Science educator Patricia Eshelman of Bolivar, New York, has been named the 2021 NYAITC Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: New York Agriculture in the Classroom.
Congratulations go to New York teacher Patricia Eshelman, who was recently honored by the National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization and the National Food Institute of Food and Agriculture, which is part of the US Department of Agriculture. Patricia has been named the 2021 New York Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year. She earned this honor for her unique lessons in the classroom that get students outside of a normal classroom setting.
Patricia teaches biology and a course entitled Sustainable Living and Agriculture at Bolivar Richburg High School in Bolivar, New York. The course covers a broad range of agricultural topics from botany to ethics, and allows students valuable hands-on learning experiences and community-engagement.
Patricia has created lessons she calls “Farmer Fridays,” where she invites guest speakers to talk to her classes. In addition, the innovative educator directs her students in building, planting, and maintaining a garden as part of her school’s Wolverine Environmental Education Center (WEE). In their garden, the students have planted garlic, asparagus, blueberries, black raspberries, fruit trees, perennial flowers, and tomatoes. The food the students grow is given away or sold to the community, to teachers on campus, or to the school cafeteria. In addition to the garden, the students conduct studies about food waste which led them to explore composting and vermicomposting food from the school cafeteria.
Patricia was one of eight teachers across the country who was honored with a 2021 National Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award. The group was honored at the 2021 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference “Fields of Dreams” in Des Moines, Iowa, last summer.
To read more about Patricia Eshelman, see this article published about her by the Daily Reporter.
