InnovATE Updates

Agrilinks, Ag Educators Corner: “The Power of Student Recognition”

In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.

In the most recent installment to our Ag Educators Corner blog series, Melissa Bonifas, a DuPont Agriscience Ambassador and secondary agricultural educator at Blue Hill Community Schools in Blue Hill, Nebraska, shares her experience with recognizing students and highlighting their experience from the past school year.

Bonfias details one event, the Banquet, which is a school and community-wide event that showcases student achievement that allow them to gain real world experience planning the event, and may connect them with future opportunities business or student leaders.

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Agrilinks, Ag Educators Corner: “Preparing for the Future of Agriculture Through Career Exploration”

In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.

In the most recent installment to our Ag Educators Corner blog series, Kevin Cross, an agricultural educator at Sullivan High School in Sullivan, IN, shares his experience as an educator how he provides opportunities for students to explore agricultural as a career.

Through the Sullivan Future Farmers of American (FFA) in Sullivan, Cross lets students embark on a three-day journey exploring diverse topics in agriculture. Cross shares that this journey ignites a passion for agricultural leaders that strengthen the field and build communities.

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Agrilinks, Ag Educators Corner: “Happy Campers: Growing Agricultural Leaders in the Community”

In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.

In the most recent installment to our Ag Educators Corner blog series, Madison Taylor, a junior at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Dr. Nina Crutchfield, an experienced agricultural educator and local program success specialist with the National FFA Organziation, shares about a program in Uganda intended to ignite a passion for agriculture.

Farm camp, similar to many U. S. 4-H and FFA camps, engages people from diverse areas in agriculture to provide experiential learning opportunities to witness and gain skills, as well as connect and engage with entrepreneurs and industry leaders.

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Agrilinks, Ag Educators Corner: “Agricultural Service Learning Connects Students and Communities”

In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.

In the most recent installment to our Ag Educators Corner blog series, Greg Schneider, an Agriculture teacher and Future Farmers of America (FFA) adviser at Greensburg Community Schools in Greensburg, IN, shares about his experience serving in those roles the past 20 years. The key to his unique teaching method is taking his curriculum and combining it with hands-on projects for his students, that also address community needs.

The service-learning projects he has developed cover multiple project areas for students with diverse agricultural interests. Some of the projects cover: landscaping, natural resource management, horticulture, agribusiness, and animal science.

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Agrilinks, Ag Educators Corner: “Using On-Site Agriculture Facilities for Successful Learning Experiences”

In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.

In the most recent installment to our Ag Educators Corner blog series, Matthew Eddy, an Agriscience teacher of 20 years at Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa, shares about his experiences. Given his 20 years of teaching, Matthew not only knows how engage and interest students, but also how to use hands on, applied learning to keep their sparks of interest lit.

He was trying to engage students who were particularly interested in animal science, but soon realized that there were no opportunities for them to gain hands on experience. That’s why when the opportunity arose to form a partnership with the Iowa State Fair, he jumped on it. The Iowa State Fair was looking for help staffing a new agricultural display. By creating a partnership, his students, by association, get to work with major commodity groups in our state, including beef, pork, egg, turkey and dairy along with producers of sheep and goats.

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Agrilinks, Ag Educators Corner: “Agriscience: The World is Our Classroom”

In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.

In the most recent installment of our Ag Educators Corner blog series, Krista Pontius, an Agriscience teacher of 20 years at Greenwood High School in central Pennsylvania shares about her experiences. Given her 20 years of teaching, Krista not only knows how to connect with students, but also how to engage them and even lead them to their passions. Continue reading >

Agrilinks Ag Educators Corner: “Using Authentic Problems in the Classroom to Make Agriculture Come Alive”

In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.

In the most recent installment, Kaylie Ackerley, a Secondary Agriscience Educator/FFA Advisor, was contemplating a business decision and planning a lesson for her Introduction to Agriculture class. When she decided to pose her dilemma as a real world problem-solving project, she sparked student engagement.

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