Upcoming Purple Plow Challenge to Focus on Native American Student Interests
Thanks to a grant from the Native American Agriculture Fund, a New Purple Plow Challenge will be created.
The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture is thrilled to have received a grant from the Native American Agriculture Fund. This grant will allow us to develop a new Purple Plow Challenge focused on Native American student interests, such as resilience and food security.
As with all Purple Plow Challenges, the Native American-focused challenge will provide authentic, hands-on learning opportunities that connect science, technology and agriculture. Through this project, students will research a real agricultural issue, design and test a solution, and present their findings, helping to build critical skills in leadership, problem-solving, and financial literacy. The project will include educator training, resource development and broad outreach to Native American schools, after-school programs, 4-H clubs and other community groups.
We hope that this new challenge will inspire young Native American learners to engage with agriculture in ways that are both relevant and academically rigorous, as well as make a connection to food systems and open pathways to future careers in agriculture and STEM.
The first year of the grant includes searching for educators in the Native American community who would be willing to help the Foundation determine what topic would be the most interesting to their students, and then creating the challenge. (Fill out this link if you’d like to be involved.) In the second year, the challenge will be launched and completed with the selection of a winner.
About the Purple Plow Challenge
The Purple Plow Challenge is a special project of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture (AFBFA) and made possible through generous support of title sponsor Corteva Agriscience. AFBFA created the Purple Plow Challenge to engage young people – and their teachers – in the multifaceted world of agriculture.
The Purple Plow Challenge site encourages students to research scenarios and build prototypes to solve problems related to food, hunger and sustainability. Individuals, groups and classes in grades five through 12 are eligible to enter the competition.
The current Challenge, which is open through Dec. 2, asks students to design better irrigation systems to use water even more wisely, with a focus on how gravity affects water flow.
About the Native American Agriculture Fund
The Native American Agriculture Fund is a private, charitable trust that envisions a future where Native farmers and ranchers thrive and play a crucial role in land stewardship and the nation’s economic viability. Their mission is to empower Native and rural communities with the knowledge, resources and support to foster robust agricultural practices, resilience and economic self-sufficiency. They believe that by investing in Native agriculture, they can strengthen rural America’s infrastructure development and job creation, benefiting everyone.
