HARRISBURG – Just in time for the start of a new school year, Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff has announced an expansion of the Pennsylvania Web site that helps educators teach agriculture to students.
“Marketplace for the Mind” offers agricultural education materials that are aligned with Pennsylvania academic standards and help students prepare for the new Pennsylvania System of School Assessment science assessment.
“The agricultural science curriculum is very diverse and can be used alone or as a supplement to curriculum material in any classroom,” Wolff said. “Marketplace for the Mind provides one unique and very positive step in helping students understand, appreciate and support agriculture in Pennsylvania.”
New on the Web site this year is a PowerPoint tab where educators can download full presentations on many different agricultural subjects. Also new is an agriculture courses page where users may download information about online agriculture courses from accredited universities.
Marketplace for the Mind is home to an agricultural resource library full of information on quality, science-based references, books, lesson plans and teaching tools that are aligned with Pennsylvania’s “science & technology” and “environment & ecology” teaching standards. More than 40 lab activities, ranging from alternative fuels to veterinary skills, can be downloaded on the Marketplace’s hands-on learning page.
“With the new PSSA science assessment, teachers will need to place more emphasis on meeting science standards,” said Dr. MeeCee Baker, Marketplace for the Mind coordinator. “The new Web site makes it easy — all it takes is a click of your mouse and you have access to hundreds of lessons that are matched with Pennsylvania academic standards.”
Marketplace for the Mind also offers teacher assistance for grants, linking more than 150 educational grants and grant-writing tips. Students can also benefit from the more than 50 scholarship links.
Fifteen-thousand users access Marketplace for the Mind each month, downloading nearly 10,000 lesson plans for students from preschool to high school.
Guided by Gov. Edward G. Rendell’s goal of improving educational outreach, Marketplace for the Mind is a unique educational resource from the departments of Agriculture and Education. For more information on Governor Rendell’s agriculture education initiative, visit here or contact Dr. MeeCee Baker at 717-705-9512 or c-mebaker@state.pa.us.