Brooks Way, owner of the Way Fruit Farm in Matilda, Pa., describes his farm operation to a group of teachers attending an Ag in the Classroom workshop.

The annual Ag in the Classroom teachers workshop, hosted by the College on the University Park campus, has grown from a four-day event for 45 teachers in 1992 to a weeklong learning experience for more than 100 elementary and secondary school teachers from around the state. The workshop is sponsored by the Agricultural Awareness Foundation of Pennsylvania, a nonprofit organization of business leaders, educators, and representatives of state agencies who select the teachers and cover their expenses for the workshop.

"Our first goal is to develop teacher awareness of the size and economic importance of agriculture," says Donald Evans, associate professor of agricultural and extension education and one of the workshop's principal organizers. "Then we provide instructional materials and methods for the teachers to use to teach that concept in their classrooms, as well as ways to take an agriculture-based approach to teaching disciplines across the curriculum." Ed Yoder, professor and interim head of agricultural and extension education, notes that many schoolchildren are unaware of how their food and material for clothing are produced. "Ninety-five percent of our elementary school students will tell you that milk comes from a bottle or a store," he says. "But few know how it got there or where it came from originally. We hope to help teachers increase their students' understanding of food and fiber production and processing, as well as their basic science literacy."

Teachers tour local farms and Penn State facilities and attend sessions on all aspects of agriculture–from forestry to food processing. Classes are taught by University specialists, graduates of the College, agribusiness people, and teachers who have completed a previous workshop. William Hicks, a fifth-grade teacher from Chester County who attended the first workshop, has been involved in the program ever since. "The workshop really got me fired up about farming," Hicks says. "Most of the state's mushrooms are grown in my county, so when we toured the University's mushroom research facility, I realized I already knew enough about the subject to teach a session myself." Hicks became a presenter in 1993, and although he ended up teaching hydroponics instead of mushroom cultivation, he has returned every year since then and now serves on the foundation's board of directors.

Another 1992 participant who has returned to help present the workshop is Norma Saylor, a third-grade teacher at Williamsburg Community Elementary School. "When I went back to my school after that first workshop, I realized that our district needed to do more than I would be able to do in my classroom," she says. Saylor teamed up with the high school's agricultural science teacher to start an after-school agriculture program. They have taken students on field trips to various types of farm operations, including an emu farm. "At the first workshop I gained an appreciation of the diversity in Pennsylvania agriculture," Saylor says. "We try to impart that to new participants each year."

Veteran teachers like Saylor and Hicks bring real classroom experience to the workshop's newcomers. "They add an air of authenticity to the program," says Evans. "It's all about teachers teaching teachers. They know what works and what doesn't." As part of the week's activities, the teachers prepare a unit of instruction for their school's curriculum. Participants have incorporated agricultural science lessons into a broad range of disciplines, from anthropology (The Potato: The True Incan Treasure) and geography (Mexico City: Building It from the Roots Up) to American history (Buffalo: Plains Indians' Staff of Life) and exponential multiplication (Bug Families).

"What makes this conference great is interacting with the professors and other teachers, as well as all the learning opportunities, which often occur in nontraditional settings," says Hicks. "For instance, one time when we were riding in the bus past one of Penn State's research farms, a teacher from an inner city school pointed out the window and asked, 'What's that growing there?' I was amazed to see he was pointing at corn. He learned something that day and so did I, about what it's like to come from a teaching and learning environment very different from mine. It's really exciting to be able to take lessons like these back to our students."


–Stacy Tibbetts