COVID and the classroom Getting ag literacy message to Illinois students, teachers By Jeannine Otto
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
DANVILLE, Ill. — Hopefully, by the time the butterflies in the Pollinator Kits hatch, students will be back in their classrooms to see them up close. For now, Thea Gernand is enjoying the response of Vermilion County teachers to the new kits. “We just got the word out about them and we are fully booked for our spring sessions and we are very excited about that,” said Gernand, the coordinator for the Vermilion County Ag in the Classroom program. The Illinois Ag in the Classroom program provides lessons on agriculture and farming to students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. The program is administered at the county level, and county Farm Bureaus have an AITC coordinator, who is responsible for putting the program together and getting the information out to schools in their county. County coordinators are adapting their programs this year to a variety of classroom and learning situations. AgriNews talked to the people who are keeping ag in the classroom — wherever that classroom happens to be. A QUICK TURNAROUND Kevin Daugherty isn’t just the education director at Illinois Farm Bureau. He is also the president of the Leroy CUSD #2 School Board. So, when the word went around that the governor was going to make an announcement on March 20 about COVID-19, Daugherty pretty much knew what was coming. “Knowing the school board stuff, we were pretty sure the governor was going to make the announcement for the shutdown and that’s what he did,” Daugherty said. Anticipating that some disruption to in-person classroom learning was coming, the Ag in the Classroom staff at Illinois Farm Bureau quickly pivoted. “We made a video on Friday, and we said starting Tuesday, every day at noon until the end of the school year, we will provide a hands-on lesson and a STEM activity. We came up with new material that students and teachers could access with interest about what was going on in agriculture. We did something every day
Thea Gernand, like her fellow Ag in the Classroom coordinators across Illinois and the nation, is making sure that students and teachers in Vermilion County continue their ag education. When schools shut down in March, Gernand was able to convert her “Ag Bag” event, where teachers are supplied with lessons and materials on a specific agriculture topic or product, to meet the needs of students who were at home. She’s continued that event into the current school year. She is also offering the Pollinator Kit, where teachers can sign up to bring the kit into their classrooms and hatch butterflies next spring. until June 12,” Daugherty said. The goal was to provide content that was not just educational, but fun and stimulating, as well. “We found some sort of fun video, whether it was the Peterson Brothers or something that went along with that topic or something goofy, just to try and have a little bit of fun, as well as learning
about something,” Daugherty said. The program’s Summer Ag Institutes, where teachers visit farms and agribusiness in their counties and learn about agriculture, went virtual by way of tours, conducted by the state’s grain and livestock commodity groups, along with See COVID, Page 16
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