WILLMAR, Minn. — Mark Starkey, agricultural educator at Western Reserve Local Schools, Collins, Ohio, recently attended a 12-day professional development institute at Ridgewater College.
This Professional Development Institute was designed to certify educators across the United States to teach Technical Applications in Agriculture, a newly developed course funded through a National Science Foundation grant.
Starkey was one of 14 educators from 10 different states assigned to field test the Technical Applications of Agriculture coursework and was the only teacher representing the state of Ohio in attendance.
During the CASE Institute, Mark Starkey spent 100 hours working through nearly every lesson in the year-long curriculum and learning how to deliver lessons in an inquiry-based way that will shift focus in the classroom from teacher-led to student-directed learning.
