Alaska Ag in the Classroom
(Alaska Farm Bureau)

Purchase books from the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture’s (AFBFA) Recommended Reading List for use with a celebration of Alaska Agriculture Day May 1, 2007. The books will be incorporated into the schools by volunteers reading to classes and encouraging teachers to follow up with additional lessons tied to the books.

Arizona Farm Bureau

Develop a lending library by purchasing books to be used by volunteers for grades K-4 for Maricopa County (Phoenix). Teachers would be able to use the books free of charge for a two-week period.

Brown County Farm Bureau, Ohio

The “Soil Foundations” program will purchase materials to create a more dynamic program to teach about soils and meet the state standards on this topic. The project will focus around soil as the foundation for agriculture. The goal is to increase the presentation of soils as a topic and improve the accuracy of what is taught about soil and erosion.

Bureau County Farm Bureau, Illinois

Build and stock a learning barn with educational materials for grades K through 8.

DuPage County Farm Bureau, Illinois

Funds will purchase educational materials for classroom visits for urban students grades K-3^rd Grade. Each classroom will be visited four times throughout the year with a seasonal topic each visit.

Edwards County Farm Bureau, Illinois

Funding will be used to develop and purchase materials for a “Farmer for a Day’ program for pre-K through Kindergarten classes. Rather than transport children to a farm setting for a single day with its accompanying dangers, this effort will expose students to farm life in their own classroom. The focus of this effort is to help educators teach the required farming unit in Kindergarten.

Georgetown County, South Carolina

Funding will be used to purchase a “Soybean Science Kit” for the Pleasant Hill Elementary School. The school has a set of rotating kits for science instruction. However, none of those kits has an agricultural link or theme. This kit will allow 21 science experiments to be conducted about soybeans and put agriculture at the forefront of science in the teachers’ and students’ minds. The kit will also be available for other elementary schools in the district to use.

Halifax County Farm Bureau, Virginia

Funds will be used to build and stock a learning barn with educational materials for grades 6 through 8 and as a reference for all faculty members throughout the county. In addition to recommended books from AFBFA’s list, the barn will also include samples of crops and other audio-visuals. The barn may also include some equipment for science experiments.

Hancock County Farm Bureau, Illinois

The grant will be used to purchase five educational books about agriculture for each of 8 elementary school libraries and use those books for a reading program during national agriculture week.

Izard County Farm Bureau, Arkansas

This grant will fund technology materials for an “Ag in the Living Classroom” event to be held in Izard County and throughout North Central Arkansas. Student in grades 3 through 8 will be targeted. The funds will be used to purchase wiring, a router, and wireless computer cards for four laptop computers. The networked computers will access web-based, interactive agricultural tours, games and research. This project will involve the Footprints 4-H Technology Club as students attend county, district and conservation fairs.

Jasper County Farm Bureau, Georgia

The funds will be used to develop a more useful outdoor classroom. In addition to a raised-bed garden a seating area and lectern will be built for actual classroom presentations in an outdoor setting. The setting will be used by students in grades pre-K through grade 2.

Kaufman County Farm Bureau, Texas

The project will build a mini-rainfall simulator to complement the existing Ag in the Classroom curriculum. This project will be used with 6 school districts that include a total of 18 elementary classrooms. Because rainfall is so important to Texas Agriculture, the students will learn about the effect of water availability for plant growth. They will also learn about the impact of rainfall on the soils of Texas, water availability and water quality.

King William County Farm Bureau, Virginia

To better understand and appreciate the agriculture of King William County, these funds will be used to build and stock a learning barn with educational materials for Acquinton Elementary School. In addition to recommended books from the Virginia Farm Bureau list, the barn will also include items important to local history, geography and agriculture.

McDonough County Farm Bureau, Illinois

This grant will be used to establish semi-annual GPS workshops for 4^th through 8^th grade students. The workshops will teach students to us the GPS technology and then apply it in the form of a “GPS treasure hunt.” During the hunt students will collect agriculturally related prizes.

Mercer County Farm Bureau, Ohio

The grant will fund the purchase of books and videos/DVDs for 7 public libraries. Once materials are in place Farm Bureau volunteers and Soil and Water Conservation District employees will serve as guest readers at theses libraries during story hour to bring attention to the new resources.

New Jersey Farm Bureau Women’s Committee

The grant will fund the purchase of props needed for members to conduct a program titled “How Many Hats Does a Farmer Wear?” Formalizing the program into a kit contained in a wheeled tote will encourage more members to conduct the program at local schools. The kit will be available to borrow for 3^rd - 5^th grade classrooms. Included will be hats, teacher packets, videos and tools and equipment commonly used by the designated roles. Examples of props are: volt meter, feed calculator, calf bottle, lamb puller, nutrition book, ledger, SMV sign, welding goggles or helmet, thermometer, wrenches, etc.

North Dakota Farm Bureau

The grant will be used for the development of a new educational program and display titled “A Slice of Soil.” The display will be used during classroom visits to demonstrate the very small portion of the earth’s land that can be used to produce food. The display will include interactive games, a short, one-minute DVD, display board or banner, and a script.

Pike County Farm Bureau, Ohio

The grant will fund the teacher packets which are part of the Agricultural Awareness Day. The funds will help to make the 10^th anniversary of this event extra special. The audience targeted is third grade.

Russell County Farm Bureau, Virginia

This grant will be used to build and stock a learning barn with educational materials for grades pre-K through 7. In addition to recommended books from the AFBFA’s list, the barn will also include miniature farm equipment, samples of seeds and audio-visuals.

Scioto County Farm Bureau, Ohio

The grant will fund the teacher packets, classroom packets, and Ohio Farm Bureau Book of the Year for three schools as a part of the Scioto County Agricultural Awareness Day. The funds will help to continue to make the event free to students. The audience targeted is fourth grade.

Stafford County Farm Bureau, Kansas

This grant will be used to build and stock a learning barn with educational materials for grades pre-K through 7. In addition to recommended books from the AFBFA’s list the barn will also include games and other audio-visuals.

Stark County Farm Bureau, Illinois

The funds will be used to purchase 45 books to establish an “agri-library” that will impact K-4 students (the county already impacts 75 percent of all K-2 students). Monthly visits will be made by volunteers using books from this library. During the summer months the books will be used at a variety of summer programs throughout the county.

Texas Farm Bureau

The grant would fund the development of an educational bookmark for distribution during fairs, stock shows and ag days. It will include questions from the exhibits – “Planet Agriculture,” “Mobile Learning Barns” and “Food and Fiber for the 21^st Century.” Weaving the programs together will encourage participants to bring agriculture awareness into their lives. It will be used for all ages and audiences.

VanZandt County Farm Bureau, Texas

The grant will fund a chick embryology program in the schools thereby bringing more hands-on learning into the classroom. Funds will be used to purchase the incubators and automatic egg turners.

Vermilion County Farm Bureau, Texas

The grant will fund the “Classroom Critters” project. This project will incorporate realistic hand puppets with fiction and non-fiction agricultural books. The funds will be used to create 8 units. Each unit will contain a puppet, one fiction book, one non-fiction book, posters, coloring books and other appropriate materials. The units will be available for loan to teachers or presentations by ag literacy coordinators.

Virginia Farm Bureau Women’s and Young Farmers’ Program

The grant will be used to expand student wellness efforts with a “Tasty Tour of Virginia.” The funds will be used to assemble everything a teacher needs to teach one of three short nutrition lessons. The modules will be on a CD ROM that contains AITC developed lesson plans, and be assembled into a kit with pencils, Food Pyramid and Healthy portions posters, and AITC program information in a tote bag. Volunteers will promote the program to school superintendents as part of a Farmer’s Care program to celebrate National Ag Week.

Wyoming Farm Bureau

The funds will purchase books for the “Ag Books for Kids” program being conducted by Wyoming Young Farmer’s and Ranchers throughout Wyoming. As a part of this effort the young farmers will also conduct three contests - a coloring contest for Kindergarten and first graders; a poster contest for 2^nd and 3^rd graders and a book report contest for 4^th and 5^th graders.

Wythe County Farm Bureau, Virginia

The grant will provide funds to develop teaching aids and items to enhance students’ experiences during the Pioneer Day and Homestead Living History Festival. All Wythe county 4^th grade classes participate in Pioneer Day. This grant will provide additions to that experience which will focus on agriculture By helping students participate in hands-on activities making butter, dye a piece of wool, planting seeds, harvesting vegetables, learning how soap was made, husking and shelling corn, make candles and pottery, etc.