Final report for YENC24-208
Project Information
Sola Gratia Farm (SGF), a nonprofit, sustainable farm, regularly offers educational farm tours to local school and youth groups. The farm expanded the content of these visits for students of a wide range of ages with hands-on activities and, crucially, the development of a new hands-on learning space to provide deeper understanding of sustainable agricultural practices such as organic plant start production, crop diversity and rotation, and soil health and preservation for long-term land use and viability. The farm also explored new ways of effectively communicating with youth about both career opportunities and food sovereignty to give youth a stronger understanding of the farm and our partners’ work. After participating in programming, students showed greater knowledge of farming techniques, heightened awareness of the impact of farming practices on their food, and improved attitudes towards locally-grown specialty crops. Following programming, we heard several reports from parents of program participants that they showed greater interest in engaging with specialty food crops at home. As a result of our activities, we came to the following conclusions: 1) Programming involving repeat visits to the farm learning space drives greater engagement and information retention; and 2) Hands-on activities improve youth experiences at the farm and increase the likelihood of information retention and awareness, skills, and attitude changes.
- Design expanded and enhanced sustainable agriculture education opportunities, including farm field trips and hands-on agriculture education activities, for youth in local schools and youth programs;
- Provide localized and relevant agriculture experience and career awareness opportunities to 40+ local youth, especially those already interested in sustainable agriculture;
- Develop age-appropriate, interactive and replicable educational materials to be featured on SGF’s learning farm.
Cooperators
- (Educator)
- (Educator)
- (Educator)
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation summary:
Ten groups visited our farm over the course of the season to learn about how food is produced and the realities of food production, distribution, and security in our community. Each visit included a tour as well as a hands-on activity or interactive discussion to guide students' thinking and develop skills. Discussions covered 1) career opportunities in agriculture and necessary skills for working in agriculture, such as safety monitoring and teamwork; 2) design of sustainable, polycultural farms/gardens; and/or 3) what food insecurity is, how it affects our community, and how to address it. Hands-on activities included harvest and simple food prep of fresh produce; taste tests of in-season, diverse produce from our farm; seed starting; pollination simulations; and cover crop selection and planting. Four post-visit consultations were also completed with educators from two of the groups that visited our farm.
Three additional groups were unable to travel to our farm, so we visited their location to lead hands-on activities and demonstrations, including seed starting and pollination demonstrations.
Additionally, we presented our educational offerings to a group of current and former women educators in our community associated with the professional organization Delta Kappa Gamma. We also created a short video highlighting our educational space, the Community Classroom, to share on our social media to reach other educators.
- Host webinar or in-person workshop
- Series of short videos and/or social media posts
Learning Outcomes
skills and knowledge of organic agricultural production (including techniques such as season extension, pest and weed management, cultivation, and irrigation)
knowledge of multi-cropping techniques
awareness of local food system infrastructure
attitude towards local food products
awareness of food access and security
knowledge of farm production system development
skills for preparing specialty crop products
*Note: we were unable to collect information on KASA changes from one of the larger group that visited the farm (42 students) because of time constraints.
We observed that younger (middle school or younger) students from urban areas expressed mostly gaining new knowledge about the basics of agricultural production - such as how plants grow, seasonality, and different types of crops. While these students showed interest and engagement in the concepts they were learning, it was hard for many students to discuss them deeply because they were being introduced to these concepts for the first time. In some cases, these students were also disinterested in hands-on activities, both because they did not have a deep understanding of the topic and, often, for basic logistical reasons as well: not wanting to get clothes or hands dirty, being wary of trying new things, or feeling that it was too hot or cold outside.
In programming that involved repeated visits to the farm and engagement with farming, for instance with groups that participated in the partner plots, we saw a more obvious change in KASA. From one group, we were also made aware by the group leader of several parents who reported more open behavior towards specialty crops from their students at home. We observed that students became very excited and were more likely to retain information when they got to interact with the final product of their activities, that is, preparing and eating specialty crops. We hope to explore this more in future to discover how we can better utilize food-based programming to drive KASA changes in youth.
On the other hand, older students (older high school) and students from rural areas demonstrated existing knowledge of agricultural production, though they still reported increased knowledge and awareness of specific techniques. A goal when working with these students was to expose them to agricultural careers to foster the next generation of farmers. However, some of these students reported already having plans for their future or intending to pursue other interests, so they did not report any change in attitude or interest around agricultural careers.
Seed Starting Workshop lesson plan and worksheet
Creating Culturally Relevant Signs
Agriculture in the Classroom Curriculum Matrix is a great resource for educators because of their abundance of options, many of which have many ways of expanding or adjusting to the needs of a particular class (see "A Taste of Leafy Greens"). A fantastic way to expand on lessons, perhaps as a take-home component, is to add on an Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom Ag Mag!
As we mentioned, hands-on activities worked much better for us in terms of student engagement and information retention than lectures or simple tours. Lessons that best embodied this included the pollinator lesson, Culturally Relevant Signs, making food, soil ribbon testing, Compost Cake, Project SOW activities, and basic farm chores. Learn, Grow, Eat, Go! was a poor fit for us, as it is better structured for a classroom where limited gardening space and time is available and some activities need to be completed inside. For instance, we used the Week 3 lesson with a group, which involved creating a paper towel template for planting seeds. This resulted in very poor seed germination in our growing space. While we didn't use all of Project SOW, we found what we did use very useful. However, for formal educators, it may require a bit too much personalization and back-end setup to be practical in all scenarios.
Project Outcomes
The development of the Community Classroom has been a huge boost to us in terms of infrastructure to provide sustainable agriculture educational programming, and has allowed us to formalize and institutionalize our programming much better.
One program that was very successful in a way we didn't entirely expect was a program called Fridays on the Farm, in which we hosted 3rd-5th graders from a nearby school for educational activities weekly for about 6 weeks. About 15 students participated regularly in this program, and while the students were very varied in interests and personality, they all engaged very deeply with the materials and all showed some KASA changes through the program. In fact, the program leader indicated three students that struggled to engage in a traditional classroom setting that were engaged, excited, and positive on the farm. The program was not run through the winter due to the weather, but the program leader shared that these students asked almost once a week when Fridays on the Farm would begin again.