By: Tara Blue
Last Thursday Feb. 23rd, the Future Farmers of America (FFA) High School students literally brought the farm to school, as they hosted the annual “Barnyard & Agriscience Fair”. The middle schoolers were invited to the agriculture building to rotate between several stations. These included an aquaponics system, an animal handling class, meat chickens display, tractor tour, groundwater filtration lab, and a petting zoo with goats, cow, horse, chicken, piglets, lizards, geese, rabbits, donkey, and a lamb. These demonstrations provided the middle schoolers with a great learning opportunity. Studies continuously show that children learn best and retain the most knowledge when they actively participate in hands-on, experiential lessons (Kaltman, 2010).
As children today generally become less aware of where their food comes from (Hahn, 2021), organizations such as FFA become increasingly important in their ability to teach the connection between food source and plate. Furthermore, the pandemic shutdowns of the last few years have reminded us of the fragility of our supply chains, and becoming more knowledgeable about locally sourced and available foods only serves to benefit our future generations.

See more in this weeks Boone County Journal