Colton ag teacher nathan Moore completes 13th DuPont academy

Nathan Moore, Colton ag teacher, and Kimberly O’Byrne, NATAA facilitator, demonstrate how solar energy can be used to pump water to irrigate crops in remote locations around the world.

Nathan Moore, agriscience teacher at Colton High School, successfully completed the 13th annual DuPont National AgriScience Teachers Ambassador Academy at the company’s Chesapeake Farms in Chestertown, Md. Upon receiving the certificate of completion, Moore became an “Ag Ambassador,” joining the other 322 outstanding teachers from across the country having attended NATAA and earned that designation.

The NATAA “Ag Academy” is a professional development institute sponsored by DuPont and a special project of the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE). This year, Moore joined other top-ranked agriscience teachers selected to engage in inquiry-based activities and explore state-of-the-art teaching concepts, with a majority of their training time in hands-on activities on DuPont’s 3,300-acre working farm.

The dual farm and classroom approach is designed to energize teachers and to infuse that learning experience in the classroom with their students. Teachers also visited labs and engaged with scientists and engineers to learn about global food security, food safety, global water issues, and solar energy solutions.

“We recognize the impact great teachers make. Agriscience teachers can create the inspiration and passion in students now that will inspire them to make the game-changing breakthroughs in agriculture and nutrition needed to feed the world in the next 30 years,” said Rik Miller, president, DuPont Crop Protection. “The Ag Academy is an important professional development experience that gives teachers the tools they need today to help students become agriscience innovators tomorrow.”

The NAAE is a federation of state agricultural educators associations with more than 8,000 members. Currently NAAE is focusing on advocacy for agricultural education as well as professional development for and recruitment and retention of agricultural educators. It offers a variety of programs and services to support this mission.