Student winners announced in statewide I Love New York Agriculture Contest
Cows, chickens, pigs, apples, grapes, milk, maple syrup, and other products of New York State’s agricultural industry are the subjects of the 40 prize winning paintings, posters, poems, and stories submitted by elementary students across New York in the 2012 annual New York Agriculture in the Classroom “I Love New York Agriculture” Art and Writing Contest.
Over 1,000 entries were submitted from county-level contests, schools, after school programs, and home school families. The categories for the different grade levels pre-kindergarten through sixth grade include artwork, slogans, poems, stories, essays, and posters that help students learn about the importance of agriculture to New York. Winners in each category receive prizes ranging from t-shirts to savings bonds, and the winning entries will be displayed at Empire Farm Days and at the New York State Fair. Teachers utilize the contest as a way to integrate agricultural education into their core curriculum through art, literacy, social studies, math, and science.
Members of Sigma Alpha, Cornell University’s professional agriculture sorority, judged the entries.
New York Agriculture in the Classroom and the New York Farm Bureau Foundation for Agricultural Education have sponsored the I Love New York Agriculture Contest since 1996. New York Agriculture in the Classroom is a partnership of Cornell University, NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets, NYS Education Department, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and NY Farm Bureau. The program works with teachers, community educators, agriculture professionals, and volunteers throughout the state to foster an understanding of agriculture and the food system. Fulton-Montgomery Counties had some participants participate and get recognized in the Second Grade Category of the contest. Joshua Miller from Fonda placed 1st, Dylan Cotter from Fultonville placed second, and Nicholas Hastings from Johnstown placed third in the contest!
For more information on this and other programs of New York Agriculture in the Classroom, please visit www.nyaged.org/aitc. For more information on what programs of Agriculture in the Classroom Cornell Cooperative Extension of Fulton and Montgomery Counties offers, contact Bonnie S. Peck (bsp8@cornell.edu)
