Agriculture focus in classrooms

MAT-SU -- Despite the wintry March weather and cold winds blowing across much of the Valley, agriculture, a staple of local life, never remains far from local residents' minds.

This coming week is National Agriculture Week, and among the activities planned to acknowledge its passage is a large-scale educational program called "Agriculture in the Classroom."

The program endeavors to make learning about agriculture fun and entertaining. "Alaska Crops & Weeds," a full-color crop and weed cards and game sheet set, is the program's latest effort to improve agricultural and natural resources literacy in Alaska. Funded in part by a grant from the state Division of Agriculture's Alaska Grown Program, the project features seven cards on Alaska's top crops and five cards showing invasive and noxious weeds in the state. The cards help students learn about the importance of the crops and the threat presented by weeds. The cards are used in games designed with the dual purposes of instruction and entertainment.

This is the second Agriculture in the Classroom project funded by the Alaska Grown grant. The first was a CD of lesson plans for grades kindergarten through eighth grade, which are still available and being updated with new lesson plans on weeds. These plans are also available at the AAITC Web site at www.agclassroom.org/ak. This site also contains a wealth of educational materials used in other curricula; Agriculture in the Classroom is operated out of all 50 states, and Alaska can draw upon lesson plans and ideas formulated by teachers elsewhere.

Also planned for the upcoming week are contests designed to reward both students and teachers for creative integration of agriculture with education. An essay contest for grades six through 12 and a bookmark contest for grades K-5 are open to students, while teachers may apply for a trip to the National Agriculture in the Classroom conference in Albuquerque, N.M., in June.

The essay contest asks students to write about how Alaskans can support agriculture in the state. The bookmark contest focuses on promoting Alaska-Grown products and/or fighting invasive weeds. Both are sponsored by the Alaska Farm Bureau with grant funds from the Alaska Division of Agriculture's Alaska Grown program. Deadline for students is April 30, while the teachers' deadline is April 1.

Information on all of the contests is also available online at www.agclassroom.org/ak.

Agriculture in the Classroom is a USDA-structured program that operates in all 50 states, as well as U.S. territories. In Alaska, its primary sponsor is the Alaska Farm Bureau. For more information or to obtain materials, visit the Web site or e-mail AKAITC@alaskafb.org. For more information on National Ag Day and Ag Week, visit www.agday.org.

Contact Daniel Spoth at daniel.spoth@frontiersman.com.