By D'Lyn Ford
North Carolina high school students probably aren’t thinking about careers when they sign up for a required biology class. But maybe they should be.
Showing how biology is connected to agriculture in the real world – including a growing number of jobs – is the goal of a four-year project funded by a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. NC State University’s Farm to Classroom, an immersive sustainable plant systems agriculture training program for teachers from the mountains to the sea, is part of a $6.5 million USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture investment in increasing agricultural literacy among K-12 teachers.
The starting point for the Farm to Classroom project is providing fresh inspiration for North Carolina high school biology teachers through field trips to actual farm fields, as well as plant nurseries, agricultural research centers and hands-on lab sessions, says Liz Driscoll, 4-H youth specialist for NC State University’s departments of Crop and Soil Sciences, Entomology and Plant Pathology, and Horticultural Science.
“So if students are learning about cell biology, plant physiology or ecological processes like the carbon cycle, agriculture is a space to make it relevant and meaningful to young people – to bring it to life, if you will,” Driscoll says.
Field trips will begin in the summer of 2027 and continue in 2028 and 2029. Driscoll says the proposal calls for working with 56 teachers who would reach an estimated 1,800 high school students in North Carolina.
Source : ncsu.edu