Taylor Nothdurft: Get In Winners; Ag Moves has the Keys!

By: Emma Alexander -

Many agriculturalists are driven by a desire to make a difference in the world and Agriculture Education on the Move™ (Ag Moves) is providing the keys. Ag Moves is a vehicle for people of all ages to become passionate agriculturalists. Taylor Nothdurft is a senior at Oak Ridge High School and an FFA partner educator for Ag Moves in #Agri-Ready Designated Cape Girardeau County. Ag Moves delivers a series of ten foundational, STEM focused, hands-on agriculture lessons. “I have developed a passion! Now I am all about everything agriculture,” Taylor shares. “My own agriculture education showed me a door of opportunity that I wasn’t looking for and Ag Moves opened that door for me!”

Fire Up Your Engine with Ag Ed

Taylor has facilitated Ag Moves as an FFA partner educator from the Oak Ridge FFA chapter for two years. Even though her family has deep roots in agriculture, Taylor admits that she used to be passive about the industry until her own agriculture education and FFA involvement shaped her career aspirations. “Ag Moves has been a big part of my journey,” Taylor says.

Taylor’s Road Map

Taylor teaches the ten, STEM-focused, hands-on Ag Moves lessons exploring crops, livestock, soil and water conservation, nutrition, and careers in agriculture as part of her independent study course credit. Her advisor, Rich Thomas, serves as her mentor, but Taylor is responsible for expanding upon the Ag Moves curriculum with additional related games, activities, and projects that she researches and designs herself. She enjoys coming up with new ideas and adaptations to help thirty Oak Ridge third graders to connect to the agriculture all around them each week.

Learning By Teaching

“The diversity of the Ag Moves lessons makes it possible for me to have conversations with the students about what is going on in today’s world and tie it back to agriculture,” Taylor describes. Through her teaching efforts, Taylor asks more questions, makes more connections, and is deepening her own agricultural education. Younger FFA members often accompany her to lend a hand with activities. These members are equipped to continue the tradition of Ag Moves at Oak Ridge.

Exciting New Experiences

“I am excited to see the engagement that the third graders truly have. They are invested and interested in what I share with them through Ag Moves,” Taylor says. “As an addition to the nutrition lesson, I created a project for them to design their own garden. Many of them didn’t know what a garden looked like. We worked together and then many students designed garden structures I had never seen. It caused them to ask more questions like ‘how does produce ripen in our area?’”

Support for the Journey

Taylor was one of the FFA members who requested the opportunity from the Oak Ridge Board of Education in 2022 to implement the program for Oak Ridge third graders. “Our Board of Education was supportive of the program’s impact on our community and the chance to connect students with agriculture at an earlier age,” Taylor remembers. Oak Ridge’s high school counselor, Ms. Karen Schroeder, and elementary counselor, Starla Pulley, have been integral to the success of Ag Moves, recognizing the value of standards-based agriculture lessons for elementary students as well as the value of Taylor’s in-class teaching experience as she prepares for a career in agricultural education.

Taylor’s Reflections

“Great opportunities keep coming together for me as an FFA member,” Taylor shares. “I didn’t realize that I was an ‘ag kid’. FFA sparked my passion. Now I am an active participant and a leader in agriculture.

“I think every FFA chapter should partner with Ag Moves. It helps FFA members grow. I have learned patience, good leadership, and a lot about myself. It is fun and engaging. Who wouldn’t want those things?”

Taylor’s Next Road Trip

Taylor will pursue a degree in Agricultural Education at University of Missouri-Columbia this fall. Taylor is concluding her term as the Missouri FFA Area 15 president and was recently selected to serve as a 2025-2026 Missouri FFA State Officer. As part of her Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE), Taylor raises and shows pigs. She is a graduate of the 2023 Missouri Agribusiness Academy. Taylor is the daughter of John Nothdurft and Kelly Seiler.