Wheat is defined as a plant that is ground to make flour for bread, pasta, pastries, etc… But it is much more than a dictionary definition. Did you know that in the United States, there are six main classes of wheat? Wheat classes are determined by the time of year they are planted and harvested, the shape and hardness of the kernel, and the color of the bran.
This virtual tour explored this amazing grain!
What are Summer Teacher Tours?
The Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom Program (MAITC) offered a unique summer professional development opportunity for K-12 educators. Our Summer Teacher Tours allowed educators to observe and experience current agricultural production, processing and distribution techniques, as well as provide a wealth of standards-based, agriculture themed lesson plans and resources. Participants networked and shared how they intend to use these experiences and resources to integrate agriculture into their curricula to improve student achievement by applying authentic agricultural examples to teach core curriculum concepts in science, social studies, language arts, math and nutrition.
A Breakdown of the Wheat: From the Farm to the Plate Tour
Throughout the day, participants had a variety of guests and virtual exploration opportunities. This fun filled, busy schedule included many stops along the life cycle of wheat. From the field and the process it might go through to get to consumers.
- Met a wheat farmer to see how wheat is grown.
- Visited the Northern Crop Institute to discover unique careers related to product development and see how pasta is made!
- Popped into Minneapolis bakery, Bakers Field Flour and Bread, to see a stone mill in action grinding wheat grown in Minnesota
- Later in the evening (5:30 p.m.) professional chef Joel Gamoran and a Minnesota farmer led participants in a virtual cooking class where they made a delicious pasta dinner to enjoy at home!
Teacher Testimonials from the Wheat: From Farm to the Fork Tour
The tour was awesome!! As always, this is my favorite professional development every year! Even though I don't teach in a classroom, the information I learn in these conferences is shared with friends, family and coworkers. It is so valuable to see and hear the impact agriculture has on every aspect of our lives!
Thank you for doing this for all of us....teachers, students and those that work in agriculture!
I loved the set up. I really enjoy live tours but this ability to jump from one location to the next related one in seconds was really great. I liked the connections with other teachers and their perspectives. This tour was very connected to real life as most people eat bread and many have made it, but now I saw the actual farm to plate experience.
Always learning new information to share with students that is real world based. Farmer, Miller, Baker all jobs my students would never think about and so its good exposure about the bigger world and its opportunities.
Summer Teacher Tours
Wheat isn’t the only thing that students and teachers can learn about during these summer teacher tours. How local agriculture becomes global agriculture, a hydroponic container farm project, and how soil fuels success, are the other tours took place this summer as well. MAITC offered this unique summer professional development opportunity for K-12 educators - four tours in five weeks of the summer!
