By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

FRANKFORT, Ky. – This is the time of year when school is far from the mind of students, but it is when teachers are busy preparing for the coming semesters.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) is offering help for those teachers by way of a program called Kentucky Proud Lessons, a series of online lesson plans that use agriculture to teach mathematics, history, geography, economics, science, social studies and practical living to students in the third, fourth and fifth grades.

 Written and pilot-tested by teachers throughout the state, the lessons are aligned with the Kentucky Program of Studies and the Core Content for Assessment, the statewide standard for lesson content in all public schools. The project got its start two years ago.
“These lessons show how agriculture impacts our state and our local communities,” Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said. “Agriculture provides food and clothing for all of us, but it also provides income and jobs to thousands of people in Kentucky’s rural areas and its large cities.

“These lessons will teach students how much agriculture means to the everyday life of every Kentuckian.”

Rayetta Boone, assistant director of KDA’s Division of Agriculture Education, Farm Safety and Farmland Preservation, said the goal of the project is to show the correlation between what one learns in the classroom with what one learns on the farm.

 “Because agriculture plays such a strong supporting role in communities across the state, our children need to understand more about it,” said Boone. “The introduction of the agriculture theme offers a practical, hands-on method to enhance learning, making it personal and meaningful.

“After all, who doesn’t like to eat, wear clothes and take medicine to get well?”

The online lessons follow the “Kentucky Proud” theme, a marketing concept to promote products grown and produced in the state, in a way to support the idea of using locally grown and produced commodities.

“The ultimate goal of the program is to create credible lessons that can assist teachers in meeting requirements in the classroom, while providing awareness and understanding about Kentucky agriculture and the connection between everyday living and learning,” said Boone.

Lesson plans include such topics as “Marketing Means More,” in which students learn the process and importance of marketing Kentucky products in retail stores. Another lesson, entitled “The Power of the Neighborhood Market,” helps students understand the rationale for buying locally grown products and the economic impact of farmers and producers on their communities.

Judy Hayden, an educator in the Daviess County school system and one of the teachers who contributed to writing lessons, comes from a farming background and hopes to teach others how important agriculture is to everyone.

“I became interested in this program because my family farms and I realize how vital it is to educate our children about the importance of agriculture in their lives,” she said.

Hayden’s idea and background information for her lesson plan, “Mush, Mush, Make Room for Mushrooms,” was inspired by her neighbor, Nancy Butler of McLean County, who began to grow mushrooms as a diversification crop through a grant from tobacco settlement money.

Hayden said the lesson involves a hands-on activity in which participants learn to convert rolls of toilet paper into edible oyster mushrooms that they will be able to harvest more than once.
“This is a doable classroom project for kindergarten through 12th-grade students,” said Hayden. “My hope is that we continue to promote the importance of agriculture and the concept that we simply cannot live without it.

“Agriculture is fun, and immersed in every curriculum project we teach.”

For more information, follow the “Kentucky Proud Lessons” link through www.kyagr.com