Past Grant Recipients
Fall 2022 Oklahoma Pork Council Grant Winners
Jaycie Duncan, Perkins
Grant Summary
Oklahoma has over two million hogs! In the unit, Pork on My Fork, students will learn about the Swine industry in Oklahoma, the variety of uses for pork by-products, and the process of pork to the fork to promote students' understanding of the food and fiber system involved with Oklahoma agriculture and Swine industry.
Keri Thompson, Bryant Elementary, Moore
Grant Summary
For our project, we will be hosting a grade specific outdoor agriculture focused day for each grade level. For our school, that means 8 days of ag learning, each focusing on grade level standards that match up perfectly with agriculture topics. Each day will have multiple stations where students will be engaged in hands-on stations. Pre-K will have a watermelon day. Kindergarten will explore "A Day in the Life of a Farmer." First grade will be focusing on recycling and human impact on earth. Second grade is going to being exploring how animals help with seed dispersal. Third grade will have a pioneer themed day. Fourth Grade will focus on erosion. Fifth grade will learn about different aspects of ecosystems. Sixth Grade will focus on agriculture and how it relates to the geography and culture in the western hemisphere. Each of these days will contain various aspects of Ag in the Classroom lesson. Doing our "Ag Days" this way, will allow our students to explore 8 different aspects of agriculture throughout their years at our school.
Cynthia Carlton, Central Jr. High, Moore
Grant Summary
This project will teach students the importance of agriculture in our everyday lives. It will demonstrate options of healthy cooking using locally grown fruits, veggies, and meats. The students that will benefit from this grant will be taught about the importance of farmers and other producers of our foods and other agriculture related items. This will be taught in the classroom in the form of hands-on lessons and assignments. For the hands-on lessons, I plan to implement foods that many students may not get to experience at home. By bringing in foods and discussing the origin of them, it provides background information and we will research different ways the foods can be prepared. Along with that research, those recipes will be implemented in the classroom. The funds for this project will help offset the cost of small appliances to be used in the classroom along with some of the food items. Cookbooks and AITC recipes from lessons will be incorporated alongside the AITC lessons.
Debra Wood, Orvis Risner, Edmond
Grant Summary
As an elementary Gifted and Talented teacher, I am passionate about agriculture and want to give my 4th grade students every opportunity to experience it through real world experiences. Through the generosity of the Oklahoma Pork Council and Ag in the Classroom, funding would bring a correlation of electrical engineering and agriculture to my classroom. Experiencing electrical engineering first-hand would help my Gifted and Talented students to understand the direct relationship between this energy component and its importance to Oklahoma agriculture. Students’ curiosity of science, math, engineering, and technology would be ignited in a hands-on project of designing and building a model pig barn with working LED lights and a small fan component. Students will be able to explore the basic needs of animals and create a model of a modern pig barn that will help farmers meet the needs of animals. Funding would allow me to fulfill my desire of relating a fourth grade energy unit with Oklahoma agriculture. Students would be challenged to design an environment, a pig barn, that will help farmers meet the needs of pigs and they would understand that like humans and other animals, pigs have four basic needs—air, water, food, and shelter.
Lauren Young, Love County Extension
Grant Summary
The purpose of this project is to expand the agriculture knowledge of children in my county. I will be working with a 5th grade class in one of the schools in my county. I will be doing one Ag in the Classroom lesson a month in that class. I will start the year off in October with the lesson Ag in my community. The lessons for the rest of the school year will be: Make Mine Turkey, Humble Beginnings of the Hamburger, Truth or Hogwash, A Lucky Break, Breaking them Down Careers in Ag, and end with Be a Food Explorer. The lessons I picked matched up with lessons for 5th graders and cover a variety of topics in agriculture that are relevant to their lives and our community here in Love County. Not only will this project introduce kids to agriculture that might not otherwise get that education, but I am hoping that they will want to continue that learning my joining a 4-H club here in the county.
Johnnie Keel, Truman Elementary, Norman
Grant Summary
Students will be going Hog Wild over this project as they learn and experience the connection between the pig industry and their daily lives. Our elementary students live in an urban area and do not have a sense of what agriculture is or how it impacts their lives. Only a few may make a connection between pork or beef coming from a pig or cattle. They are always amazed to learn the by-products that also contain pork or beef. And, many of their parents are also unaware. This project will kick off during October, the National Pork Month and will culminate in a Six Degrees of Bacon Celebration on National Pig Day, March 1. There is a range of activities that will be more in depth from grade level to grade level as well as some cooking activities the students will really pig out and enjoy. Materials from this grant will be used with MY 4th and 5th graders and several of the activities will be used with ALL of our 3rd graders. Get ready to hear our students squeal with delight as they go Hog Wild!