Peals of laughter ring, understanding spreads, and excitement reverberates on every elementary campus of Columbia Public Schools as students engage in the district’s summer school enrichment program which includes agriculture lessons. Thanks to the partnerships between school districts like Columbia Public Schools (CPS) and the Agriculture Education on the Move™ (Ag Moves) program, internships are available for collegiate students studying agricultural education. Few internship opportunities are available each summer for collegiate students to develop their teaching skills. There is a shortage of agriculture educators in Missouri, and the Ag Moves program is helping to try and close the gap of vacancies by providing opportunities for pre-service teachers to prepare for their careers.

Every third-grade student enrolled in the Columbia Public Schools (CPS) summer school program is getting the benefit of the ten lesson Ag Moves program. These foundational lessons teach that food comes from farms and the products used in everyday life come from agriculture. These lessons are doing more than just providing students with enrichment activities to make summer fun; Ag Moves is teaching tomorrow’s consumers to make connections with their food, fiber and fuel today.

Ag Moves is a proactive, educational effort that brings passionate, trained educators into classrooms across Missouri to build agricultural literacy at elementary ages. During the ten-lesson Ag Moves program, students learn about crops, livestock, soil and water conservation, nutrition, careers in agriculture and more through a STEM-focused curriculum which meets state learning objectives in the areas of science, math, social studies, and language arts. Each lesson includes a hands-on activity to provide fun and interactive learning. Students make soybean germination necklaces, corn plastic, butter, animal feed rations, soil profile bookmarks and more. Students are introduced to Missouri farm families and learn about their dedication, compassion, sacrifice, and work ethic on the farm. All curriculum and lesson materials are provided at no cost to schools by the Missouri Farmers Care Foundation. 

This summer, Ag Moves lessons are brought to life for Columbia’s third graders by eight collegiate interns, most studying a facet of agriculture education. Each intern teaches the curriculum to multiple classrooms every day during the month-long CPS summer school. Roy Moeller, summer school coordinator for CPS, shares that the additional curriculum isn’t just informative, it is transformative for students as well. “The CPS summer school has been very pleased to include Agriculture Education on the Move™ in our summer school curriculum.  The course provides our students with a new understanding of today’s agriculture and farm families. Students enjoy the engaging, interactive activities and find them very fun,” said Moeller. Furthermore, the partnership is providing relationship value to CPS. “The educators do a great job engaging the students and providing activities.  I appreciate working with Heather Fletcher, Ag Moves Program Director. She has been very involved and helpful in scheduling,” Moeller continued. “Ag Moves is a great program, and we hope to continue our relationship each year.”

Over the course of a four-year partnership between Ag Moves and CPS, more than 4,000 Columbia third graders have been impacted by the agriculture curriculum, building agricultural literacy in tomorrow’s consumers. Ag Moves is seeing continuous growth, reaching 56% more students state-wide this summer when compared to last. One of the secrets of success is growing a team of talented interns and educators. In addition to the eight educators in Columbia, fourteen Ag Moves collegiate interns have been teaching summer school curriculums in other urban and suburban communities across the state.

This summer, Kate Rogers is serving as an intern for the Ag Moves program, and a classroom educator for the CPS summer school partnership. As a student who grew up near the rural community of Bethany, Mo., there is a lot that Kate is learning from CPS students. “Kids who grow up in rural areas are surrounded by agriculture. Kids growing up in urban communities benefit so much from this program as they learn where their food comes from,” Kate said. “Being a teacher for Ag Moves at CPS is helping me grow. I have to back up and think about how to explain to my students how corn grows and where beef comes from. I love working with the elementary age group.” Kate will be a senior at the University of Missouri studying Agriculture Education with an emphasis in Communication and Leadership.

Ag Moves summer intern and educator, Jaron VanHouden, is soaking in his classroom experience at CPS and seeing ways it will translate to his future career.  Jaron grew up in the rural community of Chadwick, Mo. and will be entering his senior year at the University of Missouri studying Agriculture Education with the goal of teaching high school agriculture in the fall of 2025. “Our students at CPS are responding well to our lessons and our presence. We see a wide variety of student demographics each day, and I think they benefit from seeing us daily during the Ag Moves series,” Jaron shared. “It is important to build relationships with our students as well. On my last day at one school, a sad student gave me a big hug. He said to me, ‘I wish you were my dad, because I don’t have one.’ That moment hit me in the heart and showed me just how impactful this program can be. When I become a teacher, I won’t just be teaching. It will be part of my job to be there for students and make a daily impact in their lives.”

Summer school is wrapping up for students across much of the state. For those students not in summer school, or looking for additional fun agricultural literacy activities, Ag Moves resources are available online for families. The free Ag Education on the Move Coloring Fun App can extend learning for elementary students through the summer months. The app gives youth an opportunity to virtually explore their connection to the food they eat, as well as the fuel and fiber they use, as they color their way through the farm. The app is available on Google Play, Apple App Store and Amazon Appstore at https://www.agmoves.com/aeotmapp. Free, downloadable partner resources are available at www.agmoves.com/resources to provide additional summer fun and learning.

Through partnerships with FFA chapters, Ag Moves professional educators, and collegiate education interns, Ag Moves engaged over 10,000 students state-wide 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.