Ag in the Classroom
Why Agriculture in the Classroom?
We are a nation that has reaped the benefits of a successful agricultural system with advances in science and technology. This has allowed our society to flourish, engage in leisure activities, and dream about the future. Our successful agricultural innovations have resulted in fewer farmers and larger yields. Today, roughly 21 million jobs are supported by the U.S. agriculture industry—a much smaller number than previous years. Even with that many Americans employed by agriculture, the level of agriculture knowledge has decreased as more people have moved away from farms and rural areas.
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Our agriculture success story has come with a consequence—a society that has little understanding concerning agricultural production, technology, and processing, and how this system meets our basic needs (food, clothing, shelter), and improves our quality of life. As people moved further away from the farm, the less agriculture knowledge was shared with them through actual hands-on activities as well as in educational materials in school. Farming was only discussed in terms of an occupational specialty, rather than an integral part of every student’s life. The Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation serves as the Iowa state contact and affiliate member of the National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization.
About Agriculture
in the Classroom
Agriculture in the Classroom was created in the early 1980s as a way to re-integrate agriculture knowledge through education programs starting first with our youngest students and continuing through high school. More recently, the Agriculture in the Classroom program has increase the rigor and relevancy, with the development of the National Center for Agricultural Literacy and the National Agricultural Literacy Outcomes (NALOs). This is linked to an agricultural literacy logic model to help define what an agriculturally literate person should know at different stages of their education and training in the following topic areas.
Meet our Outreach Coordinator
Sarah Seitz
Sarah Seitz serves as the Des Moines and Henry County Farm Bureau Outreach Coordinator. Sarah received her bachelors degree in Agriculture Science from Western Illinois University and has had a strong passion for the agriculture industry.
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In her role, Sarah works with K-12 teachers to implement Ag in the Classroom lessons within their classroom curriculum. This is done through classroom visits as well as supplemental material provided to teachers.
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She resides in Gladstone, IL with her husband, Brayton and son, Kolt. In her free time Sarah is also a family, senior, and wedding photographer.
