National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Academy

2009 Ambassadors Have Been Selected:

Robert Bollier, SC             Melissa Bonifas, NE                     Saralynn Brown, CO       

Judith Bruns, DE                Michael Clark, PA                       Joshua Davenport, MS

Cathy DiBenedetto, DE     Jennifer Gregory-Sneed, MO       Tara Lindahl, KS

Trisha Neumann, MT        Jeannie Layton-Dudding, VA        Candice Olson, WI

Patricia Pachie, CA           Melvin Phelps, NY                       Bethany Royer, CT

Jona Kay Squires, OK      Ronald Story, GA                        Greg Stull, MD

What is NATAA?

With the added pressure for students to perform at higher levels on high stakes standardized tests and the natural fit for agriculture teachers to teach science in an applied or contextual setting, the need for teachers to receive high quality professional development activities has increased.  Given the opportunity provided to agricultural education through the support of DuPont, agricultural education instructors have been able to participate in the National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Academy (NATAA) for the sixth year, and the fourth year in its current format.

There are two parts of the current program for teachers. The NATAA is the training provided to teachers in the summer at Chesapeake Farms near Chestertown, MD.  These trained teachers are then referred to as Ambassadors for Agriscience and provide workshops within their states and regions, as well as at specific training in the Agriscience institute, the second part of the program.  The Agriscience Institute offers professional development to teachers across the nation attending either the national FFA convention, or the annual conference of the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE).  These interactive classrooms are designed to provide agriculture teachers the content and methods of teaching science to their students through interactive, hands-on workshops using Inquiry-Based instruction techniques and high quality materials provided through Lab-Aids.

Purpose/Objectives of NATAA:

  1. Increase interest in agriscience based educational activities in Agricultural Education programs across the United States through the training of, and workshop presentations by, ambassadors.
  2. Identify and select agriscience teachers that have a passion for agriscience education, that are effective presenters, that engage students in science based activities, and understand the total program concept for participation in the program.
  3. Allow the Ambassadors the opportunity to interact with scientists and other personnel from DuPont to more clearly understand career opportunities in all fields of science and to introduce DuPont staff to the NATAA program.
  4. Provide interactive classrooms for teacher instruction at the National FFA Convention Career Show and the NAAE National Convention Expo
  5. Provide teachers with educational resources, training and information on ways to implement science-based activities in their classroom in the areas of environmental science, food science, sustainability and biological sciences.
  6. Share lesson plans, laboratory exercises and teaching strategies between ambassadors in order to improve the resources available for teaching agriscience.            

To date, seventy one teachers from 45 states and Puerto Rico have been trained as Agriscience Teacher Ambassadors by participating in the weeklong NATAA.

View the 2009 NATAA Application. The 2010 application will be out in the fall.

The 2009 NATAA will again be held in Chestertown, MD July 12-19.  For more information about NATAA, contact Craig Frederick at cfrederick@ffa.org.