What is AITC?

Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) is a statewide educational program. Its goal is to help educators, students and the general population gain a greater awareness of the importance of agriculture in their daily lives.

Our program provides educational materials and teacher training to school systems across the state. The program focuses on grades K-8. Its curriculum is designed to be incorporated into language arts, math, science and social studies lessons.

Why do we have AITC?

The Rock Island County AITC program uses agriculture as a medium to teach social studies, language arts, math and science. Students learn about agriculture as they are learning their other lessons. By using agricultural products and animals that are familiar to children, such as pigs, soybeans, corn or cows, new information and ideas will be more meaningful to students and easier to understand. The importance of agriculture in their everyday life is the motivation for learning. Educators can use examples from agriculture to make lessons more interesting and relevant to students. AITC is a wonderful program for teachers and students to achieve their classroom objectives as well as meet the Illinois Learning Standards.

The agricultural literacy program consists of:

• classroom programs for students (K-12) upon request on various agricultural topics such as plants and seeds, soils, water, careers, renewable resources, corn, soybeans, wheat, animal nutrition, agricultural products, fiber/clothing, insects, beef, dairy, pork, embryology, apples, pumpkins, agricultural economics and marketing, biotechnology, genetics, and watersheds
• inservices/workshops for educators in which they earn Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDU) for re-certification
• preservices for education majors at local colleges
• many free or free-loan resources for schools (hands-on learning kits, lessons on various agricultural topics, books, videos,)
• public awareness through press releases, radio interviews, county fair displays and presentations to community organizations
• networking with other agricultural education people to strengthen agricultural literacy efforts statewide and nationally

Visit the "Agricultural Literacy Resources" page to view a listing of curriculum and other resources available through the Agricultural Literacy program.

For more information, please contact Agricultural Literacy Coordinator, Sheryl Solomonson by telephone at (309) 736-7432 or e-mail at aitc@qconline.com.