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Illinois Ag in the Classroom program celebrates growth

The Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) program reached nearly 600,000 students in more than 3,000 schools during the 2022-2023 school year.

Kevin Daugherty, Director of the Illinois Center for Agricultural Engagement tells Brownfield that is almost back to pre-COVID levels.

“That’s over half a million students, and these aren’t just kids that passed by and saw us at a farm, these are kids that actually received instruction in a classroom to link an agricultural topic back to what they’re learning.”

He says the AITC program targets students in pre-school through high school who aren’t already enrolled in an agriculture specific course to better educate them about where their food, fiber and fuel comes from.

He says more than 400 teachers also participated in Summer Ag Institutes which help guide them on how to include agriculture content in all subjects.  

“We’re trying to use agriculture as a springboard to become better teachers of math, science, social studies and language arts. So we have a huge connection there without teaching ag- we’re going to leave that to the ag teachers. We’re showing other teachers how they can use it.”

Daugherty says Illinois reaches more students through AITC than any other state. 

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