affiliates
Summary 2023 — Wisconsin
State Contact
Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation
P.O. Box 5550
Madison, WI 53705-0550
P: 608.828.5644
E: bschaefer@wfbf.com
Website
Innovative Programming
Making You a Little Smarter Radio PSAs - quarterly radio PSAs garnered over 100,000 listener engagements on Madison and Wisconsin radio stations. Topics aligned with seasonal and social media campaigns. Program is building AITC brand recognition through 30 second ag trivia snippets.
Monthly e-Newsletter Campaign moved to Campaign Monitor management system - montly e-newsletters were moved to Campaign Monitor to provide a consistent format as well as on-demand performance metrics. Montly performance metrics including clicked-on content, open-rate, and even send date/time have driven the design, content and scheduled sends of newsletters. The results are an increase in open rate and click through rate, (46%-52% open rate; 10% ctr). We now have evidence to support that teachers are reading the information and what type of content performs best.
Classroom Presentation Partnership with WI Dept. Ag, Trade and Consumer Protection - WI AITC partnered with the state Dept. of Agriculture spokesperson, Alice in Dairyland, to develop an interactive classroom presentation that aligns with WI 3-5 social studies standards. Program was funded through a SCBG through the Wisconsin Dept. Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. AITC developed content, lessons and trained Alice in Dairyland. This 3 year project has reached over 60 classrooms and 2400 students to date, and will wrap up in Fall 2025.
Live Virtual Tours - Wisconsin partnered with MN AITC on a virtual cranberry tour with Gaynor Cranberry Farm in Wisconsin. Full metrics are being reported by MN AITC, as they were the project lead. This experience was EXTREMELY popular with classrooms and WI is working to develop additional virtual tour opportunities for 2024-2025.
Fruit-Full PD - this educator training series has been running all year in Wisconsin and will continue through Winter 2024. Educators have toured a fruit growing facility (cranberries, strawberries, cherries, and apples) and then AITC shared lessons and lesson kits related to the fruit-themed tour. These workshops were held both in-person and virtually. Highly successful in engaging new-to-AITC teachers.
Social Media Intern - The state program hired an intern (January - July 2023) to manage AITC social media and develop a year-long marketing plan tying social media, web, print calendar, and major initiatives together. Social media following grew on Facebook and we launched an Instagram page. This was a game changer!
Major Program Impacts or Outcomes
Our focus in 2023 has been to deliver programming and training directly to educators. The previous state strategy had been to utilize county volunteers to grow and disseminate the AITC program to local schools. While we are still working with volunteers, a greater emphasis of time and resources have been allocated to direct teacher outreach. We are beginning to see audience changes in our social media following, as well as growth of educator opt-in for the monthly e-newsletter. The greatest evidence of our audience growth was the invitation to participate at educator inservices in the Milwaukee Public School District - the largest urban school district in Wisconsin. We have begun to see more participation (including a White-Reinhardt Scholarship recipient!) from this region of our state. We have work to do to continue to develop this relationship, but we have made meaningful connections with principals and STEM coordinators to build awareness of the AITC resources, trainings and programming.
Program Leader Biosketch
Beth Schaefer is the Wisconsin Agriculture in the Classroom Program Leader. Schaefer holds a BS Agriculture Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and MS Agriculture Education with Biology Certification, University of Wisconsin - River Falls. She spent five years as an Agriculture Educator and Biology teacher in both rural and urban high schools and for the past 12 years, has worked in informal education outreach. Her professional experiences cut across all forms of education - writing curriculum, developing academic presentations and lessons, creating and executing media campaigns and managing student and school wellness programs across Wisconsin. Beth joined the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation in March 2022 as the state coordinator of the Wisconsin Agriculture in the Classroom program.
Schaefer and her husband, Matt, live near Brandon, Wisconsin with their four children.