Ag Moves Highlight: Pierce City FFA
Nine Pierce City FFA students enjoy teaching their younger peers about agriculture in #Agri-Ready Designated Lawrence County through a partnership between Missouri Farmers Care and the Pierce City FFA Chapter under the direction of advisor Allison Fix. Through Agriculture Education on the Move™ (Ag Moves), FFA members serve as educators, gaining hands-on experience in the classroom teaching ten lessons with hands-on activities provided by Missouri Farmers Care. Pierce City FFA members are advocating for agriculture and experiencing personal growth as they deliver Ag Moves lessons. The students have been inspired to meet the growing curiosity of local elementary students by creating additional lessons about agriculture in southwest Missouri.
A variety of reasons led Pierce City FFA members to volunteer to participate in Ag Moves: overcoming fears, volunteerism, fun, and career preparedness. “I thought it would be fun to teach kids and watch them grow as they discover new things,” said Emma, a sophomore member. “I love kids and want to be an agriculture teacher, so I thought I should see what being a teacher is like,” said sophomore Chloe. “I love it. Teaching is the best part of my Fridays!” shared Elizabeth, a sophomore educator.
During the fall 2023 semester, Pierce City FFA members taught ten Ag Moves lessons to all three second grade classes at Pierce City Elementary. During the ten-week program, elementary students learned about crops, livestock, soil and water conservation, nutrition, careers in agriculture and more through STEM-focused lessons and curriculum which meet state learning objectives in the areas of science, math, social studies and language arts. Hands-on activities are incorporated in each lesson, providing fun and interactive ways of learning. Missouri Farmers Care, which hosts Ag Moves, provides FFA partners with training, curriculum, and all lesson materials at no cost.
“My FFA students have taken the reins and full responsibility for the program and really enjoyed their time in the 2nd grade classrooms. Each week they would come back after teaching their lessons with big grins on their faces and stories to share about how much fun they had. Any opportunity to teach agriculture is a great opportunity and I'm thrilled these students chose to do just that,” said Ms. Allison Fix, Pierce City FFA Advisor.
“Pierce City has done a dynamite job advocating for ag literacy,” said Melissa Wilson who serves as the Southwest Regional Lead for Ag Moves and provides support to FFA chapters utilizing the program. “Even though the chapter had completed the ten weeks of Ag Moves, I learned that they started creating their own lessons so they could continue teaching. During a recent visit, two girls shared their goat lessons with me, and they were amazing! Several members shared that teaching Ag Moves was their favorite part of their week.”
“Please let us go back! We’ll make our own lessons!” was the promise of Pierce City’s Ag Moves FFA student educators to advisor Allison Fix when they had completed their original ten lessons through Ag Moves. Pierce City FFA students were inspired by the components of the Ag Moves lessons and used them as examples to craft their own. As they continue to develop their own curriculum, the FFA members are excited to choose topics addressing, as they describe it, ‘things that Pierce City kids are seeing outside their classroom windows’. They are planning lessons inspired by questions from their second-grade pupils entitled ‘Horses’ and ‘What Is FFA?’. They have already presented a lesson guiding second graders to design their own farms and a lesson about sheep and goats which included a video about fainting goats just for fun. “When we played the video several of the students mimicked it by falling out of their chairs. It was a good laugh for all of us. The classroom teacher still plays the video for them,” shared Emma.
Local support of Ag Moves is sustained by high school teachers facilitating the efforts of student educators by allowing them to step away from class to deliver Ag Moves lessons. Elementary teachers have warmly welcomed these enthusiastic student educators and the agriculture lessons they deliver into their classrooms. “I think the high school students did a fabulous job preparing and implementing hands-on, engaging agricultural lessons for my second-grade students. It was always their favorite part of the week. My students absolutely loved getting to know and build strong relationships with the Ag Moves ‘teachers’,” said Laura May, a second-grade classroom teacher at Pierce City.
Partnership with the Ag Moves program has given the FFA student educators the opportunity to experience the thrill of connection. A lesson on dairy cattle and dairy products is often cited as a favorite among elementary students. Emma, Chloe, Elizabeth, and fellow sophomore and Ag Moves student educator Maylee, participated in the FFA Dairy Cattle Judging Career Development Event (CDE) in the spring of 2023.
“Since we were on the dairy judging team last year, getting to teach the kids about dairy was like connecting a piece of who we are and what we know to the kids,” Elizabeth said. Maylee added, “The kids loved the hands-on butter making activity. Since we had thoroughly studied dairy cattle, we shared facts with the kids that weren’t included in the lesson.” “We got to see the kids having ‘a-ha’ moments about agriculture. Is this what our ag teachers see in us? When I learn about agriculture does it have the same big impact on my ag teacher as the big impact I feel when I see these kids getting to learn?” Elizabeth continued.
Ag Moves helps FFA students hone their agriculture knowledge and presentation skills and develop as leaders. These added values are recognized by everyone involved with the program. “It is wonderful to see the growth in the high school students from the start of the program until now. You can see the confidence they have gained and the improvement of their lessons and classroom management skills. This program has been so much fun and an amazing learning opportunity for our students,” said Vicki Walker, Pierce City second-grade teacher.
“I have always been shy, but being in front of the kids has made me a better public speaker. I have grown a lot through giving the presentations,” said Emma. “Because of my experience, I am going to explore an agriculture teaching workshop this year,” shared Elizabeth. “Ag Moves has given me a push and helped me know that teaching is what I want to do,” Chloe reflected.
Emma, Chloe, Elizabeth and Maylee are champions of the Ag Moves program. “Ag Moves provided everything together. Each lesson provided us with prompts instead of scripts,” said Elizabeth. “We had a lot of freedom to teach. Were able to make the program our own,” Chloe shared as the girls remembered how convenient it was the day a combine drove past the school during a lesson, creating a great example. “It was great to be able to tailor the lessons to what we see around here,” said Maylee. “For the cotton lesson, since we don’t grow cotton in Pierce City, we were able to talk about things made from cotton that we use every day.”
Ag Moves is not the only activity that the FFA student educators are engaged in. “We’re not bored. We are on the poultry judging team (Poultry Judging FFA CDE)’” Emma, Chloe, Elizabeth and Maylee said in near unison. Even though they are active in many sports and activities, these student leaders still have time to make goals for the future of their FFA Ag Moves partnership.
“I would like us to be consistent. I want it to be set in stone that we get to teach every week,” said Elizabeth. “I am excited for us to develop an entire set of ten more lessons to share,” said Emma.
Through partnerships with 535 FFA members in 91 FFA chapters, Ag Moves professional educators, and collegiate education interns, Ag Moves engaged over 10,000 students with in-classroom lessons in 2023. Ag Moves is funded through Missouri Farmers Care, a coalition of more than 40 Missouri agriculture groups. Missouri soybean farmers and their checkoff and the MFA Oil Foundation support the program, along with contributions from Missouri Corn Merchandising Council, FCS Financial, MFA Incorporated, Missouri Beef Industry Council and the Missouri Fertilizer Control Board. To learn more, to support the program, or to become a partner, visit www.agmoves.com.