Introducing SD Soybean’s New Curriculum

Aug 01, 2024

Soybeans hold immense potential not only in South Dakota fields, but also in South Dakota’s agriculture classrooms. Thanks to the support of the South Dakota Soybean Checkoff, a new agriculture curriculum launched in July for agriculture educators across the state.

This new curriculum places soybeans at the forefront of learning. With ten topics spanning various agricultural pathways, it integrates state standards while offering a fresh perspective on the versatile crop. From exploring soybean composition and diseases, to delving into soy’s applications in aquaculture, food processing, and biofuels production, each lesson promises engaging, hands-on experiences that will resonate with learners across the state.

Within the curriculum, an array of resources awaits educators, offering a comprehensive toolkit for classroom instruction. From detailed guides for teachers to reading materials for students, instructional aids, worksheets, supplementary resources, and engaging projects, each component is designed to enrich the classroom experience. The curriculum provides a wealth of information in different formats so educators can adapt the topics to their own classrooms and learners.

This curriculum project also includes funding for lab kits, curated to equip teachers with essential materials to implement the ten topics into their agriculture classroom. Each kit includes a copy of the curriculum and the materials for five hands-on labs for up to twenty students.

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Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.