What is Ag in the Classroom?
One of the main questions our Ag in the Classroom (AITC) Program receives is what exactly our program is all about. In short, AITC offers free, hands-on programs that teach students about agriculture. Cook County Farm Bureau (CCFB)’s AITC Program was created in 1986. Since then, our presenters have given 28,758 presentations to 683,120 students (we keep track of every presentation and every student we see, so our statistics are as accurate as possible!).
Our program’s ag literacy mission is “To expand students’ awareness and appreciation for the importance of agriculture everywhere.” That mission includes teaching students about ag topics that are relevant to their everyday lives: the food supply chain from farm to table, nutrition and healthy eating, Illinois’ soil and the importance of sustainability, agricultural careers, specialty crops through the seasons, the many ways ag keeps us warm, such as cotton, wool, and hot cocoa, and more. Every presentation includes hands-on activities, pre- and post-work, including vocabulary lists, Kahoot!, quizzes, and ag-accurate book recommendations.
AITC extends outside of the classroom as well with the Cook County Farm Bureau Foundation. We offer Farm Shadow Programs, helping middle and high school students gain insight into potential ag careers through classroom presentations and field trips. We host an Ag Leadership Academy field trip for FFA students each year, showcasing local agriculture and ag production. We celebrate National Ag Day by hosting free field trips to a working farm, where third grade students rotate through stations to learn about crops and livestock. We select an Outstanding in Their Field Ag Student of the Month, as well as an AITC Teacher of the Year, recognizing contributions to agriculture. We offer a bookmark art contest every school year, and the bookmarks are distributed to AITC classrooms. We attend Career Days with booths and presentations, teaching students of all ages about ag career opportunities. According to the USDA, in 2022, 10.4% of U.S. employment was in the agricultural and food sector, with 22.1 workers on farms and in restaurants, grocery stores, food processing, distribution, and retail.
CCFB’s AITC Program also has resources available to teachers, including free microgreens and soil kits, PDCH workshops, summer professional development opportunities (Summer Ag Institute), Illinois AITC’s Ag Mags and lesson plans, and a library of books to borrow. We offer a Spring Mini Grant to help teachers fund ag projects in the classroom. We also host classes and programs and public libraries, zoos, and events throughout Cook County, bringing ag education to all residents of Cook County.
Cook County Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom Program is more than teaching about farming. It’s dispelling the myths that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, that working in agriculture is wearing jean overalls in a cornfield, and that ag is only in rural areas. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, Cook County has 154 farms and 10,281 acres of farmland. Horticulture makes up our county’s largest market value of ag products sold, followed by grains. We rank #1 in the state for sales of horses, ponies, mules, burros, and donkeys. We have hydroponics, aquaculture, greenhouses, and indoor growing facilities. We have pollinators, including bees and Monarch butterflies. We even have an ag high school, the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. There is agriculture in Cook County, not only the growing of crops and the raising of livestock, but also the movements of goods and services with highways and interstates, two international airports, railways, Lake Michigan, and rivers.
Cook County is the most populous county in Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the U.S., after Los Angeles County, California. Everyone is connected to agriculture, whether it’s through the food we eat, clothes we wear, or fuel in our vehicles. In 1900, 40% of the U.S. population lived on a farm; today, that number is less than 2%. With a population generations removed from the farm, yet still eating, wearing clothes, and being transported, Agriculture in the Classroom is more important now than ever before.
For more information about our AITC Program, visit www.cookcfb.org or email [email protected]. To request AITC, visit bit.ly/AITCplease for elementary schools and bit.ly/AITCPleaseHS for high schools.