The Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation (IALF) has many resources available for all ages. For one central Iowa high school student, her connection to IALF has found her many opportunities to provide those resources to others.
Planting Knowledge from Fields to Classrooms & Cultivating Agriculture Literacy
IALF collaborates with partners across Iowa to connect teachers and students with experiential learning resources and programs highlighting agriculture and its global significance. Led by IALF Executive Director Kelly Foss, the IALF team works to ensure agriculture remains a focal point for K-12 educators and their students by offering numerous resources such as agriculture-focused lesson plans, publications, career posters, teacher grants, and the prestigious Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award.
Foss shares that “by incorporating agriculture into classroom curriculum, students gain knowledge that introduces awareness of agriculture careers and can help shape them into well-informed consumers.”
At IALF, we never know how our agriculture connections may lead to forming future ties. In this case, creating a new publication, titled My Family’s Beef Farm, laid the foundation for a working relationship with a high school student, interested in exploring a career in agriculture.
Pictured left is IALF Executive Director, Kelly Foss, with IALF High School Intern, Cecelia Rowe.
Meet Cecelia, the Star of My Family’s Beef Farm
My Family’s Beef Farm is a book created as part of an IALF nonfiction publication series sharing stories of kids across Iowa living on various agricultural farms. In 2016, IALF got to meet 10-year-old Cecelia Rowe and visit the cow-calf farm her grandparents live on. The book explores the world of agriculture through Cecelia’s eyes, while she teaches readers how farmers care for cattle and raise safe, nutritious beef and takes them on a tour of her family’s beef farm. Since the publication of this book, IALF has distributed more than 10,000 copies all over the state.
Pictured left is the IALF publication My Family’s Beef Farm with star Cecelia on the front cover.
From a 5th grader to now a senior in high school, Cecelia has cultivated a connection to IALF. Early this year, she joined the IALF team for more than five months as the Dallas Center-Grimes School-to-Work Intern.
In this blog we’ll highlight how Cecelia participated in many projects to help IALF transform classroom learning by integrating agriculture. From crafting engaging lesson plans to writing educational blogs and creating informative videos, Cecelia’s journey exemplifies the value of connecting students with opportunities to explore career paths. Her experience with IALF not only provided valuable insights into her desired career path but also emphasized the significance of agriculture literacy and outreach education. Let’s explore how Cecelia’s passion for agriculture led her to re-connect with IALF and be part of impactful projects that will continue to enrich classrooms across Iowa!
Cecelia Navigates the Path to an Agriculture Career
The Dallas Center-Grimes (DCG) School-to-Work Program was designed to give high school seniors firsthand exposure to potential career paths. All students start with in-person classes taught by DCG teacher, Mr. Scott Heitland, who shows the importance of workplace etiquette, building a resume and cover letter, and interview skills, which are all needed for the future. After in-person classes students are matched with workplaces that best fits each student’s personal interests.
Heitland describes the program as “a one-of-a-kind experience for high school students.” His passion for the program is unmistakable as he elaborates, “Each student is immersed into the workplace and to witness the growth and maturity they experience over the course of a year is incredible. But what might surprise people is how the business partners are impacted by our students. They learn from them during the experience, too. Overall, what our students get exposed to in their internships cannot be replicated in the classroom and we are lucky to have a great partnership with IALF.”
For Cecelia, she wanted an agriculture-based internship that would give her insight into the future career she wants to pursue in agriculture. IALF has provided that for Cecelia. She has worked on various projects and initiatives with IALF that have given her the opportunity to provide resources to inspire and encourage others to learn about agriculture.
Cecelia’s Eggciting Read Across Iowa Adventure
One such initiative was Read Across Iowa, one of IALF’s annual events held throughout the month of March and designed to foster a love of reading while spotlighting agricultural themes. With Read Across Iowa teachers are provided new books, resources, and programming to help integrate agriculture learning in their classrooms. The 2024 Read Across Iowa theme explored food science and included the books Bread Lab, Meg And The Eggstraordinary Egg, My Family’s Dairy Farm, How To Make Ice Cream In A Bag, and From Grapes to Jelly. In addition to reading the new books, IALF made it easy for educators to celebrate Read Across Iowa by providing creative planning tips to go beyond the books with additional resources allowing students to also watch agriculture themed videos, and engage in themed projects and activities, like making ice cream in a bag and exploring eggs.
Cecelia helped IALF connect with 1,000 educators, impacting an estimated 72,000 students in 258 school districts, by leading a group of volunteers to pack and ship more than 5,000 books, resources and lesson plans for teachers to implement in their K-5 classrooms.
Cecelia and the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig had an eggstraordinary amount of fun creating the promotional video for Read Across Iowa.
“I value the opportunity to work with Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation and Agriculture in the Classroom throughout the year,” said Secretary Naig,
“but especially throughout the month of March as we celebrated Read Across Iowa. Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation’s high school intern Cecelia Rowe produced an impressive promotional video, and I had fun playing a role in previewing the month of literacy activities.”
Pictured right is Cecelia with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig.
Cecelia and Secretary Naig worked together on the fun video to showcase each book that was in the 2024 Read Across Iowa kit. IALF distributed kits to 1,000 teachers during Read Across Iowa. The books highlighted in the video can also be found in the IALF Lending Library.
“Cecelia was a pro when she got to meet Secretary Naig and create the video. She was involved from beginning to end, collaborating with our team to plan and script the entire video” said Foss on the project.
From Chick Hatching and Caring for Livestock to Classroom Learning: A Day in the Life of Cecelia with Dallas County AITC
Cecelia also had the opportunity to shadow Jamie Champion and Dallas County Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC). “It was a pleasure to have Cecelia be a part of the Dallas County AITC activities for the day. She stepped in and helped prepare chick hatching resources for two classrooms” recalled Champion on her day with Cecelia. They prepared bedding for the Waukee and Woodward-Granger schools participating in the chick hatching program, which teaches children who don’t have the opportunity to own animals the practices that farmers use every day to care for their livestock. Jamie gave Cecelia some insight into the classrooms she visits and variety of programs she produces.
In the afternoon, Cecelia was given the opportunity to read the book My Family’s Beef Farm, which was written about her when she was 10 years old. Cecelia read this book to Ms. Traders’ First Grade Classroom at Grant Ragan Elementary in Waukee.
Pictured left is Cecelia reading to the first grade class.
“This was one of my favorite projects with Cecelia,” recalls Foss on the visit. “It was fun to watch Cecelia engage with the students and answer their questions about her personal agriculture story. I love that Cecelia and the beef cattle are the stars of the book!”
These first graders were full of excitement as they were able to make a feed ration for some of Cecelia’s cattle. Mixing corn, silage, distillers, and hay, they learned about what different ingredients go into cattle feed rations and why cattle like these ingredients. Champion commented “Cecelia did a great job leading a lesson! The first-grade students really listened to her story and especially liked preparing a ration of food for her beef cattle on the farm.”
Wrapping up the day Jamie and Cecelia went to Woodward-Granger Middle School to drop off a chick hatching kit as they were just getting started with their egg hatchings. “This was a great day that gave me huge insight into what I would like to pursue in the future. Thank you to Jamie for the opportunity to shadow a fantastic program!” reflects Rowe on her day in Dallas County AITC.
Cecelia Helps IALF Impact Agriculture Literacy Across Iowa with Professional Development Workshops for Teachers
Further enriching her experience, Cecelia’s active involvement in planning IALF’s summer professional development workshops will help IALF, along with many AITC and state-wide partners, host trainings for Iowa educators. These two-day workshops provide teachers with knowledge, resources and training to integrate agriculture into their science, social studies, math and other STEM-focused curriculum. Through tours, guest presenters and conversations, educators gain a firsthand experience in agriculture to share with students. This year, with Cecelia’s help and planning efforts, workshop themes will include highlights such as agriculture is everywhere, STEM connections with co-products and agriculture technology changes over time. Tour stops will include a cattle operation, ethanol plant, vegetable farm, and meeting a veterinarian that specializes in swine care. IALF workshops are free for Iowa educators and qualify for optional AEA license renewal and graduate credit.
“IALF’s comprehensive workshops empower educators to seamlessly integrate agriculture into their teaching, fostering real-world connections for students” says Foss. “Since February, Cecelia has been deeply involved with planning IALF’s 2024 workshops to take place across the state this summer.”
- June 13–14, Oskaloosa (Agriculture is Everywhere)
- June 18-19, Fort Dodge (Engineering and Math of STEM in Agriculture)
- July 16-17, Sioux City (Plows to Pixels: Agriculture through the Years)
- July 18-19, Des Moines Metro (The STEM of Specialty Crops)
- July 23-24, Coralville (Technology in Iowa Agriculture from 1800s – Now)
- July 30-31, Mason City (Nothing to Waste: The STEM of Agriculture Co-Products)
- August 1-2, Waterloo (Exploring the Agriculture Story)
- August 6-7, Irwin (In the Field and Beyond: STEM Careers in Agriculture)
Learning from IALF
“The Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation team has enjoyed having Cecelia join us as part of the School-to-Work program. She assisted with several IALF projects in the office and also participated in outreach programming throughout the community,” says Foss describing her time working with Rowe. “Watching Cecelia learn as a high school student and develop as an agriculture professional in the workplace has been incredibly rewarding.”
Working with the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation, Cecelia learned how to implement agriculture into the classroom with different lesson plans, activities, and projects. Some of which included working on the High Steaks! student contest, writing blogs, creating informational videos, and helping with IALF publications.
“IALF provided me with valuable insights into a career that I would like to pursue. This fantastic School-to-Work experience gave me the opportunity to explore and learn more about the importance of agriculture literacy and outreach education” says Rowe.
Pictured right is IALF Intern, Cecelia, holding the IALF publication written about her.
Rowe is grateful for her time with IALF stating “Thank you, Kelly and the team for taking time to teach me many new things and letting me explore many new opportunities!”
~IALF Team
