Many years ago, Lauri Cork attended her first Agriculture Festival hosted by University of Nebraska Extension where she learned about their partner, Nebraska Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC)
. This is where she learned about curriculum and ideas to get more agriculture in her classroom. Learn more about her experience!
What is your favorite AITC program/resource/event?
I love having speakers in to do lessons - the kids really tune in to an “expert” teaching them. Even the Nebraska Agriculture in the Classroom Visit ZOOM lessons hooked them.
Describe an agriculture-based project you have led in your classroom.
I taught the lesson Our World – Soil & Water to my 4th graders. The kids were amazed to actually see how small the amount of soil and water we really have to farm on. The hands-on part of the activity really lets them SEE how little it is. They pick up right away on how important it is that we take care of our land and water - and how important agriculture is to the world.
What advice would you give to other teachers to use agriculture in their classroom?
Knowing how important agriculture is to the economy of Nebraska makes this topic so important to teach. Bringing the farm and agriculture to kids in the city is very important to me. The resources, lessons, guest speakers, and workshops provided are super simple to use and work with. The educators in the program are amazing to work with and will help in any way. Using all these resources makes teaching and learning about agriculture so much fun!