LAS VEGAS – Last Saturday, Dec. 3, Unadilla Valley Central School agricultural teacher Jessica DeVries was recognized as one of only six individuals nationwide to receive the 2016 National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) Ideas Unlimited Award at the annual NAAE convention in Las Vegas, Nev.

DeVries was awarded after she developed a project in which her students formed cooperative boards for a mock food company consisting of advertising and marketing specialists, nutritionists, and packaging designers. Her students then created juice and cookie recipes, designed the packing, and created advertisements for their products. They also learned to calculate nutritional facts for the products they created, and they included the information on their packaging.

The project also had a blind taste test and cost analysis that was conducted by each group where the students analyzed the data to decide which product was most popular. DeVries awarded the group with the highest graded products with a field trip to a local business and a lunch out.