Throwback Tuesday, that’s a thing, right? Okay fine, depending on how you look at it I’m either two days ahead or five days behind the true #tbt. Regardless, I thought it would be interesting to post my MMA response I wrote this summer.

MMA, you ask? Master’s of Modern Agriculture. I took an abbreviated course one day while at Bayer and voila, MMA in my name. After viewing select videos and reading key details and information (yikes, common core standards vocabulary coming out without trying here) about modern agriculture, the certificate was all mine.  There was a 150-word limit to the response.

Here it is:

With only 2% of the population in the United States working as farmers, it is no surprise that many misconceptions exist among the general public about farming. The largest misconception is that farming is viewed as a traditional field of work. While farming has existed since the beginning of mankind, it continues to evolve and modernize. Most people are not aware of exactly how advanced the technology and applications of farming are today. To help resolve these misconceptions, I plan to bring my experiences observing the research and scientific method in action back to my fifth grade classroom. Furthermore, I plan to challenge my students to consider the connections between modern science topics (such as robotics) and farming. Educating students about the modernization of farming could also lead to more innovation for the field by piquing student interest and affecting their trajectory for higher education and career options.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with the misconceptions and reasoning that I mention? Despite the certificate, I wouldn’t exactly call myself an expert in modern agriculture.

I’m glad that I decided to post this essay because after rereading my thoughts I realized that I have yet to find a meaningful way to incorporate the modernization of farming into my classroom. The good news is that it’s only October 6th and today I at least touched the surface by introducing the word biotechnology.