Johnston, Iowa, USA
August 13, 2009
Some 41 state education officials
and agriculture teachers from 11 states came to the headquarters
of Pioneer Hi-Bred, a
DuPont business, Aug. 9-13 to attend the first National
Agriscience Integration Institute (NAII) designed to promote and
enhance opportunities for inquiry-based science in environmental
and agricultural education system programs, student attainment
of science content standards and national agriculture content
standards.
NAII is an extension of the National Agriscience Teacher
Ambassador Academy (NATAA), held annually at the DuPont-owned
Chesapeake Farms, Chestertown, Md. The Academy is a professional
development program where agriculture teachers learn new
inquiry-based teaching techniques to improve science learning.
More than 90 teachers from across the United States have
attended NATAA in the past seven years. Both NAII and the
Academy are DuPont-sponsored programs.
All teacher ambassadors graduating from NATAA are invited to be
a part of NAII being held in Johnston, Iowa, on the campus of
Pioneer Hi-Bred, "The exciting aspect of this training is that
it has been designed as a state team agriculture education
approach," said Larry Gossen, NAII manager and senior team
leader for state relations with the National FFA. "The goal is
to make a positive impact on the integration of science and use
of inquiry-based instruction in 10 to 12 states annually,
utilizing the team agriculture education concept."
Three or more persons make up a state team, including at least
one experienced agriscience teacher ambassador, a university
teacher-educator, and a state education staff person. Because of
the size of the teams, a maximum of 10 to 12 state teams are
accepted each year. It is hoped that agriculture teachers and
state education officials from all 50 states will be covered in
the next four to five years. Teams attending this year came from
Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina,
Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin.
In addition to four days of intensive training on inquiry-based
instruction, the objectives of the NAII training include:
- Develop a professional
working relationship with university teacher-educators,
agriscience teacher ambassadors and agricultural education
state staff in promoting inquiry-based instruction used in
the agriscience classroom.
- Develop a state
professional development plan for agriscience ambassadors,
agricultural education state staff and teacher educators to
train all teachers in their states on inquiry-based
instruction.
- Provide assistance in
developing and/or converting existing lessons into
inquiry-based lesson plans and make available to
agricultural education teachers and science teachers.
The overall expectation is that
the state agriscience integration (SAI) team will develop a plan
for integrating agriscience and inquiry-based instruction to
their state agriculture education instructors. "Science,
agriculture and DuPont is a natural association. This is the
61st year that DuPont has been actively associated with the FFA.
I am pleased that DuPont and the FFA can join forces for this
program and help advance agriculture science," said James C.
Collins, Jr., vice president and general manager - DuPont Crop
Protection and member of the FFA national board of directors.
The National FFA Organization, with more than 491,000 members
operates under a Federal Charter granted by the 81st Congress of
the United States. FFA membership offers students opportunities
that change lives and prepares students for premier leadership,
personal growth and career success. The FFA organization
represents a large diversity of more than 300 careers in the
food, fiber and natural resources industry.
Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, is the world's leading
source of customized solutions for farmers, livestock producers
and grain and oilseed processors. With headquarters in Des
Moines, Iowa, Pioneer provides access to advanced plant genetics
in nearly 70 countries.
DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded
in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable
solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for
people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont
offers a wide range of innovative products and services for
markets, including agriculture and food, building and
construction, communications, and transportation.
® Registered trademarks of Pioneer Hi-Bred.
For additional information about our company or our products,
check our worldwide Web site:
http://www.pioneer.com or follow us on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/pioneerhibred. |
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