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2016 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine
Lincoln Daily
News.comMarch 24, 2016 37
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discussing it, doing hands-on projects like craft items
that can be taken home, or worksheets such as word
puzzles.
Ag in the Classroom requires the cooperation of the
individual schools as well as the individual teachers.
Hyde said the program continues to grow as schools
and teachers are recognizing its value. She said it’s
hard to believe that in this area there are children who
don’t understand where their food comes from, but
there are. For example, she said she asked a class
“Where do your chicken nuggets come from?” The
answers she got, was mom buys them in a plastic
bag at the grocery store, or all the food at the school
arrives in a big truck. The children didn’t realize that
the chicken nugget comes from a real chicken and that
real chicken is grown on a farm.
She went on to say, sometimes working with these
young children is just funny. Remembering the
classes on cotton, she said the room was full of pink
faces and giggles when she began talking about their
underwear, and what many of the students were
wearing is a product made from cotton, which of
course is grown on a farm.
Kids were also surprised to learn that dollar bills are
not made of paper. Hyde said explains this by talking
about how a dollar bill does not fall apart the way
paper would when it gets wet. That is because though
it may look like paper, the bill is a fabric containing
cotton.
Another fun part of the classroom experience is
introducing kids to a raw food product. Hyde said one
Thanksgiving-time lesson plan included talking about
cranberries. The kids had to taste food products made
from cranberries and even the raw cranberry. She said
the reaction to the raw product, which is quite sour
and bitter, was comical. But kids came to understand
that the cranberry sauce that comes in a can is the
result of a berry that is grown on the farm.
Hyde said that Ag in the Classroom teachers have a lot
of resources and a great support network. She meets
with a regional group where they learn to instruct
certain topics, share successes and garner new ideas
from one another.
This year “Teen Teachers” is being kicked off in
Logan County in addition to Ag in the Classroom.
The Teen Teachers involves local 4-H youth who are
also involved in Future Farmers of America. The
program teaches the students to be the teacher in the
classroom. Teen Teachers is made possible in Illinois
by Evelyn Brandt and the Brandt Foundation, and
is also being implemented through the University of
Illinois Extension.
In Logan County, Carissa Akpore, working closely
with Hyde, is taking the lead. Akpore said that she
has worked with the Teen Teacher program before
coming to Logan County and is excited to be able to
utilize it locally.
Hyde and Akpore explained that their first step was
to visit with Doctor Penny Wittler, Ag instructor,
department head, and FFA advisor at Lincoln
Community High School. Wittler was also excited
and encouraged her students to volunteer.
To date, Hyde said there are a four LCHS Teen
Teachers teams with three members on each team.
Students participating are Sarah Irwin, Dawn Irwin,
and Reagan Tibbs on Team 1; Katie Lynn, Alexis
Bakken, and Breana Haynes on Team 2; Cierra