Pioneer life is about to come alive for about 15,000 curious fourth-graders across Florida. As they step back in time, the young explorers will discover the grit, ingenuity and spirit that shaped the earliest days of the Sunshine State.
David Hunt, chair of the Great Florida Cattle Drive, a living history event, suggested to Bridget Stice that someone might want to use the book, A Land Remembered, to teach how ranching evolved as an integral part of 19th Century Florida life.
A Land Remembered, by Patrick Smith, is a best-selling historical novel about three generations of the MacIvey family, from the frontier days of the 1800s to the era of modern Florida development.
“My sister-in-law used A Land Remembered every year to teach her students about Florida history,” Hunt said. “I thought, ‘Why not take that idea and share it with more schools?’ If we can help kids understand how ranching helps protect the land, and then connect it to the cattle drive experience, that’s a story worth telling.”
Stice, a livestock agent and the interim director of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Polk County Extension office, ran with the idea.
Teachers from almost every county in Florida have registered for the curriculum, which includes the book, daily lesson plans that include discussion prompts, journals and student activity sheets.
The first 100 classrooms (teachers) that registered are getting free books. The rest are providing their own books, Stice said.
Students will read the children’s edition, which is 268 pages, compared to the 416-page unabridged version.
Books will be delivered to hundreds of classrooms in October, and Stice recommends students and teachers start the six-week curriculum in November.
“I saw this as a great opportunity for students to tie the Great Florida Cattle Drive to the classroom so students could learn about a piece of Florida history they may not learn elsewhere,” Stice said. “Why not offer it to everyone who wants to study it? After they go through the curriculum, the youth participants will hopefully recognize ranching as a part of Florida history.”
A Land Remembered is Stice’s favorite book.
“It’s historical fiction. It pretty well represents pioneer life in Florida,” she said. “The focus is Florida history. The cattle and citrus industries helped build Florida and continue to have a great impact on the state’s economy.”
In addition, she hopes students gain an appreciation for how cattle ranching helps the food supply chain and how it helps preserve land for agriculture for the Florida Wildlife Corridor.
“We also want them to understand the environmental services cattle ranches provide, including native plant and wildlife habitat, carbon storage, aquifer recharge, green space preservation and more,” Stice said.
Stice is getting help delivering the curriculum from Kendall Gill, a livestock agent at UF/IFAS Extension DeSoto County.
“While I am new to DeSoto (she started in May), it is quickly apparent that the community loves to partner with anything education- or agriculture-based, and this was both of those,” Gill said. “Not only that, the curriculum brings awareness to the local UF/IFAS Extension Office as a form of outreach to those that may not have known about Extension. In hopes that this curriculum will continue in future years, I hope to continue seeking support from different businesses in the county to continue to purchase the books for the students each year.”
In January, after students have finished the curriculum, Stice and Gill will live stream events from the Great Florida Cattle Drive. If students can’t tune into the livestream, it will be recorded and shown later on YouTube.
For now, to find out whether a school is participating this year, please contact Stice at bccarlis@ufl.edu.
Want to follow along? You can find A Land Remembered at your local library, or you can purchase a copy at the UF/IFAS Bookstore or other booksellers.
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ABOUT UF/IFAS
The mission of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is to develop knowledge relevant to agricultural, human and natural resources and to make that knowledge available to sustain and enhance the quality of human life. With more than a dozen research facilities, 67 county Extension offices, and award-winning students and faculty in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UF/IFAS brings science-based solutions to the state’s agricultural and natural resources industries, and all Florida residents.
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