Exploring Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources

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• Explore agriculture, food, and natural resources through hands-on STEM learning.
• Discover exciting agricultural careers while building leadership and communication skills.
• Engage with real-world projects, SAE activities, and interactive learning experiences.

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Print Offerings

Title Overview

Exploring Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources introduces middle school students to AFNR literacy to build excitement for the wide variety of opportunities in agricultural education and careers as they develop interpersonal skills, gain hands-on immersion in STEM, and begin planning a Supervised Agricultural Experience. Built to meet the needs of exploratory courses, seventy-six lessons are organized into twelve, flexible units that can be assigned to accommodate a variety of timeframes, interests, or grade levels. This text is expertly designed for young learners with engaging photographs narrated by colorful characters. Agriculture educator, Mrs. Lopez, introduces each lesson with reflective questions and connects students with ten additional, diverse characters spanning the agricultural career pathways. Students learn concepts in relation to how they may be used in a variety of careers from greenhouse manager to microbiologist, or national park ranger to supply chain specialist.

To connect classroom and experiential learning, all-new Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) Profiles introduce middle school student stories of successful projects, while SAE for ALL Opportunities and Check-ins provided at the end of each chapter act as additional springboards for planning and decision-making.
Each lesson ends with review and assessment that incorporates cross-curricular stills in STEM, ELA, and social studies with Academic Activities and Communicating about Agricultural assignments.
Hands-On Activities and Making Connections features in most lessons offer step-by-step mini projects to practice communication, STEM, and leadership skills related to agriscience.
The Student Lab Manual includes additional hands-on applications for each lesson while the digital offerings provide additional activities with access to the AFNR video library of over 45 videos, scripted and produced by Ag experts on topics of high interest for students.

Introducing Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources

Developing Career Skills in Agriculture

The Importance of Agriculture

Agriculture in Your Community

The Science of Agriculture

Skills in Food Science

Soil Science Exploration

Plant Science Exploration

Animal Science Exploration

Wildlife and Natural Resources Management

Agricultural Engineering

Connecting Producers and Consumers through Agricultural Marketing

Instructor Resources

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Lesson Plans and Activities
Experienced teachers have developed detailed lesson plans and creative activities to accompany the textbooks. There's no need to spend days recreating your courses—they have done it for you!
PowerPoint Presentations
Editable slides for each chapter engage a variety of learning styles, improve student focus, encourage discussion, and provide visual impact.
Workbooks
Creative workbook activities inspire students to review and apply concepts.
Interactive Content
Additional interactive content including flash cards, animations, and interactive activities enhance the learning experience.

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Standards and Correlations

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Georgia

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Virginia

About the Author

D. Barry Croom

has more than thirty-five years of experience in agricultural and extension education. His career interest developed as a high school junior when he coached his first dairy judging team for the local junior high school FFA program. Croom began his professional career as a high school agricultural education teacher. While teaching full-time, he earned a Master of Education Degree in Agricultural Education. While a high school teacher, Croom was selected by the National FFA Organization to develop and present in-service workshops to teachers across the United States. His students earned state and national recognition for academic achievement. He was recognized as the Sampson County Schools Teacher of the Year and received the Honorary American FFA Degree from the National FFA Organization.

In 1996, Croom became an Extension associate responsible for the statewide FFA Program at North Carolina State University. After completing his doctoral degree in 1999, he became an assistant professor in the same department. Croom worked through the ranks to become an Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor at North Carolina State University. He has served as an agriculture teacher, teacher educator, extension associate, state education staff member, professor, and department head in agricultural education and agricultural sciences. Croom has taught courses in leadership, information technology, experiential learning, instructional methodology, educational program planning, and youth development. He has taught more than 30 different courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Croom maintains a research program that focuses on effective teaching, career and technical education policy, and diversity in agricultural and extension education. He is the author of two textbooks, 46 peer-reviewed publications, and more than 20 popular publications. For part of his outreach and engagement efforts, he directed the North Carolina Farm Bureau Institute for Future Agricultural Leaders for several years. Croom led the Oregon Team AgEd Board and served on the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation Board and the Oregon Agricultural Education Foundation's Summer Agriculture Institute Board. He coordinated the Western Oregon Summer Agricultural Institute. Barry Croom served as Professor and Department Head for Agricultural Education and General Agriculture at Oregon State University before returning to his native South. Part of his responsibilities included training and development for high school teachers and the development of a curriculum for agricultural and extension education. Dr. Croom is now a professor for Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication at the University of Georgia. He divides his time between teaching courses on the Athens and Tifton campuses.

Melissa Riley

works with the Georgia Agriculture Education State Staff as an area horticulture teacher. She has served in this role since 2010. With a BS and MS in agriculture education, Mrs. Riley creates and teaches horticulture and agriscience curriculum for agriculture educators across the state. She also helps teachers with their school greenhouses and other land lab areas. Mrs. Riley coordinates and facilitates several different CDEs for Georgia FFA and serves as the FFA Floriculture CDE Superintendent for the National FFA Organization. In 2022, the GA Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association (GVATA) named her Outstanding State Staff Member of the Year.

Before joining state staff, Mrs. Riley was a middle school agriculture education teacher for 8 years. While in the classroom, Mrs. Riley instructed the general agriculture curriculum to her 6-8 grade students. They also utilized a school greenhouse, livestock barn, and outside garden area for classroom instruction. She presented educational workshops for the community and held fall and spring plant sales each year. Mrs. Riley's efforts earned her the GVATA Young Professional of the Year award in 2006 and Outstanding Agriculture Program in 2009. She was also named the school and system wide teacher of the year in 2009.

Kevin Jump

taught high school agriculture for 16 years and continues (for the past 12 years) as a state staff member for Georgia Agricultural Education in the position of Area Teacher in the Central Region. As a high school teacher, Mr. Jump taught Basic Agricultural Science, Agricultural Mechanics, Forestry, Natural Resources, Horticulture, Animal Science, and Crop Production. His current position as an Area Teacher in Georgia's Central Region focuses on providing resources for agriculture teachers in the area of Agricultural Mechanics. In addition, he coordinates with other area teachers, state staff members, and industry partners to produce Career Development Events (CDEs), middle school curriculum, high school curriculum, and adult education curriculum for Georgia Agricultural Education.

Kevin has always enjoyed his interaction with students as a high school teacher and in his current position considers the development of those relationships some of the highlights of his career. He has received several Honorary Chapter Degrees, the Honorary Georgia FFA Degree, and the Honorary American FFA Degree.

Ashley Yopp

is the Bureau Chief for Adult and Career Education at the Florida Department of Education where she leads the administration and coordination of educational programs designed to help adult learners gain the skills needed to enter the workforce and obtain access to postsecondary education. She is a native of North Carolina and worked in secondary and post-secondary education as an agriculture teacher, teacher educator, and research scientist. Ashley received a BA in Political Science from East Carolina University, a MS in Agricultural Education from North Carolina A&T State University, and a PhD in Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication from Texas A&M University.

As a teacher educator and scientist at the University of Georgia, Ashley?s work in the STEM Integration and Research Development Laboratory focused on understanding workforce needs to build interdisciplinary capacities for the future of work in rural communities. Additionally, her experiences include designing and delivering teacher education programs in agricultural education and in-service professional development as well as facilitating instruction in organizational ethics, leadership, and change, strategic communications, and research methodology. Ashley credits her experience as a student and FFA Member in Agricultural Education at Triton High School as the catalyst for her life and career as an advocate for Career and Technical Education.

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What Educators Are Saying

Quote Very interactive. LOVE the design layout! Will keep kids engaged.

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