Incorporating GLAG into the Classroom

During student teaching, I had the really cool opportunity of being able to engage with GLAG. GLAG is a program focusing on global agriculture and engaging with other educators. As a young teacher participating, GLAG was a great opportunity to connect with educators from across the country and the globe and to start thinking about how I can incorporate global aspects into what I do as a teacher. It also helped to continue to encourage me to be thinking globally rather than through a narrow lens.

I was able to test these waters of teaching about global agriculture by incorporating some of the things I learned from this GLAG experience into my student teaching experience. Specifically, I incorporated the Sustainable Development Goals into my Plant and Greenhouse Science course. The unit we were on was the horticulture industry, and I wanted to talk about how important the horticulture industry is. After briefly going over what exactly the horticulture industry is, I decided to dive into food security. I figured this would be an interesting avenue and perspective for providing a challenge that the horticulture industry can help to alleviate.

I had the students first dive into the SDGs and identify some ones that they felt would be applicable to horticulture. They used the definitions on the website and after they put down what they thought was applicable, we started to define food security. The lesson incorporated inquiry-based learning through having the students try and identify the elements of food security, justify answers, revise answers, and finally compare them with the actual parameters that measure food insecurity. At the end of the lesson we circled back to SDGs and they again posed the question of which ones apply to horticulture. This time around, the students found that many more applied as they knew more about the horticulture industry, food insecurity, and how SDGs tie into all of this.

The second part of this lesson was a webquest on SDGs (because of hybrid learning, one group first did the webquest then the next day did the food insecurity activity, and the other group did the opposite). This webquest had the students really looking into the individual SDG and what components are wrapped up in each. Students looked at how different SDGs tie into each other, what ones affect them everyday, the impetuous behind the goals as a whole, and ultimately, the role that each individual student plays in these goals.

The students seemed to enjoy it, and I was really cool to broaden their horizons with a more global perspective. It was also really beneficial to discuss what agriculture can contribute to the SDGs and the global role that agriculture plays. Though there are some things that I would change and tweak about the lesson, I will certainly be doing this again. I think it set the students off on the right foot and gave me great content that I would reiterate throughout my time teaching this class.

I was once told that teaching about global agriculture is about the integration, not the addition. This sentiment has really stayed with me and was something I wanted to try during student teaching. After doing this small amount with my Plant and Greenhouse Science class and seeing how the impact that it can have on giving the students more perspective, I will certainly be doing more on integrating aspects of global agriculture into all my classes.