Saturday, June 26, 9:00-9:50 am

Select your workshop when you register! This year participants will have the opportunity to select their first choice and an alternate for each workshop session time slot when registering. Every effort will be made to provide you with your top choices. Admittance tickets for each session will be in your registration packet. The earlier you register, the better your chances of getting your desired workshop sessions. 

Presenters have designated grade levels for their workshop sessions.  Frequently, the ideas and lessons shared can be adjusted up or down depending on the age of the group you are educating.  The grade levels are merely suggestions and you are welcome to attend any session.  Please understand that the program may change due to circumstances beyond our control which may necessitate session changes.     

#1  Cultivate the Curriculum

Grades K-8

Suzanne Macauley, New Jersey Agricultural Society

This workshop will be a “how-to” for schools that want to start a gardening program.  Topics covered will include choosing a site for your garden, what to plant, outdoor classroom management, and connecting to everyday curriculum.

#2  Planting Positive Perceptions of Agriculture

  All Levels 

Curtis Miller, American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture

As the public becomes further removed from the origins of their food, fiber and fuel, it becomes more important that educational programs and materials are made available to create understanding of agriculture. Come experience what the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has to offer from pre-K through 12^th grade classrooms, as well as teacher and consumer educational programs! This work shop will focus on hands-on, standard-based resources which will help you tell the story of agriculture while creating positive perceptions of agriculture to any age or grade level. Many new projects including My American Farm online game, 2010 Book of the Year teacher packets, Busy Barnyard lesson plan and Accurate Ag Books list will be presented,  as well as activities from Food and Farm Facts and The Man Who Fed the World classroom resources. You will be sure to leave this workshop motivated, excited and prepared to take on the world as you go forth to build awareness, understanding, and a positive public perception of agriculture.

#3  Mama Mia Pizzeria  (also offered in Session 7)

    Grades K-5 

Joni Wallman, Indiana Farm Bureau, Inc.

Having a great theme and having fun will make learning enjoyable for everyone. We’ve taken everyone’s favorite food and turned it into a variety of lessons that use agriculture, science, math, and English. Come and get ideas that you can use as an entire theme or break apart and use individually. Ideas include making cheese in the classroom, making a pizza garden, learning how all the parts of a pizza come from a farm, get a glimpse of the great books about pizza that your students will love, and get moving to some pizza exercises! A Pizzeria in your classroom!

#4  In the Field with Arizona Agriculture

Grades 4-6

Monica Pastor, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension

Learn about the field days that were conducted in Arizona using USDA Specialty Crop grant money.  Emphasis for each day was on nutrition, specialty crops (produce, honey, nursery) and Standards-based lessons.  Examples of the eight lessons utilized plus the coordination of the event will be shared.  The field days were held at a school for 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grade students.  Transportation for other schools to participate was paid for out of the grant.  Learn how we partnered with our Extension SNAP Ed program to make this a success.  Assessments of the day will also be shared.

#5  Favorite Herbs for the Classroom & Schoolyard

All Levels

Debi Hogan, Massachusetts AITC Program

Meet a variety of easy to grow herbs that add wonder and sensory exploration to the classroom and schoolyard.  Learn about their history, lore and value for fragrance, culinary use, medicine and ornamental qualities.  Tips for engaging children’s interest and cross curricular connections will be made.  This session provides herbs for you to admire, smell, feel and taste, as well as samples to take home.

#6  Here a Seed, There a Seed  (also offered in Session 7)

Grades K-3

Tonya Wible, PA Friends of Ag Foundation

Watching seeds germinate brings delight to both children and adults.  This session provides an opportunity to “dig in” to many different seed activities that can be “planted” in your classrooms to foster hands-on learning with your students.  Come learn how to plant the seeds of inquiry in your students and then take them back to your classroom to watch the learning grow!

#7  Get SMART with Illinois Ag in the Classroom  (also offered in Session 7)

  All Levels 

Kelly Murphy & Carrie Schreiber, Illinois AITC

Attendees at this workshop will be exposed to multiple SMART Board lessons related directly to AITC. Enter the next age of teaching technology, and find what is available for your AITC lesson plans at the click of a mouse.

#8  Farm to Table & Beyond  (also offered in Session 7)

  Grades 3-8

Pamela Koch, Teachers College Columbia University

With food sustainability a growing topic, we will demonstrate activities from our teacher guide Farm to Table & Beyond to incorporate the study of food, food system and the natural environment into science class. Educators will learn how to conduct inquiry-based investigations that explore how food travels from the farm to our table, and how the environment is affected by our current food system. Through these experiences students will enrich their knowledge of our food system by conducting hands-on activities, self-exploration and scientific analyses.  Teachers will receive a packet of activities ready for classroom use.