2014 Annual ReportKansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom

Celebrating 32 Years and Counting of Connecting Classrooms to Kansas Agriculture

Agriculture AdvocateChallenge

Challenge dollars are used to maintain current educational resources. In addition, a portion of these donations are used to provide new delivery methods and lesson plans for Kansas Youth.

Kansas WheatKansas Soybean CommissionKansas Corn CommissionCargill Inc.

Agriculture Advocate - $10,000 and over

Farm Credit Associations of KansasCoBank- Greenwood Village, COICM, Inc.- ColwichCHS Foundation- Inver Grove Heights, MNKansas Farm Bureau

Standard of Excellence - $5,000-9,999

K-State College of Agriculture- ManhattanChase County Conservation District- Cottonwood FallsKaltenbacher Charitable Trust- Cottonwood Falls

Premier - $3,000-4,999

Kansas Ag Bankers DivisionKansas Dairy CommissionThe Scoular Foundation- Omaha, NEAgMark, LLC- BeloitStoskopf Farms, Inc, Dean and Mary Anne Stoskopf*Garden City Coop, Inc.- Garden CityFarmway Coop, Inc.- BeloitFranklin County Conservation District- Ottawa*Finney County Farm Bureau Association- Garden City

Classroom Connection - $2,000-2,999

Kansas Grain Sorghum Land O’Lakes- Saint Paul, MNMid-Kansas Cooperative Association- MoundridgeValley Co-op, Inc.- WinfieldFrisbie Construction Co., Inc.- GypsumHigh Plains Journal- Dodge CityAg Service, Inc.- HillsboroFrontier Ag, Inc.- OakleyOsage County Conservation District- LyndonFinney County Conservation District- Garden CityMidway Co-Op Association- OsborneIndustrial Maintenance, Inc.- WichitaFrontier Ag, Inc.

Literacy Link-$1,000-1,999

David and Roberta SpencerBarton County Conservation District- Great Bend*Central National Bank- ManhattanGreat Plains Manufacturing, Inc.- Salina*Jade Millwrights, Inc.- HiawathaSheridan County Farm Bureau Association- HoxieDouglas County Conservation District LawrenceButler County Farm Bureau Association- El DoradoRiley County Conservation District- ManhattanRiley County Farm Bureau- ManhattanMonsanto

Legacy-$500-999

*Indicates 30/30 Vision Funding Donors

THANK YOU!TO ALL OF OUR SUPPORTERS

AND DONORS1

Table of Contents2014 in Review

March 2014 “Plants on the Plate” grand prize winner: Savannah Nichols, Butler County

Be Ag-Wise Workshop: Olathe, February 8, 2014Nearly 100 teachers, Farm Bureau volunteers, conser-vation district personnel, and FFA teens participated in 1 of 4 Saturday trainings, with a focus on soil. Every-thing from soil formation, 3 major soil particles, mud-

shakes, worm farms, and composting.

Summer Institute: Manhattan, June 10-13, 2014Nine teachers earned professional development hours as they learned basic lesson plans about plant, animal, and food science. There was a focus on technology and agriculture careers. Another Summer Institure was held in Colby, where 23

teachers attended.

Summer Institute: June 3-5, 201421 Farmers across Kansas attended this summer insti-tute, where “Plants have a Place in the Classroom” was the main focus. Dr. Domielly, K-State Agronomy profes-sor, took the lead in this institute. Topics discussed in-cluded plant growth, the development of major crops in Kansas, and soils. Each participant received an Explor-ing Plants KS Crops Educator Guide produced by KFAC and funded by the Kansas National Resource Conserva-

tion Service.

Education Symposium: K-State Union, October 9, 2014103 pre-service students in the College of Education were introduced to KFAC resources. The educators learned about five major Kansas crops, plant parts and growth cycles, math/grain calculations, earth science, and “Water-

shed in My Backyard.”

Tailgate Event: Manthattan, August 30, 2014This event was held at the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center, where the Wildcats defeated the Stephen F.

Austin Lumberjacks 55 to 16.

1. Agriculture Advocate Challenge2. 2014 In Review3. Letters from the Board Chair & Executive Director4. 2014 Board of Directors5. Teacher of the Year6. Janet Sims Memorial Teacher of the Year

Letter from the Executive Director

CATHY MUSICKExecutive Director

Cathy Musick is an Ellis County, KS native. She grew up on a purebred Simmental and Angus cattle ranch near Victoria. Her family grew dryland wheat and grain sorghum.

She has an undergraduate degree from K-State in Agriculture Sci-ence and a masters degree from K-State in Adult and Continuing Education

Cathy has fourteen years of ex-perience as a Cooperative Exten-sion Educator in four counties in Kansas: Wallace, Finney, Doug-las, and Gove counties.

Cathy has served KFAC as Exec-utive Director since February of 2006. Her greatest joy is to help teachers find resources that allow them to incorporate agriculture into their established curriculum of math, science, language arts and social studies!

Cathy also serves on the Nation-al Agriculture in the Classroom Public Relations Committee.

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Recently, I was encouraged to read the book, “Abundance—the Future is Better Than You Think” by Dr. Peter Diamandis (Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation) and Steven Kotler (bestselling author and science journalist). What a great springboard of ideas for me! I would highly recommend reading the book through the lens of KFAC’s mission and vision. While reading, pay particular attention to the education and agriculture section! The book will energize you with new ways to look towards the future of education and agriculture sys-tems. It will give us new vocabulary in our appeals to prospective donors and reports to cur-rent donors! It will inform our actions as we look to future delivery methods as determined by changes in our education and agriculture systems.

I’ve also been energized by the work completed by teachers who have attended our Summer Institutes. Recently, I was able to observe the educational activities designed by the teachers at Williamsburg Elementary in Franklin County. They are working hard to follow the model of Walton Rural Center. As I toured the school I saw many displays, bulletin boards and com-pleted projects that had their roots in KFAC educational resources. For example, there were trifold displays about major crops in Kansas, a demonstration featuring worm and soybean plants, an apple growth and development sequencing project, and plans for a harvest math day using the model from Diana Deniston, KFAC Teacher of the Year from Garden City!

I’ve also heard from teachers at Blue Stem Elementary and from Chase County Schools about their efforts to bring project based learning into their classrooms using agriculture as the teaching tool! Each school has animals and plants they are raising. Check out their websites to see pictures of their students in action!

Recently, we adopted a more intensive delivery system for agriculture educational materials. We are operating this system under the name, Connect 2 Agriculture. It includes A + STEM (Agriculture + Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in-service training for teachers. It also includes two summer institutes for interested school districts in a community based model that involves elementary, middle, high school and community college youth. What a great way to connect and energize teachers as well as form partnerships with local agricultural experts. Local, state and national agriculture companies are excited about investing in this delivery method that will inform them of the changes in knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the students who participate in this project based learning opportunity! What a great investment opportunity by agriculture companies in their future employee base!

Now is our time! With new educational standards that emphasize project based learning, teachers are asking for lesson plans and training to connect real world use of knowledge to required curriculum for their students. We need to be diligent in our efforts to seize the day and offer our resources to teachers across the state!

The future is bright as we continue to Connect Classrooms to Kansas Agriculture!

KFAC Staff

Cathy MusickExecutive Director

Kelly IversonInterim Program

Assistant

Shelby BargmannStudent Education Resources Coordi-

nator

Jena ErnstingStudent Correspon-dance and Data Base

Manager

Board of Directors2014

Board Chair

Trent WinterClifton, KS

Chair-Elect

Bill SpiegelManhattan, KS

Secretary

Joanne PrideySalina, KS

Treasurer & Finance

David HaverkampManhattan, KS

Past Chair

Bill WoodLawrence, KS

Education

Amy LangvardtAlta Vista, KS

Education

Jessica Baetz-CaylorSnith Center, KS

Marketing

Holly MartinBucklin, KS

Members at Large

Cindy Baldwin McPherson, KS

Roberta SpencerCircleville, KS

Jim AdamsManhattan, KS

Mary Anne StoskophHoisington, KS

State Board of Education

John BaconOlathe, KS

Kansas Department of Agriculture

Beth RiffelTopeka, KS

KSU College of Agriculture

Don BoggsManhattan, KS

KSU College of Education

Barbara HavlicekManhattan, KS

Representatives

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Tiffany Piatt, a first grade teacher at Ray E. Heller Elementaryin Neodesha, Kan., was recently named the 2014 Janet Sims Memorial Teacher of the Year by theKansas Foundation for Agriculture in the

Classroom (KFAC).

Piatt was honored with the award at the Bookmark Art and Teacher of the Year cel-ebration during Kan-sas Ag Month in March 2014 in Topeka.

Piatt integrates agricul-ture into her classroom as a way to enhance her science and social stud-ies units. In the fall se-mester, she introduces students to harvesting applesand makes homemade applesauce.

During the spring,Piatt teaches her first grade students about plant structureand growth, landforms, soil and the economy. She says teaching these as-pects to kids at a young age helps them to better understand history, culture, family and economy.

"It is important for the students to

Teacher of the YearFirst Grade teacher named Ag Foundation’s

2014

start understanding thesteps in the process of how consumers receive goods," Piatt says.

“They have a high interest for these things at a young age and they’re curi-ous to know more about theworld around them. I’m seizing that op-portunity.”

Flat Stanley is an idea Piatt was intro-duced to by a local blogger who helped her connect her first-grade classroom

to agriculture all over the nation. Piatt’sclassroom used Flat Aggie, the female version of Flat Stanley to learn about the variety in agriculture.

Each week, farmers would write and send pictures to Piatt’s class that dis-played the type of farming in their par-

ticular state.

“The students alsolearned that school buses are some-times used for watermelon harvesting!

Technology plays a vital rolein the advance-mentof agriculture, such as irrigation and equipment.”

Piatt was able toincorporate math,science, social studies and read-ingthrough the Flat Aggie project.Piatt also teaches about farm safety and hopes to have a school garden this year.

The Janet Sims Memorial Teacher of the Year award is named in honor of Janet Sims, who passed away in June 2007 from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Sims, an educator herself, had served on the KFAC board from November 2005 un-til her death.

“My students learned about drip irrigation,

which they found fasci-nating,” Piatt says.

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ture though math,” Deniston says.

She wants to get students excited about

Dianna Deniston, an Instructional Coach at Victor Ornelas El-ementary School in Garden City, Kan., was recently named the 2015 Janet Sims Memorial Teacher of the Year by the Kansas Foundation for Agri-culture in the Class-room (KFAC).

The KFAC Janet Sims Memorial Teacher of the Year award rec-ognizes teachers who instill a passion for learning about agri-culture within their students. The Foundation honors one teacher annually who has successfully integrated agricultural education into his or her pre-existing curricula. Denis-ton will be honored with the award at the Bookmark Art and Teacher of the Year celebration during Kansas Ag Month in March 2015.

Deniston integrates agriculture into her classroom coming up with the idea to have an Ag Math Harvest Day after tak-ing a KFAC course at K-State.

“I learned about the investment of the agriculture industry into this program and made a commitment to take what I had learned and the enthusiasm back to my school and create an opportunity for the students to experience agricul-

Teacher of the Year

agriculture, because Finney County’s economic existence is based on agricul-

Instructional Coach named Ag Foundation’s

“It was hands on, students were engaged,

the interest level was high, the presenters were very informa-tive, and we had ‘real farmers’

helping out,” Deniston says. “The environment we set up had an

agricultural richness that students embraced.”

ture. Many of the parents of students at Victor Or-nelas Elementary School work in agriculture, but the kids know little about it.Deniston was able to in-corporate math that tied to agriculture by setting up stations in two gyms that where activities at each encouraged stu-dents to use both math and agriculture. For ex-ample, one station was entitled Pumpkin Pie in a Bag, where students measured liquid and dry ingredients using cups and smaller units.

“We’d like to congratulate Dianna on her teaching accomplishments,” said Cathy Musick, KFAC executive direc-tor. “She is definitely a role model for her peers and very deserving of the award. KFAC applauds teachers who implement agriculture into their class-rooms. It’s encouraging to see creative examples of knowledge gained during summer institutes applied in a school district!”

As KFAC’s Teacher of the Year, Denis-ton will have the opportunity to attend the National Agriculture in the Class-room (NAITC) Conference, which will be held in Louisville, Ky., June 2015. High Plains Journal will sponsor her trip.

KFAC1990 Kimball Avenue

Manhattan, KS66502

785-320-4350ksfac@ksu.edu

www.ksagclassroom.org

Looking Forward...

Connect 2 Agriculture: Agriculture & Stem (Sci-

ence, Technology, Engineer-ing, Math) 1/2 day teacher

training

Be Ag-Wise: Theme based professional

development

More county Ag in the Classroom programs

(model McPherson county)

Strong support for Walton Rural Center,

Service Valley Charter School, Chase County

schools

Seamless pathway to Ag education; Ag

Education K-14

Increased teacher trainings (pre-service

and in-service)

MISSIONConnecting classrooms to Kansas

agriculture.

VISIONAgriculture in every classroom,

everyday.

The Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. KFAC was founded in 1982 as part of a nationwide initiative to help students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture in the economy and society, so that they may become citizens who support wise agricultural policies.