Nebraska Teacher Plants Seeds of Agriculture Awareness in Classroom and Community

By Tina Henderson
Nebraska Foundation for Agricultural Awareness
Nebraska Farm Bureau

Fifth grade teacher Vonnie Arens wants to spread more agricultural awareness to her students at Sacred Heart Elementary School in Norfolk, Nebraska. Equipped with ideas from last year's Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) Summer Workshop and her own teaching methods, she shares agriculture with her students and also scatters it around the community.

"The students I work with come primarily from urban backgrounds and have little exposure to farm life," she said. "So I want to help them understand how important agriculture is to their everyday lives. I want them to understand how agriculture brings us everything from the obvious – food – to the clothes we wear, the house we live in and the fuel we put in our cars."

Arens began the school year by asking her students to explain what the word "agriculture" meant to them. Each student was asked to use current experiences with the term agriculture to give his/her definition. They used dictionaries and social studies textbooks to seek a clearer definition. At the end of the year, students will again describe what agriculture means to them and note any changes, Arens said.

During the AITC Summer Workshop, Arens and other teachers visited Coufal Feedyards near Norfolk and Arens plans to visit again with her students. Her students have developed a pen pal relationship with a fifth grade class in Howells, Nebraska and plan to visit the Howells school to learn what chores are like on a real working farm.

"Students at Howells Catholic are farm children who have big responsibilities on the farm as they complete their afternoon chores," Arens said. "It sounds fun to my students but it is really hard work for fifth graders in Howells.

"Through pen pal letters, both classrooms are learning letter writing skills as well as preparing autobiographies. I want these lessons to help raise the level of awareness my students have of agriculture. If this takes place, the project will be deemed a success."

Arens brought her students to the Heritage of Bel-Air Nursing Home in
Norfolk, where more than half the residents are farmers and farm wives. The residents and students formed small groups for a corn activity. They wrapped a piece of aluminum foil around an ear of corn to form a corn ear mold, then estimated what portion of their aluminum foil would be filled by the shelled corn. Together they shelled the corn and took turns filling their corn ear form, noting how close their estimates were.

"It was great to see the faces of the residents light up when they were
shelling corn," Arens said. "They loved talking about their farms, the
number of acres they farmed, and crops and livestock they raised. My
students were amazed at what details the residents remembered about their operations."

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