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Ag Educator Resources

Teaching agriculture safety and health is an important topic for the next generation of farmers and related agriculture professions.

To assist teachers incorporating agricultural safety and health, UMASH has compiled a list of resources that can be used during the academic school year, such as: lesson plans, awareness events and additional resources to integrate health and safety topics into the classroom in a teacher friendly format. While not an exhaustive list, these resources cover many safety aspects related to agriculture and include tips on how to use the material in the classroom.

If you have questions or suggestions for additional teaching resources, please contact us:

Email: umash@umn.edu

 

Phone: 612-625-8836

EDUCATOR RESOURCES

2021 FFA INFOGRAPHIC

FARM SAFETY BINGO

Here’s a fun activity for students of all ages. What safety practices have you completed in the past year? Can you get five in a row? Share your card on social media, tagging @UMASHcenter

 

 

UMASH ONLINE EXPO

UMASH Expo: A 20/20 Look at Ag Health, Safety, and Wellness featuring exhibitors, safety demonstrations and speakers on a number of health and safety topics.

Planning TemplatePLANNING TEMPLATE

Get started now on organizing your lesson plans for the school year using our curriculum planning template! 

The template has space for you to plan ag health and safety topics, awareness events, and other ways to highlight ag health and safety throughout the school year.  Some of the “other ideas” could include: guest speakers, field trips, research projects and social media campaigns!

Use this planning template in conjunction with our 10 Ways to Incorporate Agricultural Health and Safety Into the Classroom to prepare a comprehensive ag health and safety lesson plan.

AG SAFETY AND HEALTH TOPICS

AGRITOURISM

Agritourism involves hosting on farm events for the public to attend, like petting zoos and apple orchards.

  • National (agri)Tourism Week (May)
ANIMAL HANDLING / STOCKMANSHIP

Positive animal handling techniques for animal and worker safety.

ATV SAFETY

ATV’s are widely used on farms and can be hazardous to operate. Learn about proper use and personal protective equipment when using an ATV.

CHEMICAL SAFETY

Chemical safety involves proper handling, application, storage and disposal of chemical containers.

  • Poison Prevention Week (March)
CHILD SAFETY / YOUTH WORKERS

Resources for youth of all ages who are involved in agriculture in family business or as an employment opportunity. Ensure safety and age-appropriate jobs for family members and hired workers.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND EXTREME WEATHER

Extreme weather events are occurring more frequently with a greater impact on agriculture. Know what to do before, during, and after an emergency.

  • Emergency Number Day (September)
  • National Preparedness Month (September)
  • Severe Weather Awareness Week (April)
  • National Heat Awareness Day (May)
  • UV Safety and Heat Illness Month (July)
ELECTRICAL SAFETY

Electricity can be a curious subject and also extremely dangerous. These resources can assist in teaching electrical safety, and about electricity itself.

GRAIN BIN SAFETY

Many of the jobs associated with grain handling and storage contain numerous hazards. Knowing the proper procedures can help avoid injury or death.

MANURE PIT / SILO SAFETY

Manure gas and silo gas exposure can occur suddenly and is deadly. These resources address proper procedures when working in confined spaces.

NEEDLESTICK PREVENTION

Needlestick injuries are usually minor, but they can be serious. This information assists in proper needle handling and disposal of sharps.

OPIOID EDUCATION AND RESOURCES

In 2017, more than 72,000 Americans died from a drug overdose. The impact of this issue on small towns and rural places has been particularly significant.

ROADWAY SAFETY - RURAL AND URBAN

Rural roads pose special dangers with curves, two-way traffic, slow-moving farm vehicles, wildlife, narrow lanes, and more. Safety tips for your equipment and how to safely share the road.

  • Roadway Safety Week (November)
SKID STEER SAFETY

Skid steers are common on farms and have unique features that make them dangerous particularly to youth including blind spots, moving buckets and varying centers of balance.

STRESS AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

Adults and youth experience the stress of working in agriculture today. These resources will help build awareness, offer coping skills and provide additional information for all members of the family.

  • World Mental Health Day (October)
  • Stress Awareness Month (April)
  • Mental Health Month (May)
STORYTELLING

Storytelling is a unique teaching tool to enhance participation and discussion in classrooms related to agriculture injuries and tragedies.

TRACTOR SAFETY

Tractors are the leading cause of accidental deaths on farms. Over the years, many farmers, farm workers and others living on or visiting farms, have been killed or seriously injured.

TRAIN / RAIL SAFETY

Every three hours in America, either a person or a vehicle is hit by a train, and too many of these incidents happen at grade crossings.

ZOONOTIC DISEASES (Also see AGRITOURISM)

Zoonotic diseases are diseases that can be spread between humans and animals and animals to humans.

 

AWARENESS EVENTS

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

  • UV Safety and Heat Illness Month

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

10 WAYS TO TEACH AG HEALTH AND SAFETY ONLINE

At the conclusion of each activity, students will apply critical thinking skills to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the hazards of agricultural work and prevention measures to take. 10 suggestions are just a starting point and meant to spark ideas for ways to bring more agricultural health and safety awareness and education into your virtual classroom!

DOWNLOAD PDF

 

1

Create an Awareness Poster

Activity: Choose an agriculture-related health or safety topic. Review past awareness campaigns for topics and helpful resources. Identify the hazard or health issue.

Outcome: Create a poster. Focus on making people aware about this topic. Include at least one prevention message.

Helpful resources:

Agricultural safety and health awareness events:

2

Interview Someone Virtually

Activity: Call up someone who had an agriculture-related injury, close call. Prepare questions ahead of time. What would they want you to learn from the experience?

Outcome: Write or record the story, and explain how the incident could have been prevented.

Helpful resources:

3

Take a Virtual Field Trip

Activity: Walk around your farm and complete a farm safety checklist. Don’t have a farm? Do a virtual walkthrough.

Outcome: In a paper or presentation, summarize what you did, including the checklist you used. Describe any hazards you identified. How have or will they be fixed or addressed to minimize risk?

4

Read or Write a Paper

Activity: Look at research projects that agricultural safety and health organizations have done.

Outcome: Read about the project. Summarize the key points. Based on what you read, propose your own agricultural health and safety research project. Write about it.

Helpful resources:

5

Watch a Webinar or Video

Activity: Watch a webinar about an agricultural safety and health topic.

Outcome: Discuss what you watched with a family member or friend. What did you learn? How can farmers implement best safety and health practices?

Helpful resources:

6

Go on a Farm Safety Photo Hunt

Activity: Read the Media Guidelines for Agricultural Safety. Use the Internet, local newspaper or trade magazine to find five examples of news articles or photos that could be improved based on the guidelines.

Outcome: Re-write the article with your suggested changes or create a book of drawings showing how the photos could be improved.

Helpful resources:

Media Guidelines for Agricultural Safety

DOWNLOAD THE PDF IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES: 
Updated August 2020

7

Reflect Upon Ag Safety and Health

Activity: Think about a time in your life when you had an agriculture-related injury or close call. If this has never happened to you, think about someone you know or someone you read about.

Outcome: Journal about this incident. What did you learn? How could the incident have been prevented?

Helpful resources:

8

Complete a Lesson and Take a Quiz

Activity: Watch a video or complete a lesson about agricultural safety and health.

Outcome: Take a quiz or do a puzzle (e.g., crossword or word search). Then create one yourself. Share the quiz/puzzle with friends or family.

Helpful resources:

9

Adapt Safety Topics to the Seasons

Activity: Identify one safety topic that is relevant to each season of the year: spring (planting season), summer, fall (harvest), and winter. While some activities will fit in more than one season, choose a different topic for each season, with a total of 4 topics.

Outcome: Write a 1-page report about each topic. How does the topic pertain to the season? What safety practices can be done to prevent injury and illness?

Helpful resources:
  • Farm Safety Checklists. Look at the month the checklist was published.
  • Agricultural safety and health awareness events. Note what topics occur which months. Think critically about whether the topic is appropriate for the season. (See Awareness events above on this page)

10

Make it Fun with Tech!

Activity: Complete at least one of the above activities.

Outcome: Now that you’re an expert on agricultural safety and health, do something creative with what you learned. Make a scrapbook, develop a comic book, sing a song, film a video, write a collection of poems. Share these with your teacher, family, and friends.

Helpful resources:

 

10 WAYS TO INCORPORATE AG HEALTH AND SAFETY INTO THE CLASSROOM

These 10 suggestions are just a starting point and meant to spark ideas for ways to bring more agricultural health and safety awareness and education into your classroom!

DOWNLOAD PDF

 

1

Highlight Awareness

Awareness events allow for a relevant, quick discussion about safety and health while opening the space to share students own stories!

Example: Have students break into daily themes and participate in National Farm Safety and Health Week on social media.

2

Bring in a Guest Speaker

Guest speakers allow students to hear from adults, often in their community, about their experiences and advice that the speaker has to offer.

Example: Feature a health or safety leader from a local cooperative, farm, clinic, or agribusiness.

3

Take a Field Trip

Get out of the classroom and discuss yourself, your students, and see what others are doing!

Example: Get boots-on-the ground experience on a farm, manufacturing or processing facility, or business to change the classroom scenery.

4

Offer a Research Project

Using our resources, along with other safety organizations, gives students an in-depth approach to understand safety and health practices.

Example: Have students practice with handwashing and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) best-practices.

5

Partner with Teachers

Agricultural health and safety is a very expansive topic. Partner with another teacher and tag-team a lesson plan to generate conversation among faculty!

Example: Partner with a science or biology teacher for a unit on zoonotic diseases.

6

Share Farm Safety Pictures

Using social media to share lessons and photos of safe practices is a great way to encourage conversation. Use the Agriculture Media Guidelines.

Example: Encourage students to take photos on the farm, work, or school demonstrating a class lesson.

7

Generate Discussion

Many students have similar questions and concerns. This allows them to reflect as a class and individually about safety practices.

Example: Use “Telling the Story” testimonies and guides to discuss students’ personal experiences.

8

Show a Video

Video resources are a great way to stimulate critical thinking and generate group discussion in and out of the classroom environment.

Example: Show students 4-H Biosecurity video and ask them how the video will change their own practices.

9

Timing is Everything

With agriculture, much of the work that is being done is seasonal and often depends on the weather. Make sure your lesson is adapted to that!

Example: Discuss agritourism near spring due to high traffic agritourism events in spring, summer, and fall!

10

Make it Fun with Tech

Use technology to give students creativity and a space to share, and to implement a continual conversation about health and safety in agriculture.

Example: PollEverywhere allows you to ask questions, generates content from responses, and can be anonymous. Quiz with Kahoots or Jeopardy to engage students!

 

 

EDUCATOR RESOURCES

 

DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Student

  • Contact your local and state agriculture association for information and dates regarding FFA conferences and other student safety and health events!
  • Share the UMASH website when assigning a research project or participating in a developmental competition to find resources about agricultural health and safety.

 

Teachers/Professional

  • Contact local agricultural associations for updates and information on professional development events and agriculture education conference updates. Examples of events to attend:
  • National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) Conventions
  • International Society for Agricultural Safety and Health (ISASH) Conferences
  • Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) Institute Conferences
  • Local and regional state agricultural association conferences

 

ORGANIZATIONS

The resources provided on this page were compiled from the following organizations.