The Minnesota Agricultural Education Leadership has awarded a $29,650 grant to the Rochester Area Math Science Council to train 11 area teachers in a cutting-edge curriculum in agricultural science education.
"This is an outstanding opportunity for our school districts within the Rochester Area Math Science Partnership to take action on our goal of promoting the importance of agricultural science in southeast Minnesota and the global economy," said Byron Superintendent Jeff Elstad, who hosted the RAMSP ag teachers and who chairs the partnership's agriculture committee.
Thirteen K-12 school districts are among the partners in RAMSP, which was formed more than 20 years ago. RAMSP works to connect teachers across its district, including Kasson-Mantorville, Kingsland, Pine Island, Plainview-Elgin-Millville, Stewartville, Triton and Byron school districts.
The agricultural science education curriculum is a project launched in 2007 by the National Council for Agricultural Education. According to CASE, a structured sequence of eight agriculture courses has been developed in order to "implement a national curriculum for secondary agricultural education that provides a high level of educational experiences to enhance the rigor and relevance of agriculture, food, and national resources subject matter."
This summer, teachers are being trained to use the first few CASE courses at two-week "institutes" held at twenty sites around the country.
