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Ag foundation hosts summer course for teachersKansas Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom recently hosted a week-long graduate class for Kansas teachers. The course, Connecting Your Classroom to Kansas Agriculture was held June 6 to 10 in Manhattan at Kansas State University. The course for Kansas teachers interested in incorporating agriculture into their classroom provided an opportunity to learn about several areas of agriculture, including food and milling sciences, agronomy, biotechnology, entomology, animal sciences, and horticulture. They also learned about no-till farming at the Wayne and Rod Gfeller family farm outside of Junction City. Tours of Good Farms, Inc. swine operation in Olsburg, Hildebrand Farms Dairy in Junction City, and Lyons Angus Ranch outside of Manhattan were also included on the week's list of events. It is expected that the knowledge gained by teachers throughout this course will enable them to integrate agriculture into all subjects this upcoming school year and beyond. "With one in five students going into a career related to agriculture, the Foundation believes it is important to expose them to the possibilities by helping teachers discover agriculture and its exciting outreach," said Cathy Musick, KFAC executive director. The 3-credit hour graduate course was taught by Musick and Kansas State University faculty Steven Harbstreit, Ph.D., associate professor of agricultural education, and Kevin Donnelly, Ph.D., professor of agronomy. Scholarships provided by agriculture donors were available, which covered each teacher's tuition costs. The donors for the 2011 course included ICM, Inc., Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Dairy Commission, Kansas Grain & Feed Association, Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association, Inc., Association of Ethanol Producers, several county conservation districts, county Farm Bureaus, and local farm credit agencies. KFAC and the Sedgwick County Extension Education Center will be hosting a one-day educational class in Wichita on July 21. The course will be available as an in-service event where educators will focus on plant-based learning labs for their classrooms. To learn more about the Wichita class, KFAC and its resources, visit the KFAC website at www.ksagclassroom.org or contact the office by phone 785-532-7946 or by email at ksfac@ksu.edu.
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