Ag in the Classroom Reaching Oregon Kids

Oregon’s chapter of Agriculture in the Classroom is in its fourth decade of reaching kids by helping teachers incorporate ag into their everyday curriculum for routine subjects like English, math, science, and history.

Executive Director Jessica Jansen said the program has a wide reach.

“This year, we will reach over 100,000 teachers for the seventh year in a row. So it’s definitely a huge impact across Oregon. We’re in all 36 Oregon counties. So really, just seeing our program reach more schools and more teachers every year.”

Ag in the Classroom is a non-profit educational foundation that provides teachers with hands-on classroom activities, books, videos and other resources such as seed germination kits to teach kids how crops grow and a digital version of the iconic Grown in Oregon Commodity Map.

Jansen said the program is relevant to everyone regardless of where they live.

“Those are people that haven’t had experiences around agriculture at all. Many of them, it’s been 3 or 4 generations since their families have had those experiences. So they can’t ask mom and dad those questions. There’s that lack of knowledge throughout the generations now, which makes our job all the more important.”

Jansen also noted that teachers often love the resources that are provided by the group and that it is not a hard sell.