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Ag not at museums

A recent survey of museums found agriculture was not on display.

Katie Stofer, research assistant professor in agricultural education and communication at the University of Florida, tells Brownfield her time as an educator in science centers peaked her interest in the connection between agriculture and science in museum settings.

Her survey of 29 science museums found that while 45 percent of the 314 exhibits were probably related to agriculture, none included agriculture in any title or description.  “There were a lot of exhibits that were related to agriculture in my mind and as I could compare them to some of our national standards for school agricultural education, but they weren’t explicitly framed or explicitly related to agriculture.”

Stofer says people spend more than 95 percent of their lifetime outside of formal school learning environments. Introducing agriculture at museums may be an easy way she says to educate the public about the agricultural industry.

Stofer tells Brownfield many science centers and museums are nonprofits and she believes they would welcome support from the industry to host agricultural exhibits or events.

AUDIO: Interview with Katie Stofer (9:56 mp3):