Ag Is Everywhere: New Agricultural Literacy Certificate for Teachers Nationwide

The National Center for Agricultural Literacy at Utah State University has developed an online certificate program that is now available to teachers nationwide.

The program prepares teachers to incorporate key elements of agricultural literacy into core subjects including science, social studies, economics and history in grades K-12. It also helps teachers understand emerging trends in precision and sustainable agriculture and guide students in developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

As the center’s website states: “Agriculture touches our daily existence through the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the environments we inhabit. Agriculture is so ubiquitous, it’s difficult to have a complete understanding of our modern existence without at least a basic understanding of agriculture.”

Rose Judd-Murray, an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Sciences, Technology, and Education, focuses her primary research on agricultural literacy and leads the launch of the new certificate.

“We hope teachers will increase their awareness of what agriculture is and improve how they value agriculture, that they see the value across food, clothing, shelter and the influence agriculture has on the environment, the economy within their community, jobs, quality of food, and food safety,” Judd-Murray said.

She explained that now-retired Professor Deborah Spielmaker’s original vision for the project was “to create an online course to help people get a broader scope of what it means to be agriculturally literate.”

Fully funded by a United States Department of Agriculture grant, the Agricultural Literacy Certificate helps teachers incorporate agricultural concepts into their classrooms, fostering industry knowledge among educators and students of all ages. According to Judd-Murray, the program is designed to assist educators who are in the classroom by providing content and training that is aligned to subjects in their core curriculum.

“We really wanted to build out a holistic approach, so we utilized education and content experts from across the nation to help us decide what materials and modules would look like. They helped us build out that framework from the beginning,” Judd-Murray said.

The Agricultural Literary Certificate course was developed with insights from national experts in agricultural literacy.

“We wanted to make sure that individuals that got into this course could leave feeling confident and prepared to step into a space where they either increase their knowledge or have better teaching strategies, and they know where to go to find reliable information,” Judd-Murray said. “This course has a whole module embedded to increase your ability to teach agriculture. It gives you access to lesson plans, information websites and teaching techniques for a variety of ages. We not only want to increase your confidence level in your content knowledge, but we also want to increase your confidence level as an educator.”

Before the program’s official launch, a pilot test identified course content and structure that the course creators refined. Even in the pilot though, researchers found a measurable increase in participants’ agricultural literacy.

A sponsored rollout of the program allowed 450 educators to complete the course and participants received financial incentives and access to classroom resources from the National Agriculture in the Classroom e-store.

With early success and growing interest, the Agricultural Literacy Certificate program has seen significant enrollment rates. The course is designed to be accessible and beneficial for a broad range of educators and professionals.

Enhancing agricultural literacy across formal and non-formal education settings is crucial for this evolving industry. The course follows a structured and interactive universal design to ensure accessibility.

“It is available to anybody who would be in a position where they would need to share a message about agriculture,” Judd-Murray said.

The certificate course is fully online at agliteracy.org/alc/, costs $25 and takes approximately 12 hours to complete. Upon completion, participants receive a digital certificate. While recertification every three years is recommended, it is not required.

The enthusiasm surrounding the new ALC program is evident.

“It is very exciting; we’re thrilled,” Judd-Murray said. This course can help your understanding of multiple levels of agricultural literacy. What we know from research is that a lot of educators in and out of the classroom are very hesitant to approach the details of agriculture because they don’t feel confident in it. This course is designed to give them that confidence.”