Ag in the Classroom Connects Students and Farmers

Pam Jones, a dairy farmer in Pulaski County, poses with just some of the many props she uses in her Ag in the Classroom sessions. She also enjoys creating new lessons on special topics. Photo credit: Indiana Farm Bureau

Ag in the Classroom (AITC) is an outreach program promoting connections between farmers and classrooms with the goal of making students more knowledgeable about agriculture.

While the program is coordinated on a national level by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it’s coordinated at the state level by Indiana Farm Bureau.

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“AITC is an ag outreach program that promotes agricultural literacy across all classrooms in Indiana,” says Micah Dillman, INFB’s education coordinator. “We’re able to do this through our volunteers, and we also provide resources to teachers to be used in their classrooms.”

Crucial to AITC is the volunteer component. In 2022, 122 active volunteers provided programming. Those volunteers reached 35,000 students statewide.

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One of those volunteers is Pam Jones, a dairy farmer in Pulaski County. Jones, who was the 2022 AITC Volunteer of the Year, has volunteered for more than 10 years. Jones focuses on her county’s first, second and fourth grades and also provides materials to teachers, particularly fifth-grade teachers.

“I have great teachers that I work with,” she says.

She uses a variety of different lessons, though the ones involving dairy are close to her heart.

“We make butter, talk about cows and calves, all the dairy products and nutrition,” Jones says.

She also gives lessons on apples, grain crops, soil types and more.

“I think it’s very important to help the youngest generation know where their food comes from and how much agriculture is woven into their everyday lives,” Jones says.

Dillman says outreach to teachers is very important as well. In 2022, a total of 1,329 teachers participated in AITC training through INFB, impacting more than 136,000 students.

Before coming to INFB earlier this year, Dillman spent eight years as a middle and high school ag teacher and served as an FFA advisor.

“There’s so much disconnect in the general public as to where their food comes from – both a lack of information and misinformation,” Dillman says. “The AITC program allows teachers to incorporate factual ag information to help bridge that gap when it comes to their food and why farmers do what they do.”

For more information on Ag in the Classroom, visit infb.org/INFBAgEd or agclassroom.org.

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