National Teacher Award Winners

The National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization (NAITCO), U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA), and Farm Credit partner each year to honor teachers in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade (Pre-K-12) from around the country for the innovative ways they use agricultural concepts to teach reading, writing, math, science, social studies, STEM, STEAM and more. Clayton and Megan Kappauf, who teach at Oxford Academy and Central School District-Primary School in Oxford, NY, were selected as one of eight 2023 National Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award winners from across the country.

Clayton and Megan Kappauf have found creative ways to bring their passion for gardening, food production, and food processing into their classrooms. With the use of equipment such as grow towers, dehydrators, and aeroponic grow systems, students are exposed to a variety of different fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs and their uses. 

For their excellence in teaching through agriculture, Megan and Clayton Kappauf will receive an expense-paid professional development experience to the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in Orlando, Florida, where they will be recognized onstage in front of an audience of over 600 of their peers.

Making New York Chips Virtual Field Trip

Join us as we tour Marquart Farms in Gainesville, NY to learn about the potato life cycle, how potatoes are planted, and what makes this region of western New York special for growing premium chip potatoes.

This virtual field trip will have a 40-minute duration and is open to all grades K-12.

AgBadging

The AgBadging program is designed for students ages 8-11 (grades 3-5). The AgBadging Field Guide leads learners through an exploration of agriculture—what you eat, wear, and use every day. It is designed for nonformal (e.g., farm field days) and formal classroom use.

Students can earn five different themed badges and a completion badge. Badges provide recognition for learning and serve to positively motivate learning about agriculture.

Students select activities to earn badges within the themes of Agriculture & the Environment, Plants & Animals, Food & Health, Technology & Engineering, and Geography & Culture. Each theme has milestones that track the student's agricultural journey. Students select three milestones to complete for each badge.

When a student collects badges for all five themes, they earn a completion badge and a Field Scout Code Name. Students attach the completion badge to the title page of the field guide. Students receive their code name. All code names are careers in agriculture and include a short description of the career.

New on the Matrix

The National Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix provides K-12 educators with relevant standards-based instructional resources. The lesson plans and companion resources use agriculture as a context for science, social studies, and nutrition education content.

New on the Matrix is a downloadable spreadsheet of the Matrix vocabulary. You can choose to download all of the vocabulary words used in the Curriculum Matrix or sort it by grade level.

Also new to the Matrix is the addition of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework to some lessons. To find lessons with C3 framework, type "C3" into the Matrix search bar.