Donations Equip Teachers with Tools to Educate about Agriculture

By: Sarahbeth, AZ

I want to start out by thanking you for the opportunity to attend the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference; I walked away with so many wonderful ideas and memories!

I will be starting out the school year by presenting  a two hour professional development course in cooperation with Arizona Farm Bureau about all the wonderful  resources and programs our state and National Agriculture in the Classroom Programs have to offer.  We will also provide hands on lessons and activities the teachers can take and implement immediately.  This in-service will be open to teachers district wide and serviced approximately 40 teachers when I presented 2 years ago.

I am excited to start my school year at our district’s new campus which is focusing on integrating stem into the classroom.  As part of our launch I am expanding my after school club to include a garden! With the knowledge gained from my workshops I plan to use the garden to teach across the curriculum. Our school goal is to certify our garden so we can serve the food we grown in the garden in our cafeteria! I am also going to use the garden to teach parents about food production through our school wide astronomy night where my students will compare food production methods on Earth to the food being grown at the Space Station.

For our second school wide stem project I plan to have each grade level select an area of agriculture they would like to learn more about.  As part of their project they will create a song to inform others about the topic to be performed at our parent night, become pen pals with a farmer or rancher in the state, complete a virtual field trip through Skype with their pen pal, as well as create a display or activity to showcase their area of agriculture.  This project will service approximately 350 students prek-6th grade and their families!

I love attending National Agriculture in the Classroom conferences as I walk away with excellent ideas from people who are passionate about agriculture literacy as well as a renewed commitment to teach my students and community about where their food and fibers come from. I am excited to implement literature circles focusing on agricultural based chapter books, create bulletin boards presenting the facts about GMOs, as well as all the other ideas I learned on this trip.

Again thank you for allowing me the opportunity to attend the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference. I look forward to attending next years’ conference here in Arizona! 

 

Sarahbeth Belvado

 

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