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Teacher Resources
Bring Alternative Fuels into the Classroom
Put more science in your forestry class or add alternative fuels to your mechanics lesson by introducing your students to the BIOMASS online magazine, Ethanol Producers magazine, and Biodiesel magazine. Students can read technical reports, search for careers in the alternative fuels industry and investigate the latest events around the world that impact the agriculture industry.
STIHL’s iCademy, an award-winning online resource developed for STIHL dealers, is now available to select technical education institutions. The program covers technical training, business and professional skills like sales and customer service, and STIHL product specific lessons. Instructors who want to participate in the program can apply by logging onto www.stihlvotech.com. There, you will be prompted to enter information on your school and your OPE training program. Once enrolled, you will receive an iCademy overview, detailed operating instructions and suggestions on how to use it in your classes. Several free instructional materials are also available on ffa.org in conjunction with the LPR Guide. Visit http://www.ffa.org/index.cfm?method=c_aged.stihl for more information.
“Teach Ag” Page of NAAE Website Now Available
Agricultural education makes a difference in millions of lives. NAAE’s “Teach Ag” campaign is encouraging students to “Do What You Love and Love What You Do” by becoming an agriculture educator. NAAE has also recently opened up a new portion of its website devoted to helping students find a place to earn their agricultural education degree. The site lists the colleges and universities in the U.S. with agricultural education programs, sorted by state. The site also has resources for anyone interested in helping promote agricultural education as a career choice.
Share the Gift of Ag Literacy
Partner with your local Farm Bureau to engage your future students by providing agriculture books for their classrooms. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has created a book bundle of 22 children’s books related to agriculture. Visit http://www.mda.state.mn.us/kids/maitc/bookbundle/sponsoring.htm for information about providing these resources to your elementary teachers and library.
Looking for Activity Ideas?
If you’re coming up short on creativity or just want to spice up your next lesson, this is the site for you. Teampedia is a collaborative encyclopedia of team building activities, icebreakers, teamwork resources and tools for teams that anyone can edit! The site is designed by team leaders, trainers, teachers, managers, camp directors, counselors, and youth groups.
National Content Standards are available
Getting pressure from your administration to include more core academics in your program? Use the National Content Standards for Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Food to document what you are teaching. Available from the Team Ag Ed Learning Center, the National Ag Ed Council’s content standards identify the math, science, language arts and social studies skills that are laced throughout agricultural competencies in all seven of the career pathways. Make it a favorite link for quick reference.
Ready-made Agribusiness Lesson
Revisit or get to know these lessons for the first time: http://www.ais.msstate.edu/age/lessons.html. You will find it a great resource for introducing the global aspect of agribusiness to your students.