Cultivating Science Education With Team Ag-Ed

GLOBE has joined with Team AgEd, a national organization that supports science and math education in an agricultural context. Both partners hope to enable more U.S. students to experience GLOBE.

Team Ag Ed is composed of the National FFA Organization, the National Council for Agricultural Education and the National Association for Agricultural Educators. Agriculture combines principles of physical, chemical, and biological sciences in the production and processing of food and fiber. As agriculture has become more sophisticated, hands-on science and math have become more important in preparing students for careers in agricultural fields. “GLOBE and agri-cultural education both espouse experiential learning, so the connection with GLOBE is a natural,” said Dr. Carol Conroy, GLOBE’s Chief Educator and Director for U.S. Partnerships. The Team Ag-Ed partners agree. Anna Melodia, Director of the Education Division at National FFA, said GLOBE helps Team Ag-Ed support agriculture teachers with integrated models for classroom instruction and experiential learning, what Team Ag-Ed calls Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs).

Team Ag-Ed students are now doing GLOBE protocols.

Melodia pointed out that agricultural science and agricultural education are wide ranging. A full 20 percent of the American workforce is involved in the broader agriculture, food, fiber, and natural resources sectors of the economy. Only about 2 percent of agricultural workers are in what is traditionally thought of as arming production. The rest are in fields as diverse as aquaculture, land-scaping, soil, plant or environmental sciences, animal science, and forestry. Furthermore “ag” students are found equally in urban, suburban, and rural areas. “GLOBE makes connections for students in science and math in a way that is practical and real … and [can help] improve results in those areas,” Melodia says. “The practical application of scientific method, data collection, and analysis will make the scientific disciplines become real, important, interesting, and even

fun for students. As I see it, our involvement in this program provides benefits to strengthen our SAE and FFA involvement, makes connections with and supports education in science and math, encourages cross-disciplinary study and math, encourages cross disciplinary study and makes global connections." The GLOBE–Team Ag-Ed Partnership will work with already established partners in local areas to help recruit, train, and support agriculture teachers. In some cases, where there are no or few local partners, teachers will learn about GLOBE through Team Ag-Ed affiliated activities. Team Ag-Ed is working with GLOBE and several partners in Oregon, Indiana, and Arizona to secure grants to fund: (1) a national training team to work exclusively with agriculture teachers or agriculture-science teacher teams and (2) development of a model to integrate GLOBE into national agricultural education curriculum initiatives like Team Ag-Ed’s SAEs and the Student AgriScience Fair competiton.

Your Action:

To find out more about using GLOBE in agricultural education or FFA activities or to find out more about GLOBE–Team Ag-Ed Partnership programs, send eMail to amelodia@ffa.org or cconroy@globe.gov.

GLOBE Offline Newsletter, March 2003
GLOBE Students Help Their Communities Computers, Teachers, Higher Level Activities Boost Student Science Scores How To Mark Your Local Growing Season Compete for the 2003 GLOBE Learning Expedition	Cultivating Science Education With Team Ag-Ed GLOBE Instruments Pull-Out Section Letters From Finland New Protocols, New Leadership Mark 7th Annual GLOBE Conference