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Educational Guest Speakers

Bill Johnston

Bill Johnston, Guest Speaker

Bill Johnston is a retired agricultural education teacher, farmer and crop adjuster. His 33 years of expertise in both education and farming make him the perfect speaker to kick off or finish up one of our lessons. He engages students from kindergarten to 12th grade, customizing the presentation for their grade level.

 

 

Kelli Livermore2

Kelli Livermore, Guest Speaker

Kelli Livermore is a retired elementary teacher with 32 years of experience in the classroom.  She taught first and second grade, and kindergarten through fourth grade writing and science.  While in the classroom, Kelli used Kansas Corn STEM resources and focused her efforts to educate students about agriculture.  Kelli has the knowledge to introduce, extend and reinforce agriculture lessons as a guest speaker for all grade levels.

Scheduling Your Free Visit

Read suggestions before you request your visit.

  • These visits are free and for Kansas K-12 classrooms.
  • Make the most out of your visit by teaching a Kansas Corn STEM lesson prior to or right after the guest speaker’s visit.
  • Provide multiple dates when requesting. Dates fill up fast.
  • Let all teachers at your school know you are submitting a request. Due to high demand, we cannot visit the same school twice in one year. We need to visit as many of the classrooms as possible during the one-day visit. If we fill one day, we will allow a second day of visits.
  • In order to make the presentation engaging and hands-on we request that speaker present to groups with 25 or less students. We are willing to present multiple times during the visit in order to keep the class sizes smaller.
  • Check availability of dates before requesting. This calendar reflects the schedule for our guest speakers. View calendar here!

Suggested Topics

  • General/Kansas Agriculture
  • Biotechnology/GMO’s*
  • Ethanol Production*
  • Employment Opportunities in Agriculture*
  • Issues in Agriculture* (would discuss how to deal with issues versus discussing the issues themselves. e.g. water usage, biotechnology, chemical usage, farm bill, GMO’s)
  • History of Corn
  • Conservation and the Environment in Agriculture*
  • Other (teacher can request other topics if needed)

*More suited for 6th-12th grade

Past Visits

We are excited to see teachers engaging students in the classroom by using our lessons and labs focused on science and agriculture.  I have seen Bill present to classes and his presentation is very engaging and complements our lessons well!

 - Sharon Thielen, Ph.D., Director of Education

Wow! What a wonderful morning the fourth graders had this morning! Mr. Johnston is such a great presenter and the kids really enjoyed learning from him. So glad that you found him to help present!

 

 

 - Kelli Livermore, 4th Grade Teacher

Bill Johnston’s enthusiasm for agriculture was passed along to my first graders during his presentation.  He was knowledgeable, engaging, and fun!  The students were immersed in a variety of meaningful activities that aroused their curiosity about corn and farming.  The best part was “digging” through a huge tub of corn kernels to pull out products that are made from corn.  I was able to build upon his introduction to corn when we planted our own seeds.  It was a great presentation!

 - Nancy Smith, 1st Grade Teacher, Bentwood Elementary