McCracken
by Kimberly Pistone
SIDNEY – Derek McCracken is a former ag teacher who wants to help current ag teachers with curriculum and planning. After graduating from Ohio State University in 2013, he taught ag ed for nine years before leaving to begin The Owl’s Nest Services in Agricultural Education. At The Owl’s Nest, he provides hands-on, kinesthetic lesson plans where students can be fully engaged in an interactive curriculum. During his time as a classroom teacher McCracken felt that the hands-on aspects were missing from ag education curriculums.
“Every teacher has so much on their plate, and most ag teachers are also FFA advisers, and they have to juggle so many other things. It becomes hard to develop high quality curriculum with everything else they have to do,” McCracken said, “when I was teaching I wished I had something that fit my high energy, high interaction style.”
The desire for a more kinesthetic curriculum, along with the need for flexibility as the dad to three young daughters, was the drive behind beginning this business venture. The Owl’s Nest is focused on providing curriculum that is easy to use for teachers, targeting high school ag teachers with coursework in animal and plant sciences. Currently McCracken is finalizing a 170 day complete curriculum titled Introduction to Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. This curriculum aligns with national Agriculture Food and Natural Resources (AFNR) standards. The full curriculum, including labs and all activities, is currently on pre-order and will be available in time for the 2023-2024 school year. Parts of the full curriculum are currently available as individual units and lessons.
McCracken worked with four different teachers who used the curriculum last year to help proofread, as well as find and fix any part of a lesson that didn’t work as well as expected. When the final curriculum is available later this summer it will be fully vetted.
McCracken also contracts with different companies that need education consulting. Last summer he worked with Tennessee Corn Growers where he developed a week’s worth of lesson plans on plant science using corn for fourth- to sixth-grade students. These lessons will be available on The Owl’s Nest website in the fall. He also plans to begin working on animal science and plant science courses once the Introduction course is finalized.
The Owl’s Nest Services in Agricultural Education can be found at www.owlsnestresources.com and on Facebook. McCracken also provides a newsletter and blog that are available on his website.
