Teen teachers offer lessons on pollinators and germination

[June 29, 2017]  LINCOLN - This past school year, Team Three of the Logan County Ag in the Classroom Teen Teachers program was made up of (left to right) Ruth Lessen, Jake Kirgan, and Reagan Tibbs.

The teachers offered instruction in classrooms at Washington-Monroe, Northwest, and West Lincoln-Broadwell Schools.

In February students were taught about the value of pollinators in agriculture. As part of the show and tell style program, Jake Kirgan dressed up in a complete Beekeepers suit for the students in Mrs. Klockenga's second grade class at Washington-Monroe.

In April, the teen teachers offered instruction about soybeans and the germination process to students as young as Kindergarten. The kindergarten students in Mrs. Schreiner's class at West Lincoln-Broadwell were fully engaged during the class and enjoyed having the teen teachers help them learn about agriculture.

The Ag in the Classroom program and the teen teachers is a partnership with the Agricultural Eduction Partnership consisting of the local University of Illinois Extension Program serving Logan, Menard, and Sangamon Counties and the Illinois 4-H Foundation.

[Amy Hyde, Logan County Extension Office]