The national FFA organization is teaming up with the Pork Checkoff to offer an agricultural literacy forum for middle schools.
It is a free resource, available at ffa.learn.com, that teachers can use to teach students to become smart consumers. It can be used a as a yearlong course or customized for a shorter time frame.
The curriculum has more than 150 free, prepackaged, stand alone lessons and eight units to choose from. The units include Introductionn to Agricultural Science, Food Science, Natural Resources, Plant Science, Animal Science, Agricultural Science and Technology, Agricultural Issues and Careers in Agriculture.
A team of industry professionals, university educations and secondary ag educatiors helped develop the course, which is aligned to Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources standards. A team of 20 agriculture educators created the lessons and ancillary materials.
The curriculum has been tested in 32 agriculture programs across the country.