Two-day professional development workshops for teachers will be offered throughout the summer and around the state by the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation and partner organizations.

The workshops will help teachers apply Iowa Core standards including social studies and science in the context of agriculture. The workshops will also use agriculture to teach other core concepts and skills like language arts and math. 

The events are planned as in-person events but can be converted to an online format if health and safety concerns don’t allow for the in-person events. 

“After taking the course, I am amazed by the complexity of farming,” said 2019 workshop participant Heather Terhune. “There is so much more to agriculture than I even realized, and I can't wait to share this with my students. I think this course was an amazing reminder of the importance of hands-on learning. Agriculture is the perfect hands-on topic to learn about in my classroom.”

The dates of the workshops are June 8-9 in Washington, June 9-10 in Hampton, June 10-11 in Burlington, June 15-16 in Independence, June 16-17 in Harlan, June 17-18 in Oskaloosa, June 18-19 in Sioux City, July 9-10 in Elkader, July 13-14 in Ames, Aug. 6-7 in Grundy Center,and Aug. 6-7 in Spencer. 

The workshops will be available for teacher recertification credit and graduate level credit. “I've recommended this class to a lot of teachers since our session ended. I really enjoyed all the lessons we learned,” said Andrew Severson, who attended a workshop in 2019. 

Workshops are made possible by supporters of the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation including the Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area, Bayer, REAP Con­servation Education Program and Farm Credit Services of America ,with additional support from Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Pork Producers Association, Corteva Ag­ris­cience, GROWMARK and the Iowa Beef Industry Council. To find out more about workshops in your area, visit www.IowaAgLiteracy.org, email info@iowaagliteracy.org or call 515-331-4182.