Tyrone Area High School agri-science educator Tiffany Hoy attended a 10 day professional development institute at Arkansas Tech University, in Russellville, Arkansas from July 11 to July 22 to learn about a new agriculture science curriculum called the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE).

According to its website, CASE is an instructional system that is changing the culture of agriculture programs through teacher professional development, inquiry-based, student-focused lessons that match the National Standards and align with Common Core requirements.

While at the CASE Institute, Hoy spent 65 hours working through nearly every lesson in the year-long curriculum. She learned how to deliver lessons in an inquiry-based way that will shift their focus in the classroom from teacher-led to student-directed learning.

“Agriculture impacts all of our lives and the CASE curriculum aids in adding rigor and relevance to Agricultural Education courses. With the new requirements of student based inquiry, CASE helps bring lessons to life and presents information in an organized, scaffold, and sequenced structure,” said Hoy.

“This curriculum will also allow me to reinforce Keystone exam terms and content knowledge, while also preparing the students for the NOCTI production agriculture exam,” said Hoy.

For more information about CASE, visit their website at www.case4learning.org.