Agricultural News
Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom Program Expanding Lessons to the State's Youth
Tue, 24 Nov 2015 19:21:56 CST
The Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom program aims to reach more of the state's students and teachers. The education program is designed to raise agricultural literacy among school age youth across the state. Cheri Long is one of the state coordinators for the Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom program. Long said the ag literacy program is offered to pre-Kindergarten students all the way to 8th grade and the program is now expanding into high schools.
"Our students and even some of our teachers, they don't understand where their food and fiber comes from," Long said. "We need to get that impressed upon them as they grow and mature and become adults because they are going to be the ones that are going to be making our decisions as far as legislation goes and we want them to understand that agriculture is important."
The Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom is a joint project of Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, 4-H Youth Development, Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry's (ODAFF), and the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Long said the curriculum is connected to the state standards as the program incorporates agriculture in reading, science, math and social studies lessons.
Last week, the Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom received gifts from Chisholm Trail Farm Credit, Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma and CoBank totaling $20,000. Long said part of the funds will be used to develop financial literacy cards for middle school and high school.
Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays interviewed Long about the efforts of the program. Click or tap on the LISTEN BAR below to hear the full conversation. They also talk about the hands on lessons, including a new specialty crop Monopoly game featuring Oklahoma crops.
Cheri Long will also be joining Hays for our weekly In the Field report on KWTV News9 in the Oklahoma City market on Saturday morning at 6:40 AM.
For more information on the Ag In The Classroom program, click here.
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