ONLINE LEARNING RESOURCE CENTER (OLRC): SECONDARY CTE
OLRC is a collaboration between the Minnesota State Career and Technical Education office, the eight Minnesota State Centers of Excellence, and the Minnesota Department of Education.
Welcome to the Minnesota State Career and Technical Education Online Learning Resource Center (OLRC), a consolidated source of instructional materials to help secondary and post-secondary educators adapt to the need for ongoing remote or blended instruction. The resources in OLRC have been curated by educators, are free for educators to browse and use. Curation was performed using a selection criteria rubric, and content in OLRC is monitored and updated regularly to ensure its relevance and usefulness.
Neither Minnesota State nor the Minnesota Department of Education endorses or promotes any of the resources in OLRC.
Online Learning Instructional Content for Agricultural Secondary Educators
Virtual Field Trips (updated Sept. 2026)
This is a National FFA career exploration tool. Virtual tours of well-known companies like John Deere, Syngenta and Cargill are offered.
Nebraska 4-H as we go on-site to learn more about science, agriculture, technology, and more! Virtual field trips offer facility tours, educational experiences, and additional resources for teachers. Virtual field trips are perfect for youth in Grades 7- 12.
The American Dairy Association takes us to some dairy farms where you’ll learn some fun facts about the cows, calves, what they eat as well as the milking process.
Take a tour to a real farm with Virtual Farm Trips. They have partnered with a variety of real working farms to offer you an inside look behind the scenes.
Agricultural Education Learning Resources (updated Sept. 2026)
We have been working with Ag Food and Natural Resource organizations throughout the state on MN and they have helped us by providing short career exploration videos about various careers in agriculture. Learn about the variety of career options available in ag!
Agronomy is the science of using plants for food, fuel, feed and fiber. Horticulture is about growing plants for food and decoration. In 4-H agronomy and horticulture, you’ll learn about science, future careers and much more.
This page is dedicated to a discussion of all things Ag Ed, especially providing resources and mentors to beginning teachers. It is also to be used as a place of discussion for experienced and beginning teachers alike.
Teacher resource guides will assist instructors with integrating curricula by providing teaching methods to instructors on preparing students with safety instruction.
Instructor-led experience designed for an Introduction to Agriculture course. The content and objectives are aligned with AFNR standards and focus on pork production.
American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has a Resources section on its website, which will lead you lesson plans, PowerPoint slides, activities and print outs.
PhET simulations provide fun, interactive research-based simulations for use in K-12 and college STEM education. To help students visually comprehend concepts, PhET simulations animate what is invisible to the eye through the use of graphics and intuitive controls such as click-and-drag manipulations, sliders and radio buttons. In order to further encourage quantitative exploration, the simulations also offer measurement instruments including rulers, stop watches, voltmeters, and thermometers.
Riverview, LLP is a diversified agribusiness with beef and dairy farms in various states. This site has some interesting educational videos on food packing engineering, farm machinery, nutrition basics for cows, animal care and more.
The Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center lesson plans, awareness events and additional resources to integrate health and safety topics into the classroom in a teacher friendly format.
Wildlife Live Cams (updated Sept. 2026)
This site has a varity of live webcams capturing a variety of wildlife in Africa. You might see elephants, cheetahs, rhinos, penguins, gorillas and more!
If you’re looking to see an osprey nest via a live cam, the National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland has one where you can watch the nest and learn fun facts about an osprey.
Explore the Georgia Aquarium and see its animals as they swim, feed and play!