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After learning about testing water quality in the classroom, what better way to practice those skills than a hands-on, in-the-water activity? Feed the World workshop participants in Cleveland performed lab tests, then headed for Lake Erie to check the quality of the lake’s water. You can check out the water quality curriculum here. An enthusiastic group waded into the water with seines and proceeded to do some kick-seining. This method …

Mary Ann Hopple of Athens City Schools attended the Feed the World workshop in 2015. She recently won a teacher kit worth $400, full of supplies to do the FTW labs in her classroom. Hopple found the FTW workshop materials helpful. “I used the water and soil tests to help my students better understand ‘real world’ science applications. I also used cards, inspired by a sorting activity done at the workshop, to h…

Did you miss the excitement last week as Feed the World hosted its first Twitter chat?! We discussed these questions: What are some examples of Urban Ag? What are the benefits of UrbanAg? What can, or have, you grown in Urban areas? How can Urban Ag be incorporated into math, science, and Language Arts lessons in the classroom? How can I use Urban Ag? What resources are available to educators? …

Christine Snoddy teaches sixth grade science and social studies at Trimble Middle School in Athens County, Ohio. After attending a Feed the World workshop for teachers, she presented a unit about soil. Snoddy said her goal was to simply introduce the students to what soil is, what nutrients make it healthy for plants, and its importance. “I used a booklet about soil produced by Nutrients for Life, which I received at…

Laura Ringler has been named the Ohio Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) Outstanding New Career and Technical Teacher of 2016. Ringler became the agriculture teacher at Plymouth High School in 2010, and her coursework includes agriculture, food science and technology, natural resources, plant and horticulture science, communications, and leadership. For her, agriculture is “a way of life” that she enjoys sharing with her students. In her career as an agricultural …

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this visual really helped Feed the World workshop participants understand farming today. A representation of product applications showed how much is applied to fields, as well as why and when. The group enjoyed dinner and informational presentations at the Yoder farm in Plain City, OH. Josh Yoder talked about his experience in farming and answered teachers’ questions. In addition to farming 1,500 ac…

Kristin Root Reese is a farmer, wife, mom, realtor, and owner of a private cooking business using local foods. Her passion for agriculture and her desire to help people know about the food they eat motivated her to become a spokesperson for Common Ground. This website allows you to virtually tour the farms, communities and homes of CommonGround’s farmer-volunteers and consider some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding food an…

Joe DePalma teaches biology and chemistry at Dublin Coffman High School. He recently took his General Biology students through a pGLO bacterial transformation lab. DePalma placed the students in small groups and arranged the groups in a circle in the classroom, allowing them to talk through each step before moving on. Out of the 16 groups that plated bacteria, 13 ended up with the transformed pGLO bacteria. “I was impressed with the su…