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Agriculture comes to Sacred Heart

Farm Bureau Ag Lab brings farm to the classroom

Sentinel photos by BUFFIE BOYER
Instructor Tina Goss, left, asks Sacred Heart School second grade student Sawyer Myers to place the petal sign on the board as the class learns the parts of a flower during the “Bee-utiful” lesson Thursday in the Mobile Ag Ed Science Lab.

LEWISTOWN — Students at Sacred Heart of Jesus School were given some hands-on agricultural lab learning throughout the week.

From Tuesday through Friday the students were able to walk into the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s Mobile Ag Lab and learn about Pennsylvania’s top industry.

The lab itself is a trailer that has room for students at 12 different stations with two to three students each. It is designed for elementary students through eighth grade. The curriculum meets the needs of the Pa. Department of Education and is endorsed by the Pa. Department of Agriculture.

Tim Goss, with Mifflin County Farm Bureau, said he likes the idea of the mobile lab because it adds to the normal curriculum of a classroom.

“I believe there just isn’t enough curriculum to adequately teach the ag sciences,” he said. “The education system just has other things they deem important.”

Students enter the lab and complete hands-on experiments which include supplies not easily available in most classrooms. Goss said this kind of learning really teaches kids where their food comes from.

“It is amazing to see and discover how few kids truly know where things come from,” he said. “It helps make that connection for the kids participating in the lab.”

The lab was at the school for the entire week, Goss said the lessons can be applied longer than the lab being on site. The teachers can take additional lessons or continue lessons to enforce the learning from the week in the lab.

“The teachers really can adapt the lessons to classroom after the lab is gone,” Goss said.

Each grade level has labs and sessions geared to the skills and knowledge of children typically in that grade, meaning kindergarten students have more walk-through touch labs than fifth and sixth grade students.

Labs also do not only teach students about agriculture, but also reinforce what children can learn in the classroom like math, reading and general thought processes.

Goss said the lab is expensive to bring to schools, which makes it difficult for smaller schools to benefit from the experience.

“We as a county farm bureau help with schools who wish to bring the lab to their students for the first time,” he said.

He explained it could be seen as a field trip without the trip.

“Instead of paying for a trip to Harrisburg and all the costs associated with that, the school can have the field trip come to them,” Goss said.

Students had opportunities to take part in labs once during each of the four days the ag lab was at Sacred Heart.

Goss said any school that wants to have the lab can contact Tonya Wible, program director, at 731-3545 or tdwible@pfb.com.

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