During a recent special presentation, students at Coon Rapids-Bayard’s Robert Deal Elementary School in kindergarten, first and second grade were asked to close their eyes and imagine what a day without agriculture would be like for them. Would they be able to do their favorite activities, such as coloring? Would they have food to eat? Would they have comfortable clothing to wear and a cozy place to sleep at night? These students quickly learned that they rely on agriculture each and every day. Melanie Bruck, education program coordinator for Loess Hills Agriculture in the Classroom, brought a tote full of items to the school to help the students understand their origins. This tote included cotton sheets and goose down pillows, boar bristle hair brushes, linoleum made from soybean oil, lanolin soap, cotton blue jeans and much more. The lesson even included information on how crayons are made from the fat of a pig. Farm Bureau Region Manager, Jim Heithoff, spoke with the children’s instructors after the event. He said, “Teachers reported to me that ‘the students were mesmerized’ by the lesson. The students were all very engaged and hanging on every word.” A Day Without Agriculture is one of more than 400 lesson plans available through the National Agriculture in the Classroom and the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation. Each one of the lessons aligns with science or social studies standards to support classroom learning. For more information, visit www.IowaAgLiteracy.org.
