Melanie Buford: Energetic Retiree Gets Amazing Results As Elementary Ag Educator

Many Missouri elementary students experience an agricultural literacy gap because they lack a first-hand connection to the production of food, fuel, and fiber that are entwined in their everyday lives. Missouri Farmers Care’s Agriculture Education on the Move™ (Ag Moves) is successfully closing those gaps thanks to the dedication of educators like Melanie Buford, who uses her expertise in elementary education to engage students as she teaches them about the agriculture all around them.

Recognizing a Need

Over a 28-year teaching career, Melanie recognized that her students did not understand their food like she did growing up around livestock in rural Kansas. In her retirement, Melanie is closing agriculture literacy gaps as an Ag Moves educator. “It is a fun program! It is an essential program,” Melanie shares. “I wish I would have known about this program during my career. The average student doesn’t understand how food gets from a farm to their table and that knowledge is important,” Melanie says.

Make it stand out

Shining in Her Element

“Teaching elementary is my wheelhouse!” Melanie says, referencing her career. She is in her element teaching the Ag Moves curriculum to third graders at St. Joseph schools which includes ten hands-on, STEM-focused agriculture lessons. Her years of classroom management experience make it possible for ‘Mrs. Buford’ to artfully command the classroom, sometimes with up to sixty students at a time enjoying Ag Moves.

Mrs. Buford’s Ag Moves Strategy

“Kids become enamored with an interactive and engaging learning process, so it is important to keep moving. Kids remember things best when you create a connection to solidify the concepts,” Melanie explains. She uses a variety of mnemonic devices that aid students to not only memorize, but also to understand the agricultural vocabulary she teaches. She leads students as they pronounce words using funny accents or sing songs. The children mimic Melanie as she demonstrates movements to represent words. Students succeed at weekly reviews, proof that Melanie’s strategies are successful. While each lesson includes an effective visual video element, Melanie focuses on lesson concepts and hands-on activities so that students are ‘doing’ rather than ‘watching’. Her partnering classroom teachers share the videos in classrooms later as review.

A Strategic Curriculum

“The Ag Moves curriculum is organized with one lesson building upon another,” Melanie highlights. “Lessons begin with soils and plants, and lead to how those plants feed livestock, and how agriculture can be a career.” Ag Moves is designed with progressive knowledge concepts in mind. Melanie and her students enjoy the livestock lessons most. Melanie’s sister is a rancher, and she shares fun, personal stories about her family and their experiences.

Building Partnerships

Melanie teaches Ag Moves at five St. Joseph elementary campuses each fall and spring, forging mutual partnerships of appreciation and understanding with classroom teachers because she has ‘been there and done that.’ Her expertise ensures that Ag Moves is rooted in many St. Joseph elementaries. Ag Moves lessons align with Missouri state learning objectives in science, math, social studies, and language arts, so Melanie introduces core concepts to students in a fun way, laying a foundation of knowledge that classroom teachers can build upon throughout the school year.

“Ag Moves is thrilled to have Melanie on our team,” says Ag Moves Program Director Heather Fletcher. “Her extensive knowledge and experience bring our curriculum to life. We empower our instructors to personalize lessons, and Melanie’s dedication and passion for agricultural education in Missouri truly exemplify our commitment to excellence.”

Ag Moves is a series of ten, STEM-focused, hands-on lessons that explore crops, livestock, soil and water conservation, nutrition, and careers in agriculture. The lessons align with Missouri state learning objectives in science, math, social studies, and language arts and show students how agriculture is entwined in their daily lives.

Thanks to the dedication and drive of professional educators, collegiate interns, and 836 FFA partner educators, Ag Moves engaged over 12,400 third-grade students in 2024. The Missouri Farmers Care Foundation, which hosts Ag Moves, supplies curriculum, materials, and trained educators at no cost to participating schools. A list of elementary schools receiving Ag Moves programming in the spring of 2025 can be found here.

Ag Moves is hosted and funded by Missouri Farmers Care and its Foundation, a coalition of over 40 agriculture groups in Missouri. Support comes from Missouri soybean farmers and their checkoff, as well as the MFA Oil Foundation, FCS Financial, MFA Incorporated, Missouri Corn Merchandising Council, the Missouri Beef Industry Council, and the Missouri Fertilizer Control Board. To learn more or to become a funding partner, visit www.agmoves.com.