Agricultural Literacy

The Ag Literacy Program helps people of all ages better understand the importance of agriculture and natural resources to our area.

The program reaches youth and adults by providing interactive educational learning activities in and outside the classroom. The program is part of the Agriculture Education Partnership which works to educate students, teachers, and the public about agriculture in fun and creative ways. Classroom programs for students (K-12) are available upon request on various agricultural topics such as plants and seeds, soils, water, careers, renewable resources, corn, soybeans, wheat, animal nutrition, agricultural products, fiber/clothing, insects, beef, dairy, pork, embryology, apples, pumpkins, agricultural economics and marketing, biotechnology, genetics, and watersheds.

We also offer free or free-loan resources for schools (hands-on learning kits, lessons on various agricultural topics, books, videos), workshops for educators in which they earn professional development hours, and networking with other agricultural education people to strengthen agricultural literacy efforts statewide and nationally.

Hands-On Learning Resources

Abracadabra! Alohomora! Open the doors... of active discovery and watch your students explore the depths of the Agriculture industry. The lessons in the mAGic kits are multidisciplinary, all inclusive, and designed to bring math, science, social studies and Language Art to life through agriculture. The mAGic kits address the IL standards - CORE, NGSS, and Social Studies standards. The lessons include exercises for grades 4-8 in mapping, graphing, sequencing, reading, writing, experimentation, research and much more. These kits are available on a free-loan basis. Kits may be reserved in advance.

These cross-curricular thematic kits contain a collection of resources – lessons, books, videos/DVDs and more. Many lessons are aligned to the Illinois Learning Standards. Ideal for grades K-4. These kits are available on a free-loan basis.