GrowNextGen brought “STEM in Agriculture” to teachers at the 2017 NSTA Milwaukee Area Conference. Teacher leaders Brian Badenhop (Ohio Hi-Point Career Center) and Jeff Jostpille (Fort Jennings High School) presented two sessions with Jane Hunt and Heather Bryan.
In the middle school/high school session, activities included engineering an Egg Catcher, making soy lip balm and moisture testing, testing water quality, and learning about NDVI, measuring vegetation with drones.
The elementary session included the Soy Beautiful lessons and making soy chocolate milk as well as others, with the goal of engaging in hands-on activities appropriate for elementary students to develop STEM skills and help students understand what agriculture products they use in their daily life.
GrowNextGen gave away three water quality test kits and three soy lip balm kits to MS/HS participants and 3 soy lip balm kits and Meet the Bean and Beans about Water activity pages to the elementary group, thanks to the Ohio Soybean Council’s sponsorship.
Presenter Jane Hunt said, “The participants had fun and participated with enthusiasm. One said it was the best workshop she had attended here!”
Participant Kyle Witty has an elementary school group that is partnering with an ag-centered high school in their area. He was excited to see the activities and hopes to be able to show his colleagues some clear connections to activities they can do together.
