Working Together to Teach Kentucky Ag

By Jennifer Elwell
Executive Director

An exciting challenge has been presented to me and, ultimately, Kentucky’s farming community. I have been dedicating my professional life almost exclusively to agriculture education efforts the past several months with the Kentucky Agriculture and Environment in the Classroom, and I realize that there are so many more students and teachers we could be reaching. We just need to work together, find new partners, and get creative.

The first task is to expand our current successful programs. The Mobile Science Activity Centers, administered and staffed by the KentuckyDepartment of Agriculture, are teaching the science of agriculture to about 24,000 students annually.

These trailers have been a group effort of our Kentucky agriculture and commodity organizations for many years, and the only limiting factor for reaching more students is time; the trailers continue to stay completely booked throughout the school year. The KAEC is now working to pull resources together to purchase a third Mobile Science Activity Center, which would allow the program to reach another 8,000 to 10,000 students each year. We are thrilled that the KDA has committed to providing staff and support for an additional unit. This is a program teachers request time and time again.

KAEC is also proud to announce that the AgricultureAdventures program is back on the roads and visiting schools. Our agriculture community partners purchased this fantastic mobile assembly program 10 years ago. The program needed a few cosmetic and curriculum updates, provided again by our sponsors, and is now being booked and managed through KAEC. This program has the potential to reach about 20,000 students annually through its high-energy show and hands-on activities.

Despite success with our in-school programs, KAEC realizes that agriculture learning should not be limited to the formal classroom. A second initiative we are offering is an assistance program for farms and local farm organizations that provide educational tours and learning opportunities called the Agriculture Literacy Network. Our goal is to develop a network of farmers, extension educators, and volunteers to strengthen programs, such as on-farm field trips, agriculture days and festivals. We want more schools and groups to be aware of these programs as well as provide tips and resources to improve the educational experience.

New partnerships will also be in the recipe for meeting a larger audience of students and teachers. KAEC recently began working with the Kentucky Science Center in Louisville for their Year of Environmental Sustainability Festival (YES! Fest) exhibit. We pulled together resources from the Kentucky Division of Conservation, the Kentucky Agriculture Council sponsored Leopold Conservation Award, and Kentucky State University to develop a display about the conservation efforts of our Kentucky farmers. The display provides profiles on each of the Leopold Conservation Award finalists from the past two years and shares state-wide efforts such as no-till agriculture and the Agriculture Water Quality Act. Luckily, we will be able to use these resources for other literacy and environmental programs as well.

In addition, KAEC hopes to redevelop relationships with our teaching colleges and universities to reach new teachers, as well as continue working with the Kentucky Farm Bureau on professional development workshops for current educators.

With the current focus on the environment, safe food, and producing enough calories for our growing population, there is no better time than now to drive the agriculture education effort. As we all know, however, it takes human and capital resources to make that happen.

We have a plan to more than quadruple the number of students and teachers who have access to quality, accurate agriculture education programs, but we need your help. I urge everyone to get involved by booking a mobile program at a local school, offering a professional development event for local teachers, supporting new program and resource development through sponsorships, or joining our Agriculture Literacy Network to strengthen on-farm education programs.

The future of food lies in the hands of our current students, and we must work together to teach Kentucky agriculture.

To learn more about our programs or sponsorship opportunities, visit www.teachkyag.org. 

Jennifer Elwell is Executive Director of the Kentucky Agriculture and Environment in the Classroom, Inc. and CEO of Farm Scholar, LLC. She can be reached at 502-921-2625 or jennifer@teachkyag.org.