Ag Foundation Expands STEM Education Efforts

Since 2006, the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has been on a mission to build awareness and understanding of agriculture through education. Now we are taking these efforts to the next level to ensure that U.S. agriculture remains a leader in innovation, sustainability and global food security. Our goal is to see agriculture applied in STEM classrooms around the country.

Bringing Ag into STEM

Nearly all 17 million high school students in the U.S. take a science class to graduate. If those students were introduced to agriculture in science class, imagine how that could impact their understanding of where their food comes from.

Today, fewer consumers have a connection to farming, leading to misconceptions about how their food, fiber and renewable fuel is grown. But there is also a lot of interest and curiosity when it comes to farming, and a high level of trust in farmers and ranchers. We want to answer that curiosity and build on that trust, starting in the classroom.

Getting agriculture into formal science education will help students form a base knowledge of agriculture—a critical step in creating an informed consumer.

STEM Fuels Ag

Innovations in agriculture (think AI, advances in precision agriculture and software technology) are critical to continued food security and sustainability.

Science is the catalyst to innovation.

Reaching students with real-world and hands-on examples brings science to life, and opens a world of possibilities through multiple career paths.

For agriculture to grow into the future, we need students today to be interested and invested in the future of food.

Bridging the Ag Gap in STEM

The Food and Agriculture Center for Science Education, a project of American Farm Bureau’s Ag Foundation, is focused on three main goals to bridge the agriculture gap in STEM education:

• Connect agriculture experts with STEM education leaders to build trusted relationships so that agriculture scientists can have an impact on STEM education.

• Create high-quality learning materials to reach more students and teachers, increase knowledge about science and agriculture and prepare students for future careers in these fields.

• Use local agriculture resources to support STEM education to build local partnerships that help bring science to life in the classroom and build long-term connections to local agriculture.

Are you ready to go on this ambitious journey with us? If you believe in our mission and critical work, we encourage you to sign up for the Ag Foundation’s newsletter to keep up with the latest news, our ag literacy efforts for K-5 grades and our new high school science curriculum plans.

We can’t bring every student out to the farm, but we can bring the farm to every student. The Ag Foundation is on a mission to do just that.

Julia Recko is managing director of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.