The Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation has awarded 172 grants to schools throughout Iowa to support the integration of agriculture into classroom instruction or after school programs with an academic focus. The announcement of the grants for 2016 was made last week.

The Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher Supplement Grants are designed to help teachers initiate new projects or expand existing projects that promote agriculture literacy in students. Grants can be used to fund innovative lessons, activities, classroom resources, guest speakers, outreach programs, fieldtrips, and other projects.

“This year’s grant projects will focus on integrating agriculture into 21st century skills and language arts curriculums,” says IALF education program manager Cindy Hall.  “We hope these grants will allow teachers to make real world connections to what they are already teaching.”

Working ag-related topics into subjects like social studies
Some of the innovative applicants will be conducting projects this spring including agriculture reading units, hydroponics, comparing historical and modern farming, poultry, dairy, bees and many more. Successful applicants will use agriculture as the vehicle to teach many of the concepts already taught in their classroom like social studies and language arts.

One grant recipient, Julie Voss, commented, “I look forward to contacting local farmers to see if I am able to secure a guest visitor. I am most grateful for the opportunity to share the love of agriculture and farming with my students.”

The grants are a special project of IALF and are made possible through support from the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation. “We are very pleased to be able to provide this support to classroom teachers who are interested is teaching agriculture,” says IFBF director of community resources Barb Lykins. The projects will be completed before the end of the school year with final reports to be submitted by June 5, 2016. For more information visit www.iowaagliteracy.org. 

About the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation
IALF serves as a central resource for educators and volunteers who want to teach Iowa’s students about agriculture. The mission is to educate Iowans, with a focus on youth, regarding the breadth and global significance of agriculture. Iowa is a leading producer of agricultural products that are essential to feed a growing world population, estimated to reach more than 9 billion by 2050.

IALF believes it is important for all Iowans to understand the essential role agriculture has in their lives. IALF will support existing agriculture education efforts such as FFA, 4-H and Ag in the Classroom. IALF was created through a joint effort of agricultural stakeholders, including the Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Farm Bureau, Iowa Pork Producers Association, Iowa Soybean Association, Silos and Smokestacks Foundation, DuPont Pioneer, GROWMARK, and the Iowa Beef Industry Council. For more information visit IALF at www.IowaAgLiteracy.org, on Facebook, and Twitter.