News: Teacher stories

Janet Mulder is in her 15th year of teaching science at Bexley High School. She learned about Feed the World from her colleague Scott Logsdon. Her favorite part of the 2 day Feed the World workshop was “trying out all the different activities that are fantastic, engaging, and applicable for all levels of science at the high school level. Often, the units are not at an honors/AP level, so this …

Ohio vocational agriculture students are required to identify soil forming factors and explain how they produce variability in soils; and to collect, test and analyze soil samples for physical and chemical properties. Luke Ryan participated in the 2-day Feed the World workshop and used activities from the Soil and Sustainability curriculum to cover those standards. Ryan said his students responded well to these activities. He had them each bring soil …

Matt McCormick has been teaching for 18 years, and he currently teaches 9th grade Physical Science and 11-12th Astronomy/Geology at Lorain JVS. He learned about Feed the World through the agricultural education instructor at his school. McCormick said his favorite parts of the workshop were “meeting other teachers who want to connect agriculture with their classrooms and being introduced to the great lab activities that I can use in …

Jamie Brown took her 6th graders at Miami East Junior High through an extensive exploration of soil and its impact on agriculture, using a variety of lessons from the Ohio Corn & Wheat-sponsored Feed the World workshop. Brown’s class looked at soil stability and how it affects plant growth. They performed a soil slake test with three different types of soil: potting soil, garden soil, and dirt. Students first made …

Kristyn Keriazes teaches at Global Impact STEM Academy Middle School. She’s taught for 13 years, and heard about Feed the World from a colleague who suggested that she might enjoy one of the workshops. She’s used these FTW lessons with her students: Corn Field Math, Lawn Chemicals, Soil Texture Labtivity, Population Rates, Punnett Squares, Corn Fermentation in a Bag, and though I haven’t used this one yet, I am particularly excited to …

Kendra Carnegie of Loudonville High School provided the students in her Animal and Plant Science class with a new and different look at corn. Thanks to careful planning, Carnegie planted corn and used those plants to determine the vegetative state in a lab from Feed the World’s Growing Ohio curriculum. Carnegie said none of the students had ever done a project like this before. “They enjoyed getting to look at …

Noah Neiderhouse found that his students’ interest levels rose when they got outside the classroom. He used the “Growing Ohio” Yield Prediction Test with his Agriculture Business Management students at Oak Harbor/Penta Career Center. Neiderhouse said, “My students love this activity because they get to use real-world applications outside the school walls! We discuss average corn yields in our area of Ottawa County, so when they estimate corn yields …

Bexley High School science teacher Janet Mulder attended Ohio Corn & Wheat-sponsored Feed the World’s summer two-day workshop. See how she used the Energy and ethanol lessons with her students: In my Honors Biology class, we spend a chapter on how organisms obtain energy, through cellular respiration and photosynthesis. This connects with State Standard/Learning Objective B.C.2: Cellular processes: Identify the cellular sites of and follow through the major …