From Crisis to Opportunity
"...there is such a big job to educate the American
people of the importance of agriculture. To have them
know that they have the cheapest, best quality and
greatest diversity of food of any nation in the history
of the world. Americans...have no idea where their food
comes from. That must be changed."
Norman Borlaug
Project Summary:
More than ten years ago the U.S. Department of
Agriculture identified a problem of agricultural
"illiteracy" among the American people; that is, they
were lacking the knowledge needed to make sound policy
decisions regarding the future of agriculture. To help
resolve this issue, both state and federal leaders have
called upon educational systems to promote the
importance of agriculture to this country's economy and
society as a whole. One facet of that is a program by
California State University, Fresno Ag Literacy
Specialist Lonna Torrico, a consultant "on loan" from
the Fresno Unified School District. Among other efforts,
the program recruits teachers and educational
administrators to serve as curriculum specialists for ag
literacy development. The curriculum specialists are
helping to develop teaching materials promoting
agriculture for students in grades Kindergarten through
12 in California schools.
Major objectives:
1. Selection of 60 (K-12) "Curriculum Specialists" -
Selection to be made from various counties and schools
in the Central Valley.
2. Orientation for the "Curriculum Specialists" -
In-services to be provided to the "Curriculum
Specialist."
3. Alignment sessions - To review existing agricultural
related curriculum and align them to the state core
standards.
4. Curriculum List for Publication - The alignment of
agricultural materials to the state core standards.
5. Ag Mentoring - "Curriculum Specialists" to work with
other educators on their respective staffs.
6. Farm - Aides - Students are recruited to work in
schools to promote agricultural education programs.
Experiments under way or completed:
Three groups of 20 teacher (
K-3,
4-6,
7-12)
were selected to work and serve as "Curriculum
Specialists." Selection was made from various counties
which included educators who had had previous
participation in model ag literacy programs.
Educators were brought onto the California State
University, Fresno campus in the fall of 2000 (K-3),
winter of 2001 (4-6),
and winter of
2002 (7-12)
for one-day orientations to the project. Copies of the
appropriate state content standards and agricultural
curriculum materials were distributed to the educators.
A curriculum consultant, Lori Mann, was hired to educate
the teachers in the process of aligning agricultural
curriculum to the state standards. The California State
Department of Education Director of Ag Literacy, Jean
Landeen, also presented and interacted with the K-12
teachers. Teachers were hired to complete the assessment
of the agricultural materials.
The educators were then brought back again to the campus
in the spring of the following year for the culmination
of their activity. During this workshop each of the
educators brought the materials they had aligned. They,
in turn, shared their findings and reported on the
innovative programs in which they were involved. (In
fact, they became the presenters in the spring meeting.)
These educators are then used as resource mentors to
teachers within their geographic area.
In addition to the educators, local high school students
involved in agriculture have been recruited to learn
more about California State University, Fresno's
agriculture program (Duncan/Wawona Summer Bridge
Program) and have been recruited to serve as
mentors/helpers with students at Wawona Middle School.
The school has been working diligently to establish an
agriculture program and juniors from Duncan Polytechnic
High School and California State University, Fresno
College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology students
have been assisting in this effort.
Significant results and accomplishments to date:
Educators have indicated on the evaluation forms that
these workshops have been one of the most valuable
workshops that they have attended. Usually, when
educators attend workshops or conferences, they are in a
listening mode. In this case, the workshops have been
interactive and hands-on and the educators feel that
they have actually been a part of the important process
of aligning ag curriculum to the state core standards.
Some of the comments made by the educators include the
following:
"The process has forced me to write my own lesson plans
in a more detailed manner."
"There are many good agricultural lesson/units for
students."
"I have a better understanding of what the standards are
since I attended this workshop."
"There is definitely a need for incorporating
agriculture into the classroom; Ag industry's desire to
line up their materials with California Standards."
"There is certainly a need for agriculture to be
incorporated into the core curriculum."
Lonna Torrico
Central Valley Ag Literacy Program
College of Agricultural
Sciences and Technology
California State University, Fresno
2910 East Barstow Avenue, M/S OF 115
Fresno, CA 93740-8009
TEL: 559.278.4559
FAX: 559.278.8564
© 1999-2008
Central Valley Agricultural Literacy Program
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