is also being implemented through the
University of Illinois Extension.
In Logan County, Carissa Akpore, working closely with Hyde, is
taking the lead. Akpore said that she has worked with the Teen
Teacher program before coming to Logan County and is excited to be
able to utilize it locally.
Hyde and Akpore explained that their first step was to visit with
Doctor Penny Wittler, Ag instructor, department head, and FFA
advisor at Lincoln Community High School. Wittler was also excited
and encouraged her students to volunteer.
To date, Hyde said there are a four LCHS Teen Teachers teams with
three members on each team. Students participating are Sarah Irwin,
Dawn Irwin, and Reagan Tibbs on Team 1; Katie Lynn, Alexis Bakken,
and Breana Haynes on Team 2; Cierra Crowell, Raelyn Lessen and
Breanna Waller on Team 3; and Jake Kirgan, Amber Oliver, and Kylee
Alexander on Team 4.
To get the teen teachers off to a good start, it begins with a
“Teach the Teacher” program. In that program Akpore said she works
with the students giving them instruction first and foremost on how
to interact with the younger children - how to speak on their level
and keep them engaged in the learning process, and then how to
present the lesson plan and keep the class moving along.
Teen Teacher has value in the classroom first of all because it is
kids teaching kids. While the high school students are older than
the kindergarten through fifth-graders, they are still younger than
the adult classroom teacher. So they have a nice connection with the
kids.
Secondly, there is a need for teachers, and this gives the teenagers
an opportunity to explore teaching as a career. Hyde said some of
the teenagers have said, no way would they do that day in and day
out. But at the same time, there is one student involved who is now
interested in becoming a teacher because of his classroom
experience.
This was the pilot year for the Teen Teacher program. Success of the
program will determine whether or not there is future funding made
available. Akpore also noted that she is also working toward
beginning the program with the FFA at the Mount Pulaski High School.
She said the prospects of adding additional teachers from Mount
Pulaski are good, and she is hopeful that she will be able to
recruit 12 more students to create four more teams this year.
[to top of second column] |
 Three teen teachers were working at West Lincoln-Broadwell School
on Thursday, February 18th. Sarah and Dawn Irwin and Reagan Tibbs
taught the day’s lesson on water to Mrs. Bowlby’s fifth grade
science class.
The lesson began with a video about the cycles of water in the
atmosphere. Reagan Tibbs led the discussion afterward, then with the
help of Sara and Dawn, instructed the kids on putting together their
own ecosystem using rocks and water in a plastic bag. The bags were
then taped to a window in the classroom. Reagan talked about what
the kids would witness as the sun heats up the contents of the
baggie. The kids could expect that through condensation, water
molecules would collect on the walls of the baggie, and when the
droplets are heavy enough, they will run down the side of the bag
and back into the pool of water in the bottom.
 Sarah and Dawn then discussed water conservation with the kids and
offered them an opportunity to understand how much water we consume
on a daily basis. Each child was given a sponge. They formed a line
and one at a time dropped their sponges into a large jar of water.
When all the sponges were in the jar, the Irwin girls removed the
soggy sponges and allowed the kids to see how much the water level
had dropped in the large jar. This provided an example of how much
water students collectively use on a daily basis.
Then everyone talked about wasting water, and how to save water. The
young students were asked to give an example of how they could save
water. With each example, water from a sponge was squeezed back into
the large jar. With this action children could see the impact they
personally can have in water conservation.
The day ended with a discussion of the water problems that are going
on in Flint, Michigan. Reagan led the discussion, and it was
surprising to see just how many of the fifth-graders were well
informed on the problems in Flint.
Hyde and Akpore are both excited about the Ag in the Classroom and
Teen Teacher programs in Logan County, and are hopeful that both
programs will continue to grow in Logan County. They said more and
more, teachers are recognizing the value of the programs and are
happily becoming involved. Hyde said some of the best classes have
been when the teachers also have become active participants.
Teaching the children at an early age about agriculture is also of
great value, as we see more and more young people leaving the farm
for other careers. One residual effect of this program will
hopefully be that we see more kids become involved in FFA and 4-H,
and ultimately choose to pursue agricultural careers.
[Nila Smith]
At
Hartsburg-Emden, fourth grade students are getting practical lessons
exercising mathematics while following costs and learning about milk
production in the growth of a real calf named Snowbelle.
"Cow in the classroom"
http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/
reference/2016_FIX_education_magazine/ index.html#11/z
|
