St. George instructor gets green thumbs up, ‘Teacher of the Year’ for use of agriculture

Written by Nick Yamashita
August 12, 2023

ST. GEORGE — A Crimson View Elementary fourth-grade teacher was given a green thumb’s up as she was named the state’s agricultural teacher of the year last month.

Crimson View Elementary 4th Grade Teacher Melody Thieme won a state and national award for Teacher in Excellence for using agriculture within class curriculum, Orlando, Florida, June 26-29, 2023 | Photo courtesy of the Melody Thieme, St. George News

Melody Thieme was awarded by the National Agriculture in the Classroom Consortium, the United States Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Farm Credit as “The Teacher of the Year for 2023.”

She received both the state title from the National Agriculture in the Classroom Extension, Utah State University and the national title recently.

“I think the whole part of the National Agriculture in the Classroom programs is to bring that back into the school settings and make us, our kids and our future more aware of agriculture is key,” Thieme said.

The National Excellent in Teaching about Agriculture Award was awarded to seven teachers nationwide this year. Thieme is the only one from the western United States. Other instructors hailed from Maine, Georgia, Louisiana, New York and Wisconsin, with secondary award recipients from Kentucky and Virginia.

Thieme helps create and maintain a greenhouse on the school campus giving students an opportunity to learn agriculture through hands-on experience.

Every Friday, the students are given job assignments; which include completing maintenance and upkeep, as needed, watering the plants and trees and feeding the aquaponics fish, as well as cutting, planting, or cleaning.

The aquaponics fish include goldfish and koi with lava rocks. Students also get the opportunity to receive a starter planting kit. Each fourth-grader gets the chance to go to the greenhouse and plant seeds or starter plants from their kits.

Thieme said they have two seasons for growing plants. In the fall, they grow Utah wildflowers, while in the spring season they grow the Spanish onion, Indian grass and sugar beets, plants used by Native Americans to dye clothing and fabric.

Crimson View Elementary 4th Grade Teacher Melody Thieme won a state and national award for Teacher in Excellence for using agriculture within class curriculum, Orlando, Florida, June 26-29, 2023 | Photo courtesy of the Melody Thieme, St. George News

“We get to grow them and dye the fabrics with the kids,” she said. “We integrate our Utah History curriculum with the agriculture curriculum. This also includes science, math, reading and other subjects.”

The students grow native plants to Utah, as well as vegetables, helping the students to learn the basics of agriculture. Part of these academic lessons is in math, such as data collection and measurements.

Some of the hands-on experiences besides gardening were cooking the plants, dying clothes by using the plants, making plant frames, making bookmarks and laminating wildflowers.

“Every grade can integrate it into their curriculum throughout the year,” she said.

The students learn to take responsibility for the care and maintenance of the greenhouse.

“It gives them ownership in it,” she said.

Each year the Excellence in Teaching Awards recognize teachers for their efforts in teaching agricultural concepts in their curriculum. Recipients of the award receive $500 as well as up to $1500 for travel-related expenses to the national conference.

She said her husband, Scott Thieme, a fifth-grade teacher at the same school, performs more technical maintenance and repairs to the greenhouse. The jobs include maintaining the tanks, repairing the fans and replacing the filters.

“The reason I am and our school is so successful is because of him,” Thieme said. “He is the reason that greenhouse is there.”

Tiffany Porter, who wrote the grant proposal to fund the greenhouse, helped to obtain approximatley $60,000 to start the process, Thieme added.

“She worked really hard because it was the very first one in an elementary school here,” Thieme said.

According to the US Dept. of Agriculture website, the government funded programs “seek to improve student achievement by applying authentic, agricultural-based content as the context to teach core curriculum concepts in science, social studies, language arts and nutrition.”

“Do I think it is valuable? I do,” Thieme said. “I think we are trying to remember about our agriculture and how important it is. Kids go to the store and don’t realize the process and the hardships that a lot of farmers have to go through each year. This is our livelihood.”

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nick Yamashita has extensive experience reporting for small town media, covering a variety of subjects and events for The Virgin River Times and The Progress in Southern Nevada. Before a career in journalism, he worked a variety of jobs in criminal justice systems. Yamashita holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a master's degree in interdisciplinary studies from Southern Utah University. He is an award-winning photographer and writer. He has been published in scholarly articles and poetry compilations. In his spare time, he practices and teaches martial arts.

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Twitter: @STGnews

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