Something new has made its way to Habersham to teach the county’s fifth-graders about a subject near and dear to the community: agriculture.
Thursday, Friday and Monday, Habersham’s fifth graders will get to experience an exciting new way to learn about agriculture, a mobile agriculture classroom and other farming-related learning experiences have been set up in Habersham Central High School’s parking lot.
The mobile classroom, or the “Georgia Ag Experience,” comes from the Georgia Foundation for Agriculture. Their goal is to educate students on agriculture, its importance in their lives, their communities, and raise the next generation of farmers in Georgia.
“It’s meant to come in and teach the kids more about agriculture and farming, and letting them have hands-on stuff to really teach them about where their food comes from,” says Habersham Farm Bureau Coordinator Cindy Jones. “Because a lot of kids just think they go to the grocery store and that’s [all there is to] their food.”
While the mobile classroom might look unassuming on the outside, the inside looks like an activity center straight out of a science museum. With high-tech gadgets for students to interact with and vibrant colors and sounds, the mobile classroom offers an exciting way for students to engage with what they’ve learned about agriculture in school.
The classroom features eight stations, from raising chickens and cattle to harvesting peanuts and growing cotton. The stations all have hands-on activities that combine virtual and physical elements and show students the processes that produce the things they use every day.
“The kids really love the trailer,” says Virginia Fulwood, Educational Programs Assistant for the Georgia Ag Experience. “I think what it’s doing is it’s connecting and creating a bridge between what they know they have in their home and seeing where it actually comes from. They also see what a big impact farming has on our community here in the state of Georgia.”
It’s not just the classroom students were excited about– fifth graders got to have up-close meet-and-greets with Georgia livestock. Students pet cows, fed goats and learned about raising livestock in Northeast Georgia. Students also had the opportunity to learn about growing food and plants, the science behind agriculture and jobs in the agricultural field.
Field trips for fifth graders to the mobile classroom and other farm experiences will go through Monday.
