Category: Classroom Spotlights

Maine Teacher Makes Fascinating Connections Between Local Ecosystems and Dairy Farming

Dairy farmers rely on a wide range of skills on a daily basis, but especially math and science. Lacey Todd, a fifth-grade science teacher at Mountain Valley Middle School in Maine, has been weaving dairy farming and agriculture into her science and ecosystems curriculum through Discover Dairy’s Adopt a Cow program. “I was at a…

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Oregon School Cafeteria Adopts a Cow to Get Students Excited About Drinking Milk

What does it look like when an entire school cafeteria adopts a calf from a dairy farm? For Lynne Shore, Nutrition Services Director at Willamina School District in Oregon, she made this a reality for the 800 students (K-12) her cafeteria serves. After planning a farmer’s markets for students a year earlier, Lynn and her…

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Sixth-Grade Teacher Brings Science and Social Studies to Life Through Dairy Connections

For Julie Cates, a sixth-grade teacher who teaches middle school curriculum in the central valley of California, the Discover Dairy and Adopt a Cow Programs have given her a creative outlet to not only meet some of her lesson standards, but help her students connect with the community around them. Through free lessons, videos and…

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Adopt a Cow Program Helps Kindergarten Teacher Show Students Dairy Farmers Are Real People

As a long-term substitute at an elementary school in Washington, Amy Vaagen was looking for a way to engage her kindergarten students and get them excited about learning. Located near the Columbia River Basin where they grow tree fruit, her students were familiar with agriculture but most had never been exposed to dairy farming in…

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First-Grade Teacher Builds Community Connections and Strong Citizens with Adopt a Cow Program

Anna Breitbach, a first-grade teacher in South Florida, is in her first year of teaching at a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) school. To bring some excitement to her classroom and help students build connections with their community, she signed up for Discover Dairy’s Adopt a Cow program after finding a video from another…

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Discover Dairy Activities Help Home-School Students Build Greater Appreciation for Agriculture

After growing up in her 4-H program, Becky Norton – a home school teacher in suburban Georgia – was excited to find the Discover Dairy program so she could help her children develop a similar appreciation for agriculture. Discover Dairy is an interactive, cross-curricular educational series that introduces elementary and middle school students to where…

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