Pizza ranks high on the favorite food list for most Iowa kids. That’s why Iowa State University is using pizza as the focal point of its campaign to improve students’ agricultural literacy. Later this week, six teams of Iowa middle schoolers will be at I-S-U for the Global Pizz-A-Thon.Eldon Weber is the outreach coordinator in I-S-U’s ag education and studies department. He says this is the sixth year for the Pizz-A-Thon in which students develop their own type of pizza and learn about processing and marketing it. They’ll also tour a dairy farm and visit an I-S-U student-run organic garden for ideas on ingredients.Weber says students learn all sorts of things about agriculture, but they also develop other skills like problem solving, communications, leadership and team building. He says they get particularly excited about building their own perfect pizzas.There’ll be six teams of five members each taking part in the two-day event which starts Friday in Ames. The students are from middle schools in: Kanawha, Garner, Thompson, Walcott, Ventura and Des Moines.
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