Mobile lab brings the farm to the city through education

ROYAL OAK — The students of the Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy were given the opportunity to experience life in the agricultural world on Nov. 22 during a virtual farm science lab.

The FARM Science Lab provides students with hands-on opportunities to experience what it is like to be a farmer and learn more about the inner workings of agricultural occupations.

The lab was presented by the Michigan Farm Bureau through the Michigan Agriculture in the Classroom program and took place at the Gathering House in Royal Oak, 1326 E. Lincoln Ave.

Farming has a role in nearly all the items people use on a daily basis, according to Raphael Weaver, regional community coordinator of Stride Inc., an education management organization that provides online education.

“Part of it is to get them exposed to different occupations and for them to understand where their food comes from,” Weaver said. “A lot of products that they wear, or even in their shampoo, toothpaste, where that stuff comes from, farming is a big aspect of that.”

Children in kindergarten through the fifth grade from the Great Lakes Virtual Academy participated in this hands-on experience.

Kendall Schroeder, executive director and head of school at Great Lakes Virtual Academy, said that this is the first year her students have done a lab like this. She also said that learning in person is an experience that she always tries to provide for the virtual students.

“We know the value of coming together in person, face to face, and there’s just something different about that, that you can see the connection being made when that happens,” Schroeder said. “That’s what I saw at these events that we’re hosting, is the connection that students are having with each other, I think is really, really powerful.”

Kids K-2 had a different learning curriculum than students in grades 3-5.

“The younger kids learned all about cows, so they learned the different kinds of cows, what cows are used for milking. They learned all about the different cows, where cows come from, what the cows eat, and a little bit about the makeup of a cow,” Weaver said. “They had an activity where they drew a cow and named the cow.”

The older kids in grades 3-5 learned about the necessary things and materials needed to have a successful farm. They created their own miniature farms that they could wear as a necklace by collecting the necessary materials like soil, sun, seeds and animals and adding them to a bag to make the mini-farm necklace.

“The Farm Bureau has a whole bunch of different lessons, because we even had farm lessons on erosion, where they have the kids have a hands-on experiment where they’re pouring water down different soil structures to see which holds soil and moisture better,” Weaver said.

Agriculture in the classroom lessons are matched to the Michigan educational standards, according to miagclassroom.org.

Weaver mentioned that the students were receptive to the experience and stated that one student said to him through a parent’s email that “it was very fun seeing different students, and students that she hadn’t met before.”

“She enjoyed learning about toothpaste and medicine that was made from pigs, and she enjoyed getting out of class and seeing classmates,” Weaver said.

Exposing the students to agricultural learning is a unique experience that can help broaden the students’ future pathways in life, and maybe even push them to consider joining the agricultural workforce.

“It’s really a valuable lesson to show where all that comes from, and it could be right in their back door and they don’t even realize it,” Schroeder said. “I think the value of helping students understand that process of farm to table and then coming together face to face to actually handle and work with those materials brings it to life for students.”

For more information on the farm lab, or for educational resources for teachers, visit miagclassroom.org.