Our Corn Education Programs

The Nebraska Corn Board and Nebraska Soybean Board are partnering to improve grain bin safety by donating two grain rescue tubes and two training sessions to fire and rescue departments in Nebraska. In collaboration with Nationwide and the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS), this initiative aims to equip rural fire and rescue teams with the knowledge and tools to respond to grain bin entrapments effectively.

Grain bin accidents remain a significant hazard in agriculture, with suffocation from engulfment being the leading cause of death in grain bins. Between 2007 and 2023, there were 573 documented grain entrapments, and nearly half of all confined space accidents in 2023 were grain-related.

Community members, farmers and emergency personnel are encouraged to submit nominations explaining how their local fire department would benefit from this life-saving equipment and training. The deadline to submit nominations is April 10, 2025.

The two selected grain bin training sessions will be scheduled after April 10 by NECAS staff. To submit an entry for grain rescue equipment and training, visit this form.

Each July, Nebraska Corn invites up to 10 young leaders to join our nation’s corn growers and congressional leaders during the National Corn Growers Association’s (NCGA) annual Corn Congress. The event takes place in Washington, D.C., and provides participants with the opportunity to advance their personal and professional leadership development and understanding of agricultural policy.

Find the application 2025 here. Applications are due May 9, 2025.

During the visit to our nation’s capital, meeting participants will attend:

• NCGA’s Corn Congress where attendees will gain an understanding of policy development of a national association, along with hearing updates from various action teams, committees and staff.
• NCGA’s Action Team/Committee Meetings that provide attendees greater discussion on issues such as ethanol, research and business development, transportation, production, stewardship, and biotech.
• Capitol Hill Visits that provide attendees direct access to Nebraska’s congressional delegation where we outline our policy priorities.
• Industry and Agency Visits with key staff who provide an update on issues of importance to agriculture.
• Other meetings may include the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Embassy, U.S. Grains Council and other ag associations.

The program includes airfare, lodging, registration, transportation and most meals. Participants join leaders and staff from the Nebraska Corn Board in addition to the Nebraska Corn Growers Association during the multiday trip. The series of meetings, dinners and breaks will allow those chosen to interact with nearly 200 farmers from all across the U.S., agribusiness leaders from some of the leading agribusiness companies, and other leaders from various state college and leadership development programs.

In most households, women are the decision makers when it comes to food purchases. And more and more women are becoming interested – and in some cases, concerned – about what they are hearing about where their family’s food comes from and how it’s produced. Who better to talk with about these concerns than a fellow mom who helps produce that food?

That’s the focus of CommonGround, a national initiative in which volunteer farm women interact with urban women in grocery stores, food shows and other events across America. While many CommonGround conversations take place in large urban areas, these conversations are also taking place in communities across Nebraska.

This is where the Nebraska CommonGround volunteers come in. They, like their counterparts in other states, aim to have conversations with women in Nebraska and across the country who buy food. They answer questions and share facts, as well as their personal stories of farm life.

The Nebraska Ag Sack Lunch Program was designed to educate Nebraska fourth-graders on the important role of agriculture in Nebraska. The program was developed with the understanding that students visit the State Capitol Building annually as part of their fourth-grade curriculum focused on Nebraska.

The program provides students a sack lunch with nutritious food produced in Nebraska. Ag Ambassadors, specially trained college students, give a 25-minute presentation on the role agriculture plays in the state’s economy. Educators can learn more and sign up at the link above.

The Consider Corn Challenge, a nationwide initiative of the National Corn Growers Association, invites innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists and academics to redefine the role of corn and explore the broad horizon of opportunity for corn as a feedstock for making sustainable chemicals.

Today’s sustainably produced, consistent supply of renewable corn makes it an optimal resource to drive research and accelerate society’s shift to a thriving bio-based community.

The Consider Corn Challenge is focused on projects that:

• Use components of the corn kernel as primary feedstock.
• Have a clear path for scale-up to commercial scale.
• Enable a new market for corn.
  • Should not detract from an existing corn market.
  • Should lead to products with significant market demand.
• Involve a team with experience taking a process or plan from lab scale to commercial scale.

Nebraska Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) is a statewide program that helps K-12 students and teachers develop an awareness and understanding that agriculture is their source of life’s necessities. AITC has a long history of creating resources tied to state education standards to assist teachers in connecting their students to their source of food, fiber, and fuel – agriculture!

Agriculture in the Classroom® is a program supported by the National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization. In Nebraska, the Agriculture in the Classroom program is managed by the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation, whose mission is to engage youth, educators, and the general public to promote an understanding of the vital importance of agriculture in the lives of all Nebraskans.

Nebraska Agriculture in the Classroom

• Offers materials to encourage active learning with hands-on activities for youth.
• Creates instructional materials aligned to Nebraska State Standards.
• Equips teachers with free programs and resources to bring agriculture alive in the classroom.

Kernels of Knowledge is a 4-H curriculum funded in part by the Nebraska Corn Board.
Unit 1 of 4-H curriculum, The Facilitator Guide, provides an explanation of four activities:

1. Learning Activity One: Uses of Corn
2. Learning Activity Two: Life Cycle of Corn
3. Learning Activity Three: Building a Non-Newtonian Fluid
4. Learning Activity Four: Refining Process of Corn Starch

Facilitator Guide
Youth Guide

AgDay

• Educational resources and informative ag facts.

Ag in the Classroom Kid’s Zone

• Includes projects and virtual tours from the national Ag in the Classroom.

Captain Cornelius … Corn Day Celebration

• The Captain takes Bobby on the corny adventure of a lifetime.

Corn is aMAIZEing

• Eight-page activity booklet.

There’s Corn in my Crayons

• An adventure in eight coloring pages with puzzles.