By Julie Tomascik
Editor

Amid a global pandemic, Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) continued to reach teachers and students through various programs and educational activities to help grow agricultural literacy and awareness.

In 2020, TFB’s Organization division, which handles education and outreach, communicated with teachers, students and members of the public through classroom activities and virtual events.

At the beginning of the year, TFB’s efforts centered around in-person activities.

The organization opened the doors to agriculture with a new interactive exhibit at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo in February.

The modern exhibit—Doorways to Agriculture—replaced the organization’s previous premier exhibit, Planet Agriculture, which was a longtime fixture at fairs, stock shows and other events.

Doorways to Agriculture features state-of-the-art touchscreen kiosks, oversized interactive “books” for children and a theater screening videos produced by TFB. A walk-through trailer full of displays and games encourages all ages to learn more about Texas agriculture.

Nearly 107,000 adults and children interacted with the new exhibit in Fort Worth.

Also in early 2020, TFB’s school visit program was just beginning for the year and had reached over 15,000 kindergarten through eighth grade students. As part of the educational program, urban and rural students learn about careers in agriculture, study regions of Texas, plant a seed and watch it grow and have the chance to meet local farmers.

But in March, the novel coronavirus pandemic impacted the country, and it changed the way TFB reached teachers and students.

“As we navigated the global pandemic, we had to alter our educational outreach efforts and think creatively to engage and interact with teachers and students,” Whit Weems, TFB director of Organization, said. “We established new programs, added new elements to traditional programs and focused efforts on digital assets and materials.”

When schools began closing last March, TFB’s Educational Outreach and Field Operations staff created virtual lessons and ag-tivities to help with hands-on learning.

“With education transitioning to distance learning during this time, we recognized that we needed to provide educational resources for students to continue learning about agriculture at home,” Weems said. “Distance learning doesn’t mean that hands-on lessons or an introduction to agricultural education had to be postponed.”

To meet this need, TFB staff and county leaders created videos that varied in topic and length, as well as guided activities to go with each.

“We adapted our current lessons and created new activities to help parents and educators through this unprecedented time,” he said. “The guided worksheets encourage students to actively engage in the videos. They’re both educational and fun.”

Teacher workshops and the annual Summer Agricultural Institute transitioned into a virtual Teacher Ag Academy.

The ag academy was a professional development event designed to show teachers how to bring agriculture to life in the classroom and allow them to ask questions and network with other educators. The free event included three presentations and a virtual farm tour.

Thirty-five teachers attended the virtual workshop and have a potential direct impact to 5,211 students.

In addition to TFB-hosted workshops, TFB staff also participated in various virtual school and Education Service Center presentations, reaching 354 students and 110 educators.

“Our events are a way to bring agriculture to teachers, but we also participate in educator workshops hosted by other groups to meet teachers and educational staff in other areas,” Weems said.

TFB also launched a quarterly newsletter for teachers to communicate with more than 500 educators about Farm Bureau resources and opportunities.

Over the summer, 359 students completed the Virtual Leadership Conference where they learned about free enterprise, constitutional government, setting goals and leadership.

TFB also launched a Collegiate Farm Bureau pilot program with five university chapters working on charters.

TFB Communications staff held a virtual engagement training with Texas 4-H Youth Livestock and Equine Ambassadors in the summer, and Texas FFA members interacted with TFB Commodity and Regulatory staff during virtual presentations and practice for leadership and advocacy contests.

Other programs launched by the organization in 2020 included the Lesson Plan Challenge and the Ag Inquiry Science Fair.

The Lesson Plan Challenge provided a unique opportunity to grow curriculum resources for Texas teachers to increase agricultural literacy and awareness across all grades and subject areas.

The Ag Inquiry Science Fair helped fifth-grade students explore agriculture and better understand the science involved in farming and ranching. Project categories and components aligned with TEKS to reflect grade-level standards and material learned in the classroom.

“In this unprecedented situation, we were a resource for educators and parents. We established new programs this year to bring agriculture to life for teachers and students that could be adapted for in-person or virtual learning,” Weems said. “Although a computer screen can’t take the place of face-to-face interaction, our hope is that students are still able to broaden their knowledge about agriculture, while also having fun.”

Prior to the pandemic, county leaders and TFB Field Operations staff hosted 23 Ag Days. TFB’s mobile learning barns, which are trailers that feature up to seven different crops and livestock, were used to help initiate conversations with 9,526 school children and nearly 5,600 adults and children prior to the social distancing and stay-at- home orders implemented due to the pandemic.

“Our efforts in 2020 have shown that despite the greatest of challenges, we can still work toward our mission to bring agriculture to those who don’t see it firsthand,” Weems said. “We have persevered and look forward to making an even bigger impact this year.”

For more information about the educational programs and available resources, visit https://texasfarmbureau.org/aitc.