January Flash News

 

Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, Inc.  Promoting the understanding and appreciation of the importance of agriculture in our daily lives.     January Flash News    Dates to Remember:   Jan. 13-16: Mid-Atlantic Direct Marketing Conference    Jan. 19: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day    Feb. 16: 4-H Day in Annapolis   March 1: FFA Spring Judging Registration due   March 6-8 & 13-15: Maryland Home and Garden Show      Thank You!       Support MAEF!     Buy Ag Tags!  *Ag Tag revenues help underwrite MAEF programs*      Visit www.mva.state.md.us and click on online services for a link to the Agricultural Plate application.      Calling all students K-12!    MAEF's 3rd Annual Poster Contest!    Submit your posters sharing what you know about Maryland agriculture!      Your artistic entry may be selected to appear on the 2009-2010 Maryland Agriculture Education Foundation Calendar.    Deadline for entries is May 1, 2009!  A $50 cash award will be awarded to each of the 18 selected entries.   For more information and entry form visit www.maefonline.com.    Kristin Zimmerman, Grade 9 Walkersville High School        Elementary Teachers take Note!         Summer Ag in the Classroom 2009 Registration Begins   This summer's elementary Ag in the Classroom will be held June 21-25, 2009 in Westminster. Early bird registration fee (prior to April 1st) is $200.  Sign up for a week filled with field trips, hands-on lessons, loads of resources and 3 MSDE credits.  For additional information visit our website or call Jeanne at 410-848-4745.      Correction!  The correct date for MAEF's 21st Annual Banquet and Auction is THURSDAY, NOV. 5, 2009.    Maryland Teacher Recieves National Board Certification!   Ms. Terry Adkins has become the first agriscience educator in Maryland to receive National Board Certification. Adkins, a South Carroll High School teacher, has been sharing her enthusiasm for agriculture with students for the past 19 years.   National Board Certification is the highest symbol of professional teaching excellence.  Certification is acknowledgment that a teacher is highly accomplished, having met challenging professional teaching standards as evidenced by performance-based assessments.        A successful candidate must have completed and submitted all required portfolio entries and assessment center exercises and meet the performance standard. National Board Certification is issued for a period of 10 years, after which a National Board Certification Teacher will have the opportunity to maintain his or her standing as a National Board Certified Teacher by satisfying a renewal requirement.   Benefits that occur from achieving National Board Certification include: advances teaching career, increases financial opportunities in many states and districts, provides portable teaching license in most states, improves student's learning according to a vast majority of research and strengthens teaching practices.    For more information visit http://www.nbpts.org/. Congratulations Terry!   Each issue of MAEF's Flash News will highlight an organization or individual who demonstrates exceptional support of agriculture in education.     January's Ag Ed Advocate is American Farm Publications.   For many years American Farm Publications has been an avid supporter of agriclutural education among the region's youth.     American Farm Publications recently presented MAEF with a check for $3,950 to go toward the technology programs for the mobile science labs. This was 50% of the advertising revenue from a special supplement in The Delmarva Farmer that celebrated MAEF's 20th Anniversary.   The Delmarva Farmer - the "mother ship" of American Farm Publications Inc., whose other publications include The New Jersey Farmer and the Mid-Atlantic Grower - is in its 33rd year of covering farms, farmers and farming in Maryland and across the Mid-Atlantic area.   Launched to provide "a voice" for the agricultural industry and to cover and publish agricultural news often ignored by the general media, it has garnered numerous national, state and organizational awards and recognitions for its news and feature coverage through the years.   In its formative years, its focus was primarily on Delmarva, but its coverage and circulation now extend across all of Maryland and Delaware, and onto mainland Virginia and into Pennsylvania. At the same time, this important publication has expanded in recent years into a multi-section newspaper with succeeding weeks offering special supplements.   Each month, its readers can expect to find sections specific to the poultry, beef and dairy industries, educational issues in all four states and celebrations of accolades collected by farming's "next generation." Every two months, The Delmarva Farmer also highlights developments of current niche and supplemental agricultural tactics with its "New Directions" supplement.    Annual sections that focus on irrigation, corn and soybean production, crop management, double-crop, fall harvest, spring planting and agricultural issues approaching Election Day have also become mainstays, as well as previews of the state fairs of Delaware and Maryland.   The Delmarva Farmer's annual golf tournament to build the newspaper's scholarship fund has grown to become a must-be-seen social gathering for the area's ag community each summer.   Thank you American Farm Publications for your coninued support and for sharing important agricultural education stories with your readers!          West Virginia Comes for a Visit!   West Virginia's mobile science lab (modeled after MAEF's mobile labs) is ready to "go on the road" in January.  For three days in December, their coordinator and four of the newly hired teachers visited Maryland to see MAEF's Food, Fiber & You lab "in action" at Taneytown Elementary School in Carroll County.  Sharon Fox met with the novice teachers after school to share some of the logistics of teaching on the lab.  Jeanne Mueller was able to conduct several experiments and answer many, many questions!  MAEF received a letter of appreciation from the West Virginia Farm Bureau Executive Secretary, Stephen Butler, thanking MAEF for sharing and networking with them.  How wonderful to know that MAEF's promotion of agricultural literacy has extended not only to Pennsylvania but also to West Virginia!   Ag Returns to the City Happenings....  How do animal protect against predators?  Kindergarten students at Holabird Academy learned how by participating in Candy Camouflage. This lesson taught about tally sheets and graphs by using M&M's and candy corn.  Students searched for the "camouflage" M&M's hidden in candy corn to produce a graph.  The students enjoyed this learning experience and especially the M&M's after the lesson!    How can students review their map reading skills and learn about Maryland agricultural commodities?  Second-graders at Holabird Academy recently studied maps in Social Studies and Ag Returns to the City helped review their recently acquired map skills. Students were introduced to agriculture in the Just Map It lesson and then viewed Take Me Out to the Cornfield to learn where Maryland farm products are produced. Both of these activities provided students with a glimpse of the important role that agriculture and social studies play together in their lives.    In the spirit of the season, Francis Scott Key third-graders had a chance to learn about Christmas trees via a virtual tree farm tour. The lesson showed the students the pros and cons of choosing a live tree over an artificial one followed by a hands-on activity.  Each student was able to experience the science involved in creating their own miniature snow globe using a 1 ½ inch tree and a small jar with glitter.   For the fourth year in a row, Ag Returns to the City worked with art class students at Calverton Elementary/Middle School to learn about floral design.  The students used flowers and greens to create a floral arrangement in a teacup.  Thank you to Weis' floral department, US TurfCare in Arbutus and art teacher, Jackie Sterling, for their significant contributions to this lesson.        Agriscience Ambassador Workshop   Terry Adkins, Sarah Welty and Sarah Shriner working on "Yummy and Yucky and Using Chemical Indicators" a lab designed to illustrate thresholds, concentrations and trade-offs.   The Agriscience Ambassador Workshop was held in conjunction with the FFA Fall Leadership workshop.  While FFA Chapter officers were learing about leadership the teachers were learning about chemicals.     The participants developed the concept of threshold through first hand experience.  They performed a serial dilution of citric acid, a common food additive.  They then determined the concentration of citric acid in each successive cup and determined their own taste thresholds for citric acid by tasting each concentration.    Participants also did a second activity called the "chemical batteries".  In this activity the participants investigated energy conservation through the study of simple electrochemical cells.  Each team designed an investigation to determine combinations of metals and observe the reaction rates.  Participants applied their knowledge to choose metal for constructing a battery.  The distance between the metals, reversing connections and reducing surface area of metal on the power of the wet cell was investigated.    Thank you Diane Ogg for sharing your knowledge learned at the DuPont National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Acadamy.     National Young Farmer "Disney Keys to Excellence" Workshop Left to right - Sarah Shriner, Lori Mayhew, Mark Smith, Heather Schaefer, Aaron Geiman and Susan Sanger.    Six Maryland Agricultural Teachers attended the "Disney Keys to Excellence" workshop on December 13.    Participants were lead through a series of activities to help them develop strategies to become and maintain success in their own lives and businesses. Participants helped to identify philosophies, strategies, concepts and tactics that they could take back to their own organizations. Leadership excellence, management, service and loyalty have all been key components in the success of Disney.    A special thank you goes out the JoAnn and Edsel from the National Young Farmers for inviting this group of Maryland Agricultural Teachers.     YES, I want to Support  MAEF's Outreach Efforts!  Name:_________________________________Phone:(____)_________________                     (Please print your  name as you wish it to be listed on contributor list) Organization: _____________________________Email: _____________________ Street Address: _____________________________________________________ City: __________________________________State: ____________Zip: ________   Enclosed is my/our contribution of (please circle) :    $1000        $500        $250        $100        $50         $25        $______   __$1000 to sponsor a Mobile Science Lab bulletin board (includes plaque with name under bulletin board.)                                            __I/We would like to contribute to MAEF's Endowment Fund.  Enclosed is contribution of: $___________   __I/We would like to contribute to MAEF's Seibel Scholarship.  Enclosed is contribution of: $___________   Payment:          Check payable to MAEF, Inc. Please charge my contribution to (please circle):        Visa                MasterCard Card Number: _____________________________________Expiration Date:________ Name on card:___________________________Signature:_______________________    Thank you for supporting the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c) (3) charitable organization in Maryland.    Contributions are tax deductible in accordance with tax laws.  For the cost of postage and copying, documents and information filed under the Maryland charitable organizations laws can be obtained from the Secretary of State, Charitable Division, State House, Annapolis, MD  21401.   Mail to:  Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, P.O. Box 536, Havre de Grace, Maryland  21078   Questions?  Call 410-939-9030 or email mail@maefonline.com