Lewiston Elementary School teacher selected for national award

LES fourth-grade teacher Meaghan Porritt was the recipient of the 2022 National Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award

LEWISTON–A Lewiston Elementary School teacher was selected for the 2022 National Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award by incorporating agriculture with embryology, aquaponics, hydroponics and much more.

LES fourth-grade teacher Meaghan Porritt was the recipient of the national award as well as the Utah Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award recipient.

“I was honored to be selected,” Porritt said. “I was really excited.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Farm Credit and the National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization partner each year to honor teachers in pre-k – 12th grade from around the country for the innovative ways they integrate agricultural concepts to teach reading, writing, math, science, social studies, STEM, STEAM and more.

“These outstanding teachers recognize that agriculture also is fertile ground for teaching botany, biology, chemistry, finance, climatology, and arts, in ways that any age or level of students can understand, appreciate and apply to their daily life,” said USDA-NIFA Director Carrie Castille, PhD. “Innovative teachers like these are often responsible for awakening a student’s love of learning, nature and science.”

Porritt said she started to integrate teaching about agriculture because it’s a good tool to teach kids since agriculture affects every aspect of our lives.

“It provides clothes for us, food that we eat, fuels our cars, our homes,” Porritt said. “It’s a great tool to use for the kids because it’s so relatable and it gets them engaged and helps them learn more and gets them excited about learning as well.”

When she decided to add agriculture in her classroom, Porritt applied for the Utah Ag in the Classroom Grant which provides teachers with a variety of grants and scholarships to support classroom instruction to increase student awareness about the importance of agriculture.

With the grant, Porritt purchased an incubator and aquaponics, a food production system that couples aquaculture by raising aquatic animals such as fish, crayfish, snails or prawns in tanks with the hydroponics, cultivating plants in water, whereby the nutrient-rich aquaculture water is fed to hydroponically-grown plants.

Porritt’s class started to incubate eggs but before the eggs could hatch, students were switched to virtual learning due to the COVID-19 shut down. Porritt said the students were still interested in the chicks being hatched even after the shutdown.

With Utah Ag in the Classroom Grants in the following years, Porritt was able to obtain additional incubators for the other fourth-grade classrooms. Porritt said the eggs are donated by Rynde Thurston, the owner of Cocktails and Hens.

“She gives us our eggs every year,” Porritt said. “She donates them to the school because she wants kids to have the experience.”

Porritt also uses Ag Challenges where students us critical thinking to solve common issues many farmers face.

“They gain social skills from it. They’re collaborating,” Porritt said. “They are making friends they wouldn’t normally because they are not in their normal element.”

Porritt said she hopes to keep adding different agricultural learning tools such as trout in the classroom and an apiary in the future. She said students really enjoys learning about agriculture.

“The kids really love it,” Porritt said. “It’s lots of fun.”

Porritt and the other seven teachers selected for the award will be honored at the 2022 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference “Empire State of Agriculture” at Saratoga Springs on June 28 – July 1.

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