Hey, Ag Educators! You Won’t Want to Miss This!

This past year we have seen Ag Leader's Educational Solutions Program grow extensively with more schools renewing as well as new schools enrolling.  In August, we had another successful Educator Training Event held at the Ag Leader Academy. 

This year’s training included a third day devoted entirely to teaching SMS Software and the functionality it provides to our customers.  The first two days covered a wide range of topics including new Ag Leader products and features released since last year's training event. In addition, we also held GPS and hardware demonstrations, as well as a panel discussion covering precision ag and how it’s being taught in a classroom setting. A few topics that came up in discussion were current precision ag curriculums, the job market for graduating students, and where precision ag as an industry will be in 5 and 10 years. This was a great opportunity for educators to network and become more familiar with each other and the programs their respective schools offer.

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We are happy to announce that the Educator Training Event for the 2014 year will be held August 5th through August 7th at the Ag Leader Academy here in Ames, Iowa. We hope to see increased attendance and involvement as the program expands.

In addition to the successful training, Tyler Anderson and Adam Walters, both Education Specialists, have been busy working on the new Online Educational Curriculum.  We showcased a sneak preview this past summer at the training event and have continued to develop lessons for use in the classroom.  The first generation curriculum will focus primarily on the Value of Data message, introduction into GPS and Hardware as well as SMS Software.  This program will provide training materials to educators that are currently enrolled in the program.  A few examples of included lessons are Reading in Field Display Files, Equation Based Analysis for Variable Rate Prescriptions, Comparison Analysis, as well as exporting information from the software to field displays; all encompassing the most important tools within SMS.  These materials will help educators better understand precision ag and the data it generates, the value the data can provide us, and how to effectively teach these topics to students.

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If you have any questions regarding the program or need more information regarding the Ag Leader Educational Solutions Program, please contact us at education@agleader.com or by calling 515-232-5363 ext. 4428.