AG TAG DOLLARS IN ACTION

FLORIDA AG IN THE CLASSROOM TRAINS THE TRAINERS

You could be either a bee or a tree. If you were a bee, you had to wear a set of makeshift antennas and buzz around the room pollinating until you died. If you were a tree, you had to wear a brown, paper bag filled with pipe cleaners that represented pollen. And you had to fall over in hurricanes.

That's how the exercise "Buzzy, Buzzy Bee" went. It was part of a two-day workshop presented by Florida Agriculture in the Classroom designed to prepare teachers, county farm bureau representatives and others to serve as workshop facilitators for the program's core curricula. The curricula consists of national and state material. The national portion, Food, Land & People, or FLP, aims to develop citizens who are knowledgeable about the relationships between agriculture, the environment, and human populations. In its vision statement, FLP says it "envisions a future in which all people recognize the interdependence of agriculture, the environment and human needs, and work cooperatively to enhance sustainable agricultural practices and informed consumer choices."

Facilitators learn the game, "Buzzy, Buzzy Bee," which they will demonstrate to teachers in workshops they organize.

The workshop also included training to implement the Keeping Florida Green program, which narrows down lessons to Florida specifically.

Held October 6 - 7 in an Orlando hotel across from Universal Studios, the workshop offered a chance for participants to roll up their sleeves and dive into activities from journal-keeping to group games under the guidance of the programs' creators, Doty Wenzel and Betty Wolanyk. The two led lively discussions and handed out free materials to participants to show them how to bring life to the lessons.

A "tree" falls in the game, "Buzzy, Buzzy Bee," showing how hurricanes can affect a citrus grove.

"We haven't done a facilitator training like this one before where we brought in the authors of Florida Ag in the Classroom's two core curricula to teach our teachers and volunteers," said Lisa Gaskalla, executive director of Florida Ag in the Classroom. "Their knowledge and enthusiasm for the materials was infectious. By the time we finished the training, all 42 participants were looking forward to going back to their counties and schools to hold workshops of their own to train other teachers and volunteers," said Gaskalla.

Participants were enthusiastic and appreciative. Lee Ann Brodie and Linda Trout are team teachers of fourth grade social studies and science at Kingswood Elementary in Brandon. "We're learning how to get across to our teachers that they can combine lessons with this curriculum," said Brodie.

"We're going to implement it right away," said Trout. "We'll be doing an in-service when we get back."

BACON COMES FROM WHERE??!

In a group discussion, the participants agreed that students who do not come from an agriculture background are generally uninformed about how their food gets to the kitchen table.

"One boy said he thought bacon came from a cow," said Brodie.

Angie Turner, a kindergarten and first grade reading teacher from Taylor County had one better than that. "We had a child who thought chocolate milk came from a chocolate cow," she said. "Either that or the Winn Dixie," Turner said she wanted teachers in her district to build enthusiasm for agriculture among the students.

Brandon fourth grade teachers Linda Trout (left) and Lee Ann Brodie display their hand-decorated journals.

Kasey Johnson, who teaches seventh grade science at the same district as Turner, said the two are working together on a three-year plan to bring agriculture to Taylor County. "We wrote a grant and will be holding summer workshops for the teachers," she said. "We want to build a foundation for these kids starting at an early age, where they have a general awareness of agriculture and what it takes to bring food to their tables," she said.

TWO LESSON-PACKED DAYS

The workshop started at 9:30 a.m. Activities that morning ranged from discussion of the curriculum's lesson format, topics and framework, to getting up and acting out the various lessons. Later in the morning, FFVA's Ray Gilmer gave a presentation to the group on how agriculture and politics are linked.

Following a break for lunch, participants launched into an ambitious afternoon that included lessons in producing food for an increasingly urban population. "We want the facilitators to get across the message that agriculture is a complicated issue," said Wenzel. "And it affects everyone."

The facilitator workshop displayed childrens' books about agriculture.

During the lesson, "Amazing Grazing," participants formed small groups to create production plans for a specified region, from Arizona desert to storm-crazed Florida. "Buzzy, Buzzy Bee" demonstrated the importance of pollination.

The second day included more workshops and demonstrations on how to present lessons aimed at students of various ages.

WORKSHOP CONTENT TESTED AND VERIFIED

"The lessons were designed and written by educators for educators," says the introductory chapter in the FLP handbook. "During the development of each lesson, recognized experts in agriculture, natural resources and education reviewed the technical content for both accuracy and balance in presentation," it continued. FLP's developers field tested the curriculum during the 1996 - 1997 school year in rural, urban and suburban schools in three distinct regions of the country. Nearly 200 teachers and more than 4,000 students in grades 2 - 9 in California, Connecticut and Ohio participated.

In the field test, students were asked a series of questions to determine their knowledge of agriculture. Then, half the group received FLP lessons and half did not. After the lessons ended, both groups were again tested. The evaluation report says, "Results of statistical tests indicate the FLP had a definite impact on students' increased knowledge and positive attitude about agriculture, the environment and diverse cultures." Further, it stated that gains in both knowledge and positive attitudes were greatest for grades 2 - 3, followed by grades 4 - 6.

Financial support for FLP comes from businesses, national organizations, the federal government and other sources. Keeping Florida Green is a statewide curriculum with 32 lessons, designed by Florida Ag in the Classroom. Both meet Sunshine State Standards and have applications in language arts, math, science and social studies.

AG TAG MONEY MAKES PROGRAMS POSSIBLE

Funding for Florida Ag in the Classroom is dependent on dollars generated from sales of the Florida Ag Tag.

Funding for Florida Ag in the Classroom is dependent on dollars generated from sales of the Florida Ag Tag, a specialty license plate, which was pioneered by FFVA in the mid-1990s. The plate costs just $22 per year more than a regular issue Florida license plate when renewing a tag. Of that amount, $20 helps the program, while $2 covers Department of Transportation administrative costs. For answers to commonly asked questions about the Ag Tag, go to http://agrigator.ifas.ufl.edu/agtag/tagqanda.asp.

"We gave them the information and tools to teach others the importance of agriculture to Florida," said Gaskalla. "That's why Florida Ag in the Classroom exists and how proceeds from the agriculture specialty tag are to be used."