Students from Afton and Creston have been visiting farms and interacting with farmers while never leaving their classrooms. Fourth graders from both East Union and Creston Community School districts dived into the world of virtual agricultural learning and tours through the FarmChat program utilizing technology and the “virtual tour” aspect.
“Basically, we go out to a working farm or agricultural business and video them so that it is livestreaming in the classroom for the students. Students then get the chance to interact with the farmer or other professionals by asking them questions and getting a virtual tour of the working environment and everyday farm life,” said Haley Jones, Union County youth and outreach coordinator.
A partnership between Union County Extension and Outreach and the schools has been formed to allow this opportunity for the students to take place. Both Marcus Patten with East Union and Robbie Tanner with Creston have jumped on board with this unique agricultural education program.
To date, 11 FarmChat sessions have taken place between the two schools involving three fourth-grade classrooms and approximately 60 students.
Benefits of the FarmChat program are strong for the teacher as well as the students. They include no transportation needed for the students, less time away from school and easy to reschedule. Some working farms are not set up for field trips but could do a video, and real-world connections are established in relation to the Iowa Core Standards. The soybean, dairy and swine industries have been covered through the FarmChat program so far.
“Many, if not most, of our young people simply do not get the opportunity to see these operations in person. FarmChat has greatly enabled this exploration,” Patten said.
The students started off the year with a couple of visits to the Long farm near Afton. Students interacted with William and Sarah Long of Long and Sons Limousines where they learned about seed bean production, storage and combining. William took the students for a virtual ride in his combine as he harvested soybeans.
“I tied harvesting with the Longs into my growing organisms and environments unit. We hatched Monarch butterflies a week before the farm chat so my students got to see how both animals and plants come to be and what happens once they are grown,” said Patten. “Through my energy unit, I tied in both the swine and dairy farm visits, and the students learned about the energy or food it takes for these animals to produce and grow.”
Next, the fourth graders were introduced to the importance of calcium in the human body for bone development as well as the energy it requires for an animal to produce and grow. A dairy farm out of Spencer, four hours away, was used to showcase where milk comes from. Aaron Titterington and Sheila Edwards with Jones Dairy took the students on a virtual tour of the milking parlor, free stall barns, calf barns and feed storage facilities. Students got to see the cows up close as they watched how the milk gets from the cow to the milk tanker where it is then hauled to processing in Minnesota and made into cheese.
Landon Gist and Chase Allen, both East Union fourth graders, said, “The dairy farm tour was our favorite so far and we like FarmChat because they show us interesting information about farms and also tell us how other people live and what their lives are like.”
Recently, students learned about the swine industry and pork production through a two-part series with AMVC Management Services at Taurus Sow, a local farm in Lenox, and Sam, Jill and Lori McKnight at their nursery site in Afton. Alicia Humphrey, public relations coordinator with AMVC, wished to participate in FarmChat with the area schools. A partnership was created and expanded to include McKnight Farms, so the students would get to see the whole life cycle of a pig. Taurus Sow is a breed-to-wean sow farm, where AMVC employees take care of sows and piglets. The piglets born on the sow farm are weaned from the sow at three weeks of age and are transported to a grow-and-finish site. McKnight Farms has a nursery for weaned and growing pigs where they raise them until market weight. Through this two-part series, the students witnessed piglets being born all the way up to market-ready pigs.
“One of my passions is sharing the story of the swine industry with others. Being able to show the students what happens inside a sow farm and hearing their reactions to seeing the piglets definitely made the FarmChat experience worthwhile,” Humphrey said.
Throughout the sessions, students ask questions directly to the farmer during the tours. Google Hangouts, a smart phone and smartboard set up in the classroom, is the technology involved in making FarmChat work. Jones acts as the facilitator and videographer while the teacher manages the set up in their classrooms during a chat.
“It takes great partners and agriculturalists such as AMVC, the Longs, Jones’, and McKnights to host an impactful and educational FarmChat for the students,” Jones said.
Both William and Sarah Long shared their thoughts from their farm chat experience.
“We enjoyed the opportunity to participate in FarmChat with the fourth graders during corn and soybean harvest. Although we live in a rural community where agriculture is a leading component of the economy, we were surprised with the students’ level of interest, enthusiasm and their complex questions,” Long said. “The farms of today are different from the ones of our childhood and certainly our parents.’ With more and more people being removed from direct and daily involvement in agriculture, as today’s farmers, we have a responsibility to tell and share an accurate story about our livelihood.“
For more information on the FarmChat program in schools, contact Cindy Hall with the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation at chall@iowaagliteracy.org or Haley Jones with Union County Extension at hjones@iastate.edu.