Sparta — Jayce Stephan had to admit that he couldn‘t choose the most interesting thing he had learned during a recent lesson on cows.
“Everything is interesting,” said the third-grader. “I’ve only seen a cow once.”
After a visit from the FARM Science Lab mobile classroom, Jayce and his classmates at Appleview Elementary were armed with a whole cattle-log of bovine informootion, plus a new appreciation for the four-legged dairy, meat, leather and fertilizer-producing friends some of them are growing up amid in their rural school district.
The colorful, 40-foot trailer, complete with work stations, was parked outside Appleview recently for four days of hands-on STEM-based lessons for the school’s more than 550 third- through fifth-graders. The FARM Science Lab experience was partially funded through a Sparta PTC grant and the Michigan Farm Bureau.
FARM Science Lab — which stands for Food, Agriculture & Resources in Motion — was conceived by a group of Michigan farmers working with 26 county farm bureaus, spearheaded by local dairy farmer Renee McCauley. Lessons are targeted to grades K-5 and align with Next Generation Science Standards and National Agricultural Literacy Outcomes.
Farm Science Lab activities are grade-level focused; this year at Appleview, fourth-graders learned about all things sugar beet, and fifth-graders did activities focused on erosion.
The main objectives of each lesson taught in the lab are:
- Use of the scientific method
- Exploration of science- and agriculture-related careers
- Discovery of agriculture’s importance to students’ daily lives
Locally, the mobile lab has also visited Kentwood and Lowell schools, and since 2015 has reached 57,150 students throughout the state.
The mobile field trip visit to Appleview was initiated by teacher Linnea Hurley, who grew up on a dairy farm near Belding and has since childhood been involved in the Kent County Youth Fair.
“In an area where farming is a vital part of the local economy and lifestyle, I hope this experience helps bridge the gap between students and the agricultural world around them,” Hurley said.
Read more from Sparta:
• Elementary students ‘adopt’ dairy cow for school year
• Kids ‘experience the world around them’ at Camp Scottie
