AgBadging Overview
- The AgBadging program is designed for students ages 8-11 (grades 3-5).
- The AgBadging Field Guide leads learners through an exploration of agriculture—what you eat, wear, and use every day. It is designed for nonformal (e.g., farm field days) and formal classroom use.
- Students can earn five different themed badges and a completion badge. Badges provide recognition for learning and serve to positively motivate learning about agriculture.
- Students select activities to earn badges within the themes of Agriculture & the Environment, Plants & Animals, Food & Health, Technology & Engineering, and Geography & Culture.
- Each theme has milestones that track the student's agricultural journey. Students select three milestones to complete for each badge.
- After finishing a milestone, the student records the completion date and gets it signed off in their field guide by an adult (a parent, grandparent, guardian, teacher, youth leader, etc.).
- Badges are found in the back of the field guide. When a badge is earned, it is placed on the first page of the theme.
- When a student collects badges for all five themes, they earn a completion badge and a Field Scout Code Name. Students attach the completion badge to the title page of the field guide. Students visit agbadging.agclassroom.org to receive their code name. All code names are careers in agriculture and include a short description of the career and a link to the FFA's Ag Explorer website to learn more. Please Note: Students will not be asked to provide any personal information to receive their code name.
- The For Students webpage provides students with more information about the milestones including tutorials, book suggestions, videos, games, and more.
AgBadging Suggested Books
Agriculture & the Environment
- Seed Sprout: A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Aston
- Weather Watch: Weather Words and What they Mean by Gail Gibbons
- Soil Investigation: Jump into Science: Dirt by Steve Tomacek
- Compost Bottle: Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals
- Light Investigation: The Magic School Bus Gets Planted: A Book About Photosynthesis by Joanna Cole & Lenore Notkin
Plants & Animals
- Agriculture and Me: How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? by Chris Butterworth
- Farm Tour: Real Farm & Ranch Kids by Sue Tebow
- Life Cycles: Chick Life Cycle by Elizabeth Bennett; Sunflower Life Cycle by Jeff Bauer
- Eating Plants: Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens
- Pollinator Hotel: Pollen: Darwin's 130 Year Prediction by Darcy Pattison
Food & Health
- MyPlate Menu: Good Enough to Eat by Lizzy Rockwell
- Farmers' Market Finds: On the Farm, At the Market by G. Brian Karas
- Crop Commercial: Farming by Gail Gibbons
- Produce Poster: Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
- My Energy Cycle: Jack & the Hungry Giant Eat Right with MyPlate by Loreen Leedy
Technology & Engineering
- Agricultural Inventors: The Boy Who Changed the World (Norman Borlaug) by Andy Andrews; Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin by Jessica Gunderson; The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin by Julia Finley Mosca; A Weed is a Flower: The Life of George Washington Carver by Aliki
- Innovating Farm Equipment: The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
- Build a Barn: Barn at Night by Michelle Houts
- Farming the Future: The Magic School Bus Rides Again: Robot Farm by Gabe Polt
- Career Exploration: Right This Very Minute by Lisl Detlefsen
Geography & Culture
- Cooking Video: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio
- Where in the World?: The Story of Food: An Illustrated History of Everything We Eat by DK
- What's for Lunch?: What's for Lunch?: How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World by Andrea Curtis
- Food Supply Chain: Pickles to Pittsburgh by Judi Barrett
- Holiday Traditions: A Taste of the World: What People Eat and How They Celebrate Around the Globe by Little Gestalten