Summary
University of Vermont Extension’s Northwest Crops and Soils program is excited to share a new, no-cost curriculum and educational resources to prepare 21st-century students for climate-smart solutions for agriculture. With this engaging and interactive curriculum, middle and high school students will learn how to use scientifically informed approaches to sustainability in agriculture. It and other materials are available at no cost on the University of Vermont’s Northwest Crops and Soils program Resources for Educators webpage: https://www.uvm.edu/extension/nwcrops/resources-educators.
Resource Details
The On Common Ground: Expanding Agricultural Literacy with Citizen Science (OCG) Resource Hubbrings agriculture into the classroom with student-driven experimental design and implementation.
The OCG Resource Hub provides a 13-lesson curriculum that builds student knowledge in agriculture and develops critical thinking about the practical application of the scientific method to real-world problems. The suite of resources hosted on the OCG Resource Hub also includes the following.
AgConnect is a free, teacher-controlled platform that guides students through lab and field-based experimental design and the scientific method with an agricultural focus.
360° photo tours will introduce your students to no-till and high-tunnel crop production systems in Vermont.
WE FARM (Water & Environment Farm Assessment and Risk Management), transports your students to a virtual farm. There, students’ goals are to identify potential environmental risks and choose the management practices they think will best mitigate potential issues.
Prepares Students for 21st-Century Jobs
These tools will help students prepare for today’s job market. A 2020 report for the 2020-2025 outlook summary by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and Purdue University estimated that there would be an average of 59,400 annual job openings in the food, renewable natural resources, and environmental fields from 2020 to 2025. Current graduation rates in these fields indicate that only 61 percent of these new positions will be filled. In the most recently updated U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report (2022), there were 804,600 workers employed in the agricultural industry sector. In today’s global economy, education is the currency that helps students get good jobs. Not only is there a need for highly qualified individuals in the domestic labor market, but our students must also be prepared to compete in the international market.
Increases Agricultural Literacy
The overarching goal of the OCG Resource Hub is to increase agricultural literacy. Less than a century ago, in 1935, when employment in U.S. agriculture was at its highest, 1 out of every 25 people was employed in agriculture. The most recent data show that the number is now fewer than 1 in 100 (Roser, 2019). This decrease reflects an American public that is losing a connection to agriculture, reducing Americans’ ability to make informed decisions about their agricultural purchases and policy.
Contact
Learn more about the On Common Ground: Expanding Agricultural Literacy with Citizen Science Resource Hub at the Resources for Educators webpage of the University of Vermont Extension’s Northwest Crops and Soils Program: https://www.uvm.edu/extension/nwcrops/resources-educators. If you would like to schedule an agricultural literacy professional development workshop or field trip to Borderview Agriculture Research Farm in Alburgh, contact Lindsey Ruhl at lindsey.ruhl@uvm.edu or 802-656-7622 or 802-656-7610.
On Common Ground curriculum and suite of teaching tools were developed with generous funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Award No. 2020-67038-31043.