Basis for Agriculture Awards Above $17,000 in Ag Literacy Grants

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture announces a total of $17,550 in scholarships and grant awards to acknowledge excellent agricultural literacy courses performed by educators, volunteers and communities throughout the country who get the job done to join pupils with how their foods is grown.

The Basis sponsors the scholarships and grants in cooperation with the American Farm Bureau Women’s Management Committee through the White-Reinhardt Fund for Education and learning.

“It is inspiring to see the innovative and creative methods these outstanding educators and community leaders integrate agricultural literacy into their classrooms,” explained Daniel Meloy, government director of the Foundation. “It is an honor to be able to deliver these grants, which will enable even additional learners study about the wonders of today’s agriculture.”

The Foundation awarded 5 instructors and classroom volunteers with $1,500 scholarships to show up at the Countrywide Ag in the Classroom Meeting, to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, June 28-July 1, 2021. The 2020 White-Reinhardt winners will also be eligible to attend the Convention on a Basis scholarship.

This year’s recipients are:

• Lucas Shivers, Unified College District 383, Manhattan, Kansas
• Abby Plummer, Edna Drinkwater College, Camden, Maine
• Cindy Brison, all educational institutions in Douglas and Sarpy counties, Omaha, Nebraska
• Regina Peery, Riverside Elementary and Maury County Boys and Women Club, Columbia, Tennessee
• Natalie Fullmer, Sevier County College District/Sevier County Farm Bureau, Aurora, Utah

The conference aids educators from throughout the country discover how to integrate actual-lifestyle agricultural applications into science, social studies, language arts, math and nutrition classes. Scholarship recipients have been judged on their past use of ground breaking programs to educate college students about agriculture as effectively as designs to carry out information and facts received at the NAITC convention in their possess lesson strategies and share the facts with other instructors and volunteer educators.

The Foundation also awarded 10 communities with grants totaling $11,550, which will be allotted via county Farm Bureaus this spring and employed to build new agricultural literacy tasks or grow existing agricultural literacy attempts.

Conditions for picking winners involved: the success of demonstrating a robust relationship amongst agriculture and education how efficiently the undertaking enhances learner engagement in today’s food stuff, fiber and gasoline units and the processes and timelines for accomplishing project plans.

The 2021 spring grant recipients are:

Stephens County Farm Bureau, GA

Stephens County has formulated their Grow Authentic Options With College students (GROWS) method above the previous two yrs and seeks to broaden its aim and viewers. With this additional funding, the GROWS program seeks to grow to include things like a cellular cooking cart including a breakfast station and force cooker, a drone, a hydroponic back garden and two raised yard beds. This new technological know-how will be used at 3 elementary educational institutions. Volunteers approach to use this technology to present an option for interactive finding out ordeals and introduce technologies in agriculture as a job set.

Clay County Farm Bureau, IA

Clay County Farm Bureau strategies to associate with Sacred Heart Elementary School to develop a Tower Yard. This Tower Garden will make it possible for learners to witness firsthand exactly where their foodstuff arrives from. Meals harvested from this backyard garden will be applied for classroom treats and university lunches. The backyard will be out there for numerous school rooms to use and understand from, mostly focusing on kindergarten-sixth quality pupils.

Whiteside County Farm Bureau, IL

Whiteside County Farm Bureau strategies to husband or wife with community kindergarten-fifth quality school rooms to improve their library of agriculture-targeted children’s textbooks. These publications will be a modest piece of a multi-faceted solution to agricultural education. More components contain digital field excursions to neighborhood farms, in-man or woman and digital palms-on science and social science routines, and literature-based mostly looking through and crafting functions complementing each lesson.

Cass-Morgan County Farm Bureau, IL

Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau seeks to work with kindergarten-eighth quality college students to create 4 chicken incubator kits. Just about every package would incorporate 12 eggs and be accompanied by pertinent and entertaining classes and books related to rooster production. The objective of this job is to access 12 lecture rooms and for learners to understand extra about the lifetime cycle of chickens, fully grasp particular poultry vocabulary and know the path from farm to consumer.

Edwards County Farm Bureau, IL

Edwards County Farm Bureau, alongside with Edwards County Farm Bureau Ag Literacy Coordinators, the Edwards County Higher School Ag instructors, the Albion Quality School elementary instructors, and the Edwards County FFA Chapter users collaborated to develop portable ag literacy libraries. The libraries will be used by volunteers to study to elementary students at several scheduled times. The target of this undertaking is to maximize students’ looking at amount and agricultural engagement in Edwards County even though also making the opportunity for college students to learn about the intersection of agriculture and modern society.

Leavenworth County Farm Bureau, KS

Leavenworth County Farm Bureau seeks to create an interactive learning encounter for kindergarten-third quality pupils by developing ag literacy kits with numerous textbooks and functions created to train about farm-to-desk production methods. Each and every kit will consist of a gameboard style map, family activities, waymarking/geocaching and other inspiring fingers-on artistic initiatives. The objective of this job is to persuade dad or mum-child understanding although delivering an being familiar with of the intersection in between agriculture and modern society.

Hopkins County Farm Bureau, KY

Hopkins County Farm Bureau developed an training application for elementary students based on Peggy Thomas’s e-book “Full of Beans.” The very first aspect of the venture will concentration on employing the e book to increase the financial curriculum at elementary colleges. Hopkins County Farm Bureau board users will then access out to a number of area soybean farmers to educate about the fundamental principles of soybean manufacturing. Lastly, the pupils will take part in various science experiments with Soybean Science Kits.

Allegany County Farm Bureau, NY

In partnership with Bolivar-Richburg Central University, Allegany County Farm Bureau seeks to broaden its Wolverine Environmental Education (WEE) Centre. This middle has a yard and various resources that let it to provide as an interactive mastering laboratory for students. The objective of the challenge is to insert maple syruping tools to the WEE to raise the efficacy of the maple syrup manufacturing procedure.

Madison County Farm Bureau, NY 

In partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension, Madison County Farm Bureau seeks to produce agriculturally concentrated, fingers-on classes that can be accomplished in colleges or just about with live virtual instruction. This application will achieve third and fourth grade learners and focus on wheat creation. Total, the project aims to boost ag literacy amongst students even though also demonstrating the significance of agriculture and probable professions.

Brazos County Farm Bureau, TX

Brazos County Farm Bureau seeks to increase and sustain the chicken coop on their campus. This coop has served as a excellent useful resource for learners as they had been able to sell eggs and attain fingers-on practical experience raising chickens and discovering about the hen lifestyle cycle. The growth of the challenge will allow the coop to be fortified and shielded from predators.

Brazoria-Galveston County Farm Bureau, TX

In partnership with numerous regional FFA chapters, Brazoria-Galveston Farm Bureau is offering precise ag guides and agriculture-relevant materials to 3rd grade courses across 3 university districts. Volunteers will pay a visit to the lecture rooms, browse textbooks aloud and complete corresponding actions. The intention of this venture is to visit 45 overall school rooms and build a partnership in between the faculties and the County Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom volunteers.

Wooden County Farm Bureau, WI

Wooden County Farm Bureau strategies to develop a portable agriculture trailer highlighting major commodities including dairy, beef, cranberries, wheat and soybeans. The trailer will involve kiosks with instructional movies and a arms-on opportunity to milk a cow. The purpose of this challenge is to educate students and customers about Wood County’s unique agricultural commodities and help them create firsthand expertise about the place their food items comes from.

The White-Reinhardt Fund for Training honors two previous AFBF Women’s Management Committee chairwomen, Berta White and Linda Reinhardt, who have been trailblazers in early nationwide initiatives to increase the outreach of agricultural education and learning and improve agricultural literacy. Additional facts about the scholarships/grants can be found listed here.

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