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FARM science van takes ag education into classrooms
A smaller addition to the Michigan Ag in the Classroom mobile fleet is helping teach more students about agriculture.
Manager Michelle Blodgett tells Brownfield a new FARM science van expands agricultural education to places where their 40-foot mobile classroom trailers are difficult to take.
“It’s the same exact lessons that are offered in the lab, but we’re able to go into the classrooms,” she explains. “The labs are a two-day minimum. This is a one-day minimum. The cost for us to be able to go into the schools is a little bit cheaper and easier on school budgets.”
Blodgett says the mobile labs are taught by certified educators and provide age-appropriate hands-on activities that meet the state’s science standards without the expense that field trips can have.
“Seeing the careers that are tied to agriculture that they might not be aware of, whether it’s drones or beyond the farm, how can they connect with packaging or food safety and those things, it’s really been exciting to see the need,” she shares.
She says demand is starting to return to pre-pandemic levels and the three mobile labs are currently booking into fall.
This is one of the best projects that MFB P & E Committee has done. So glad it is growing. Keep up sharing ag. experience.👍🍀