CCPS is All in for Ag Education
- Shanda Crosby
- Sep 24
- 3 min read
We’re cultivating the future in Clark County Public Schools as Ag Education Week took our schools by storm and attracted statewide attention.
Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Jonathan Shell and his team visited Clark County to learn how our high school students are connecting with preschoolers not just during Ag Education Week but every week.
“Each month, our high school ag students create hands-on ag lessons that align with the preschool curriculum,” says GRC Ag Teacher Terra Pigg. “They brainstorm, print, laminate, and lead the activities. It’s about building knowledge and leadership at the same time.”
This partnership doesn’t just teach kids where their food comes from. It teaches high schoolers how to advocate for agriculture, how to educate others, and how to be leaders in their community.
Commissioner Shell praised the partnership.
“We’ve seen fourth graders learning CAD design, 3D printing, and sustainability,” he said. “We’ve seen high schoolers teaching preschoolers. And we’ve seen the future of education — and it’s happening here in Clark County.”
Superintendent Dustin Howard echoed Mr. Shell’s accolades for our Ag program.
“Here in Clark County, our vision is to grow greatness — in our schools, in our community, and in our kids. We have high school students pouring into preschoolers, teaching and connecting, and someday those little learners will be the ones in FFA jackets, remembering the role models they met here.”
Throughout this year’s Ag Education Week, many CCPS classrooms focused on helping students understand where their food comes from and the importance of the agricultural industry.
Elementary classrooms got creative with ag-themed art projects, while older students learned about career paths in agriculture and agri-science.
Ag Education Week emphasized how agriculture brings classroom subjects to life — math through field measurement, science through fertilizer mixing, and engineering through building pens and greenhouses.
“Without agriculture, you would be naked, hungry, and homeless,” she says. “From the time you get up in the morning, you get dressed, eat breakfast, and drive or ride to school. Agriculture was involved in that.”
Take a simple bag of Doritos, for example — a common snack, but also a masterclass in agricultural economics.
“It starts as a seed from a seed company," Ms. Pigg explained. "A plant breeder breeds this seed which is then purchased by the farmer. We have agronomists who are gonna study that. Then we’re going to harvest it, transport it, process it, bag it, advertise it — hundreds of jobs are involved to get one bag of Doritos on the shelf in the grocery store.”
As GRC Ag students teach younger learners about the importance of agriculture, they are learning as well. In fact, FFA President Heidi Castle played a major role in writing the CCPS curriculum for this year’s All in for Ag Week.
She designed age-appropriate lessons for every grade from kindergarten through sixth, making sure teachers could easily incorporate ag into what they were already teaching.
“When I was picking out each lesson, I just definitely had to think about what fine motor skills they can use to be able to do activities, what's easily available for each teacher to do without it being too complicated, but also still aligning with whatever they're learning in the classroom,” Castle said.
The result? Seamless integration of ag into core subjects — without adding stress for educators.
“There's a lot of kids out there who’ve never been around agriculture," Castle said. "Being able to educate our community is really important and really impactful.”
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Ag Week Video by GRC senior Bailey Howard, CCPS Student Production Team
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Below are photos of a variety of Ag Education Week activities, including "harvesting crops" at Shearer, constructing a pig at Strode, making bread at Shearer, celebrating Down on the Farm Day at Baker, tossing the Ag Question ball at RDC, and taking Rowdy Ringo through the seasons at the Preschool.
