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Teachers learn to connect agriculture with science and social studies

  • Just like students, teachers need lunch break between classes, too. Several enjoyed lunch outdoors at the Borlaug Learning Center near Nashua Wednesday. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Dan and Lynn Bolin provided tours of their robotic dairy operation at New Day Dairy on Tuesday. (Photo submitted.)

  • The Borlaug Learning Center near Nashua. (Press photo James Grob.)

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Some area teachers became students this week — students of agriculture.

The Iowa Ag Literacy Coalition and area county Farm Bureaus sponsored a two-day professional development for about 30 teachers, based out of the Borlaug Learning Center near Nashua.

“We’re trying to help them integrate agriculture into their core classroom curriculum,” said Will Fett, executive director of the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation (IALF). “Teachers will ultimately be writing up lesson plans from this that they can integrate into their classroom.”

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 and its economy are all about agriculture,” Fett said. “When you apply an agricultural example to a traditional science or social studies topic, it becomes easy for students to grasp.”

The two-day teacher development workshops are good for license renewal credit or graduate credit for the teachers. The workshop class in Nashua was entitled “Fertile Land: Connecting Agriculture and Social Studies.”

The teachers spend one day touring area farms, local agribusinesses and historical locations, and then spend a second day tying that into what they are teaching.

The teachers met at the Norman Borlaug Center in Nashua, and spent Tuesday touring the Carrie Lane Chapman Catt Girlhood Home, the Fossil and Prairie Park and various beef and dairy farms around the area. On Wednesday, it was a day of classes about nutrition, pollinators, grants, farms and wind energy, among many other things.

Some of the area teachers participating were Laura Walker, Ann Prichard, Phoebe Pittman, Erin Lyman, Julie Holub and Stena Carlin from Charles City; Donna Engels-Jones from RRMR Rockford; Patti Hagen and Stacey Uhlenhopp from North Butler; and Charlotte Greenzweig from Central Springs.

On Tuesday, the teachers visited the beef facility to see how cattle are being raised under roof. They also visited the dairy, which showcased robotic milking as well as other technology on the farm. They went to Silos and Smokestacks area partner sites.

At the Carrie Lane Chapman Catt Girlhood Home they learned about apple tree production in the 19th century, and at the Fossil and Prairie Park they learned how clay field tiles were produced.

Wednesday was all about applying a lot of the things the teachers saw on Tuesday, Fett said. Teachers learned about a program called Farm Chat, and ways to take a virtual field trip were demonstrated.

“We have a good mix of teachers with some farming background and some not,” Fett said. “I think everybody is interested in where their food comes from, and they are also interested in making learning real and relevant for their students.”

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