The Dudley Smith Initiative is offering grants of up to $1,500 to middle school and high school teachers to fund innovative projects that create knowledge about agriculture and its impact on the community.
Download details about the grants and an application [PDF].
Please apply before August 10, 2007.
During the past three years, The Dudley Smith Initiative has offered grants of up to $1,500 to middle school and high school teachers in the Christian County area to fund innovative projects that create knowledge about agriculture and its impact on the community.
Teachers are encouraged to creatively link what they teach to the agriculture and community system. Teachers are enabled to take advantage of the physical resources of the Dudley Smith Farm and the knowledge resources from the ongoing research under the Dudley Smith Initiative to provide their students with a deeper understanding of the agriculture and community system. In doing this, the Dudley Smith Initiative itself benefits from the interaction and feedback from the teachers and students.
Seventh grade students at Taylorville Junior High School tied art history to work at the Dudley Smith Farm. Teacher Marsha DeWilde taught of botanical illustrations of Carl Linnaeus, and asked students to create an illustration of their favorite plant at the Dudley Smith Farm After completing field studies to include sketches, measurements, and notes about the chosen plant, they used digital cameras purchased with grant funds to photograph the chosen plant.
Back at school, students used the school’s computer lab and with PhotoShop Elements software, uploaded their photos, selected their best effort, cropped the photo, and printed out a copy to work from. In the art room, using the photos, field notes, specimens they gathered at the farm, and magnifying glasses, students made careful detailed drawings, which were later transferred to watercolor paper for painting. Students identified many native plants. After the farm visit, many could correctly identify the "pasture" plants evident in our playground area. Students learned to collect information in a variety of ways, using rulers, magnifying glasses, photography, sketch drawings, words, and expert resources.
Sixth grade science class students from Litchfield encouraged awareness of agriculture through self-guided education to create a display board in one of several aspects of the industry. Students designed the information presented linking carbon sequestration to farming techniques, renewable resources or crops/animals.
Students used information in Agrilearning kits, posters and videos. In addition, a digital camera was utilized to photograph local agriculture practices and industries for use in the displays.