Cows in the classroom!

MADISON CO., N.Y. — Recently, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County educators have wrapped up a full year of Cornell in the Classroom programming. This program delivers agriculture-based lessons to third and fourth grade classes across the county, reaching close to 1,000 youth each year since its inception. Although COVID-19 proved to change the way our youth learn, we were able to host virtual lessons for students by dropping off hands-on materials ahead of time. We were able to provide lessons about popcorn, food and communities around the world, and last month students explored wheat germ DNA with funding provided by the White-Reinhardt grant.

This spring Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County was awarded a grant from New York Agriculture in the Classroom to integrate dairy education into our county’s schools. The project was made possible by the support of New York State’s dairy farmers and the Dairy Promotion Order funding. The generous grant will allow us to facilitate classroom lessons to 5^th graders across Madison County starting in May and then resuming in September of 2021. Our first lesson featured “Farming in a Glove”, where students were able to plant their own seeds in a glove to watch them germinate. This led to a discussion on how and what dairy cattle eat.

This interactive program will feature lessons ranging from virtual field trips to dairy farms and the tasting of dairy products, to educational games and activities using the National Agriculture in the Classroom curriculum. These programs will not only be engaging and hands-on, but they will provide a unique learning experience that students will remember and feel a connection to for years to come. “As we face a rapidly growing world population, we know that students sitting in our classrooms today will be needed to solve our world food problems of tomorrow, and this project will expose them to the opportunities for exciting and innovative careers in agriculture.”, says New York Agriculture in the Classroom Director, Katie Carpenter. Currently, New York Agriculture in the Classroom provides high-quality programming to Pre-K-12 teachers in every corner of the state, with a current reach of over 18,000 teachers and 460,000 students. Stay tuned in the coming months for examples of these programs in and out of schools in Madison County!

For more information on what we are doing, check us out on Facebook at CCE Madison County and Madison County NY 4-H, or visit our website at www.madisoncountycce.org.

–Courtney Livecchi
Cornell Cooperative Extension Madison County

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