Teacher Instructions
Georgia Farm Bureau Middle School Essay Contest 2017
Thank you for your interest in participating in the Georgia Farm Bureau Middle School Essay
Contest. We appreciate you incorporating this contest into your teaching strategies and forming
a greater partnership with your county Farm Bureau.
How to enter: The contest is operated through your county Farm Bureau. Their deadline may
be sooner than that listed on the flyer. If you have questions, contact Ag in the Classroom
Coordinator Donna Hellwig Rocker at [email protected] or 478-474-0679 Ext 5365.
Topic:
The Importance of Georgia’s Specialty Crops
Georgia’s specialty crops include a wide range of fruits and vegetables with a Farm Gate Value
of approximately $1.5 billion. The industry is growing through commercial production as well as
local and regional farm markets. Georgia’s top specialty crops are blueberries, pecans,
peaches, onions, watermelon, bell peppers, sweet corn, cabbage and cucumbers.
This year’s contest is a great opportunity to connect to a program you already have in place,
such as Farm to School, Feed My School (the Georgia Department of Agriculture), and Fresh
Fruit and Vegetable program. It is also a chance to work with your district or school nutrition
personnel in addition to Farm Bureau.
For this year’s contest, we are gathering data as part of the Specialty Crops Block Grant from
USDA. Please have all students complete the “My Specialty Crops” survey form. No names
are required on the surveys. Group them separately from the essays/entry forms.
Check list for turning in essays to the county Farm Bureau.
____
____
____
Essays should meet the criteria/instructions on the flyer
All essays and entry forms should be submitted to the county Farm Bureau (contact
them for deadline)
Attach a cover sheet to the completed surveys and submit them along with the essays to
the County Farm Bureau.
Thank you!
Georgia Farm Bureau
Middle School Essay Contest 2017
Topic: The Importance of Georgia’s Specialty Crops
Georgia’s Specialty Crops include a wide range of fruits and vegetables with a Farm Gate Value of
approximately $1.5 billion. The industry is growing through commercial production as well as local
and regional farm markets. Georgia’s top Specialty Crops are blueberries, pecans, peaches, onions,
watermelon, bell peppers, sweet corn, cabbage and cucumbers.
Topic information, additional instructions and matches to Georgia state standards are included in the
teacher instruction packet. Contact your county Farm Bureau for more information.
Contest Guidelines
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The student must be enrolled in the 6th, 7th or 8th grade in Georgia for the 2016-2017
academic year.
The contest must be entered through the county Farm Bureau.
The essay must be accompanied by the official title sheet. No name should appear on the
essay itself.
It is preferable that the essay be typed. However, an essay that is neatly handwritten in ink
will be accepted.
Typed essays should be double spaced, minimum 12 point font (Arial or Times New Roman
preferred), 1-inch margins, and maximum length of 2 pages. Handwritten essays should be
ink on lined notebook paper with a maximum length of 3 pages.
The winning essays must be submitted to the county Farm Bureau office by the deadline set by
the county. Each county will select one winner at the county level and submit it to the state
level by the deadline date of Friday, March 10, 2017.
Previous state winners of the contest are not eligible.
Judging Criteria
• How well the topic is addressed
• Command of conventions of standard English grammar and usage
• Use of primary and secondary sources for research on topic
PRIZES
District Winner:
10 District Winners
$100 cash each
State Winner:
$150 Cash
(in addition to the district award)
This contest is sponsored by
Georgia Farm Bureau.
For more information, contact your county
Farm Bureau office.
Georgia Farm Bureau Essay Contest 2017
Topic:
The Importance of Georgia’s Specialty Crops
Georgia’s specialty crops include a wide range of fruits and vegetables with a Farm Gate Value
of approximately $1.5 billion. The industry is growing through commercial production as well as
local and regional farm markets. Georgia’s top specialty crops are blueberries, pecans,
peaches, onions, watermelon, bell peppers, sweet corn, cabbage and cucumbers.
Essential Questions for Essay:
 What are Georgia’s top specialty crops and how important are they economically to your
community or to Georgia? (Ideas: Which crops can you find in your local farmers
market? Talk to your local grocer about what Georgia specialty crops they have sold in
their stores.)
 How many of these fruits, vegetables or nuts have you tried?
 What fruit, vegetable or nut would you like to try and hopefully add to your diet? Include
information about this commodity: origin, where it is grown in Georgia, growing
information (when it is planted, how it is grown, when it is harvested, etc.), nutritional
value (why it is important to a healthy diet).
Bibliography
 Cite credible resources such as universities, etc. (Wikipedia does not count)
 Source should include name of the publication, date, title of article, author.
 Include resources such as interviews with local growers, UGA Cooperative Extension
Service, Farm Bureau.
 This is a great opportunity to involve your school nutrition program. Have someone
from your district school nutrition program talk to the students about the specialty crops
they try to include in school menus. If any of the specialty crops are provided by local
farmers, have the nutrition director talk about that, too.
 Resource for statistical information: UGA Center for Agribusiness & Economic
Development http://www.caes.uga.edu/center/caed/ Farm Gate Report. This report
includes crops broken down by counties.
Also, you may be able to grow some of these specialty crops in your school garden. This is a
great way to begin a school garden program or to tie in a stronger language arts component to
your existing school garden program. This experience can be included in the essay if
appropriate.
Match to Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE)
for Georgia Farm Bureau Middle School Essay Contest
Topic 2017: The Importance of Georgia’s Specialty Crops
Georgia’s specialty crops include a wide range of fruits and vegetables with a Farm Gate Value
of approximately $1.5 billion. The industry is growing through commercial production as well as
local and regional farm markets. Georgia’s top specialty crops are blueberries, pecans,
peaches, onions, watermelon, bell peppers, sweet corn, cabbage and cucumbers.
The Georgia Farm Bureau Middle School Essay Contest can be a tool for meeting some of the Georgia
standards for learning. While the charts below focus on the Georgia Standards of Excellence for English
Language Arts, the topic area can also meet science standards related to “scientific inquiry through
reading informational text.”
6th Grade
Reading Informational
ELAGSE6RI8
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
ELAGSE6I10
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
Writing
ELAGSE6W1
ELAGSE6W2
Text Types and Purpose
ELAGSE6W4
ELAGSE6W5
Production and Distribution of Writing
ELAGSE6W7
ELAGSE6W9
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
ELAGSE6W10
Range of Writing
Language
ELAGSE6L1
ELAGSE6L2
Conventions of Standard English
ELAGSE6L3
Knowledge of Language
ELAGSE6L4
ELAGSE6L5
ELAGSE6L6
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
Teaching strategies
(Note: these are only a few of the suggested strategies)
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Invite non-peers (i.e. someone from the county Farm Bureau or Cooperative Extension Service, etc.) to talk
about the specialty crops of Georgia.
Invite a local grower or growers to talk to the students about how they grow these commodities.
Require students to gather information from more than one type of source/media in research or analysis
projects.
Review the basics of writing and integrating quotations effectively.
Insist upon legibility in student work (or preferably typing essay).
Build vocabulary using a variety of strategies (resource materials, context, roots); you may require students
to keep flash cards or databases of acquired vocabulary, especially technical and academic vocabulary.
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7th Grade
Reading Informational
ELAGSE7RI1
Key Ideas and Details
ELAGSE7RI4
Craft and Structure
ELAGSE7RI8
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
ELAGSERI10
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
Writing
ELAGSE7W1
ELAGSE7W2
Text Types and Purpose
ELAGSE7W4
ELAGSE7W5
ELAGSE7W6
Production and Distribution of Writing
ELAGSE7W10
Range of Writing
Language
ELAGSE7L1
ELAGSE7L2
Conventions of Standard English
ELAGSE7L3
Knowledge of Language
ELAGSE7L6
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
Teaching strategies
(Note: these are only a few of the strategies specific to this topic)
 Require students to take effective notes, both within the classroom and when reading on their own, and
allow them to use these notes in assessments on occasion in order to support their engagement in the
process.
 Require textual evidence for all claims and inferences, whether in formal analysis or casual discussion.
 Ensure that students complete all steps of the writing process when possible, with special focus on the
evolution of a piece between first and second drafts.
 Require formal manuscript style in construction and citation of research as appropriate.
 Partner with your media center faculty to scaffold and reinforce fundamental citation skills, reinforce the
seriousness of plagiarism and the accepted rules for gathering and sharing academic information in the
public domain.
 Require formal annotations when appropriate.
 Provide opportunities for students to practice the basics of writing citations in an accepted manuscript style
without the aid of a citation generator.
 Review the basics of writing and integrating quotations effectively.
 Invite non-peers (i.e. someone from the county Farm Bureau or Cooperative Extension Service, etc.) to talk
about how they use technology on the farm .
 Choose from the suggested resources listed with the topic for research.
 Build vocabulary using a variety of strategies (resource materials, context, roots); you may require students
to keep flash cards or databases of acquired vocabulary, especially technical and academic vocabulary.
8th Grade
Reading Informational
ELAGSE8RI2
Key Ideas and Details
ELAGSE8RI4
ELAGSE8RI6
Craft and Structure
ELAGSE8RI8
ELAGSE8RI9
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
ELAGSE8RI10
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
Writing
ELAGSE8W2
Text Types and Purpose
ELAGSE8W4
ELAGSE8W5
Production and Distribution of Writing
ELAGSE8W7
ELAGSE8W8
ELAGSE8W9
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
ELAGSE8W10
Range of Writing
Language
ELAGSE8L1
ELAGSE8L2
Conventions of Standard English
ELAGSE8L3
Knowledge of Language
ELAGSE8L4
ELAGSE8L6
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
Teaching strategies
(Note: these are only a few of the strategies specific to this topic)
 Require textual evidence for all claims and inferences, whether in formal analysis or casual discussion.
 Require annotation of texts both formally and informally.
 In Grade 8, require students not only to identify evidence to support a claim, but to identify which evidence
is the strongest among a variety of choices.
 Require all steps of the writing process when appropriate.
 Ensure that students complete all steps of the writing process when possible, with special focus on the
evolution of a piece between first and second drafts.
 Require formal manuscript style in construction and citation of research as appropriate.
 Partner with your media center faculty to scaffold and reinforce fundamental citation skills, reinforce the
seriousness of plagiarism and the accepted rules for gathering and sharing academic information in the
public domain.
 Require formal annotations when appropriate.
 Provide opportunities for students to practice the basics of writing citations in an accepted manuscript style
without the aid of a citation generator.
 Insist on legibility in student work.
 Invite non-peers (i.e. someone from the county Farm Bureau or Cooperative Extension Service, etc.) to talk
about how they use technology on the farm.
 Choose from the suggested resources listed with the topic for research.
 Build vocabulary using a variety of strategies (resource materials, context, roots); you may require students
to keep flash cards or databases of acquired vocabulary, especially technical and academic vocabulary.
Teacher Cover Page for Survey
“My Specialty Crops” Survey
Please attach all surveys to this cover sheet and send along with the essays to the county Farm
Bureau.
School:_____________________________________________________________
School District:_______________________________________________________
Grade Level:___________________
Teacher:______________________
Total surveys submitted:________________
Please turn in all surveys from the students. No names should appear on the surveys.
Georgia Farm Bureau Middle School Essay Contest 2017
Student Survey
My Specialty Crops
Please complete this questionnaire and attach to your essay.
Georgia’s top specialty crops are blueberries, pecans, peaches, onions, watermelon, bell
peppers, sweet corn, cabbage and cucumber.
On the chart below, check off all the specialty crops you have tasted, then rank them in order of
your favorites with #1 being the best. Only rank the products you have tasted!
Crop
I have tasted this My favorites with
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#1 being the best
Blueberries
Peaches
Watermelon
Bell Peppers
Sweet Corn
Cabbage
Cucumbers
Onions (sweet)
Pecans
What crop that you haven’t tasted are you willing to try?________________________________
No name is required, but please complete the following.
Grade Level:_____________________
GEORGIA FARM BUREAU
2017 MIDDLE SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST
(Grades 6, 7 and 8)
Topic: The Importance of Georgia’s Specialty Crops
County Farm Bureau:
Student’s Name:
Name student is called by:
Grade Level:
Mailing Address:
City & Zip Code:
Phone Number (Area Code):
Parents/Guardians:________________________________________________________________
Name of School:
We hereby certify that this essay was written by the student whose name appears above. We
understand that once a student has won this contest at the state level, they are not eligible to
compete again.
Date
Parent or Guardian
For County Farm Bureau Office Use Only
______________ County Farm Bureau hereby certifies that this essay was the winner in our county
essay contest.
County Farm Bureau President
ESSAYS MUST BE POSTMARKED BY FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017
Send to:
Georgia Farm Bureau
Field Services Department
Attn: Marilyn Akers