Elementary students throughout Southwest Missouri are in the middle of a ten-week crash course in agriculture. It's part of a program from Missouri's agricultural industry called “Ag education on the move.”
When KSMU attended a lesson in the course at Mrs. Strutton’s class in Willard’s East Elementary school, students were learning about dairy cows. Instructor Melissa Wilson threaded in STEM concepts like Venn diagrams, trapezoids, and nutrition as she led the class. The day’s work ended with a room full of kids shaking jars of heavy cream into little pats of butter.
Ag Education on the Move is bringing similar lessons to 150 schools across 64 counties in the State this fall. Program Director Heather Fletcher said it is part of a concerted effort.
Fletcher said Ag Education on the Move “is a program of the Missouri Farmer’s Care Foundation, and Missouri Farmer’s Care is a collaborative effort on the part of Missouri agriculture to communicate and advocate for agriculture in the state of Missouri.” She said, “Ag Ed on the Move does that by visiting classrooms statewide and introducing third graders to where their food comes from and how our everyday lives are connected to Missouri agriculture that is all around us every day.”
Fletcher explained, while the organization has been around for over a decade, they’ve seen over 100% growth post pandemic and, while they also work with professional educators, a key to the growth is partnering with local FFA chapters, training and empowering high school aged leaders to conduct the program. This helps to develop a new generation of ag educators and advocates as they practice educating a younger generation of students.
Instructor Melissa Wilson is also Southwest Missouri Regional Lead for Ag Education on the Move and works with some of those FFA chapters. When we spoke with Wilson she described the program as a win-win for everyone involved: a chance for FFA’s young leaders to gain valuable experience, a chance for teachers to have some of their class time taken up by prepared and engaging course work aligned with teaching standards, and a chance for students to learn something new and get their hands dirty.
“In fact,” Wilson said, “I just walked out of a classroom talking about soil, and we were talking about building things with back hoes, and digging through the soil versus digging through dirt, and we were making soil horizons and asking what do you see when you go out to recess? It makes things come alive.”
Laughing, Wilson said teachers appreciate it too. “One of the teachers told me the other day that her enrollment is up on ag days. They don’t want to miss ag day.”
Back in Mrs. Strutton’s class, the kids finished their butter and enjoyed a little snack before moving on to their regularly scheduled day.
For more information about Ag Education on the Move visit: agmoves.com