Additional lesson plans designed to increase agricultural awareness and literacy are now available for teachers across the country.

The 2023 Farm Bureau Foundation Fellows launched four free Applied Digital Skills lessons dedicated to helping students learn about food, fuel and fiber. The lessons were developed with support from Grow with Google to make digital skills and agricultural literacy more accessible to students across the country, with a focus on rural classrooms.

The lessons are part of the Agriculture and Rural Communities Collection, which is available for free to educators across the U.S.

Each of the lessons focuses on a different theme: careers, celebrating local food events, pollinators and regenerative agriculture.

The lessons will give students a strong foundation in digital skills as they learn about these important topics and gain a better understanding of how their food is safely and sustainably grown.

“Our Foundation Fellows have done an outstanding job crafting these unique and engaging lessons,” said Daniel Meloy, executive director of the Foundation for Agriculture. “Whether you’re a teacher in a rural, urban or suburban classroom, these lessons can be used to teach a broad variety of technical skills while fostering understanding of agriculture.”

The lessons were developed over the course of an eight-month fellowship.

As part of the program, each Fellow will receive a stipend and Chromebooks for their classroom. The first two lessons became available on March 21, which was National Ag Day.

For more information on the Foundation Fellows program and to learn more about the four Fellows, visit the Foundation webpage.

Texas Farm Bureau also has resources and curriculum available to teachers through the Ag in the Classroom program. The multi-faceted program brings the world of agriculture to young minds and helps students of all grades to see where and how their food is grown. For more information, visit texasfarmbureau.org/aitc.