About Virginia Ag in the Class |
History
The Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom is part of a nationwide effort to help students understand and appreciate agriculture—Virginia’s largest industry. The Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) program has been providing services to teachers since the early 80’s. There are corresponding efforts in all of the 50 states, but it is the only initiative of its kind in Virginia.
The Foundation was started in 1991 as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Its purpose is to support the various educational initiatives of the Agriculture in the Classroom program.
Agriculture in Virginia has changed a great deal since Jamestown, but its impact on our lives is no less important. Recognizing the importance of agriculture |
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in the state and the declining numbers of those directly involved in the industry, the Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom program was designed to address this lack of awareness. By investing in the education of young people, the program seeks to inform future citizens about the role of agriculture in Virginia as part of their class work. It is an important story to tell--a healthy agricultural sector in Virginia means a strong economy and a green Virginia. |
Services Offered
AITC provides:
- Elementary(K-5) teacher, middle school science (6-8) workshops, Garden in the Classroom Workshops grades (K-5) and workshops for pre-service students in colleges and universities.
- Workshops where teachers participate in hands-on activities, receive grade level appropriate lesson plans and other resource materials that are matched to Virginia Standards of Learning.
- Two newsletters each year for teachers in grades K-8 with a new lesson plan in each issue. Click here to register for the AITC newsletter, What’s Growing on in Virginia?
- Instructional Garden Grants for teachers in grades K-8 who want to include gardening in their classrooms and Book Partnership Grants to encourage donations of agricultural books to school libraries.
- The AITC Web site which has sample lessons plans, gardening lesson plans, an on line Cellular biology course, links to other great sites and much more!
All AITC services are provided to teachers and their schools at no costs through the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. |
Teachers Served
Since the program began, AITC has provided services to more than 18,000 Virginia teachers through workshops and the School Garden Project. These teachers touched more than 385,000 Virginia students. For information about school systems that have had an AITC workshop please click on the 'School systems participating in AITC' link below. |
Click here to see all of the school systems participating in AITC!
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