One of the most prestigious FFA awards was given to a retired ISU professor who spent much of his academic career studying earthworms.

Eldon Weber received the Honorary American FFA Degree during the 74th National FFA Convention, Oct. 24-27 in Louisville, Ky.

The award “is the highest honorary degree,” according to www.ffa.org. “In order to receive this award, an individual must have provided exceptional service to agriculture, agricultural education or the FFA. State supervisors must approve each nomination before it is sent for national consideration.”

Weber said he began his career at Iowa State while working for the Soil Conservation Service in 1987. He was named an affiliate instructor in 1990.

“When the conservation service placed me on campus, I saw it as a great opportunity,” Weber said.

“I was able to link high school agriculture students and instructors to the farm program during the time of the Farm Security Act.”

During his tenure at Iowa State, Weber has worked on various projects, but most of his efforts have focused on developing curriculums and in service workshops for agriculture teachers, said Robert Martin, head and professor of agricultural education and studies at Iowa State.

“His work has . brought in funding to help with curriculum development,” Martin said. “Over the last five years, he has developed programs for teachers to get graduate credit as well as to maintain their teaching licenses. We have used the Web and Iowa Communications Network labs to carry out these programs for teachers.”

One of Weber’s curriculums is “Earthworm Empire: The Living Soil.”

“This is a special project I spent considerable time on,” Weber said.

“It’s a natural resources project with a specialty in soil conservation. The curriculum allows students to study earthworms so they can understand the importance earthworms have in keeping the soil healthy, which is important in order to grow food, as well as understanding food production.”

Another one of Weber’s well-known projects is the Pizz-A-Thon.

For the Pizz-A-Thon, Weber said he was able to get funding from Happy Joe’s Pizza, the Iowa Farm Bureau and Pioneer Hi Bred International.

“The Pizz-A-Thon educates students about where food comes from by learning about pizza,” Martin said. “The students get to come to Iowa State, make pizza and have an educational program.”

Weber said he is working on further development of the program.

“The Pizz-A-Thon gets students to develop and research pizzas of their choice,” he said. “High school students can also take a kit and work with younger students to help them better realize where their food comes from. It’s a fun way to connect ag studies to something the students can relate to.”

Although Weber is now retired, he is still a very influential figure for the ISU College of Agriculture, Martin said.

“He’s given a lot of time and effort to serve teachers and ag education in several very important ways,” Martin said. “I’m glad we were able to endorse him so he could get national recognition for everything he’s done. We are very happy and very proud of him.”