Ag in the Classroom comes to Lost Springs
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
It seems incongruous that Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom would need to visit rural schools. Many of the students live on or in close proximity to farms.
However, farming has become more specialized and children often no longer play an active role.
To prove the point, when Ag in the Classroom came Friday to Lost Springs Elementary School, one third-grade student said she had no idea what kind of a farm she lived on.
The presenter, Krista Winter of Hillsboro, a farm girl herself, used various ways to present facts and figures about the five main crops produced by Kansas farmers — wheat, corn, milo, soybeans, and sunflowers.
The presentation began with a video set to lively music and showing actual farm activities. Winter used the format of the popular TV show, "The Price is Right," to help students identify crops, study their prices, and learn their uses in food and other consumer products.
Winter also incorporated science into her presentation by illustrating the difference between volume and weight.
Kansas Foundation for Ag in the Classroom (KFAC) is a nonprofit organization headquartered at Kansas State University in Manhattan. The education assemblies are designed to show students that Kansas farmers are well educated in the areas of math and science and constantly are forced to use good decision-making skills.
"As a presenter, my goal is to bring the farm to the classroom, to encourage children to look at the items that make up their world and discover where these items come from through application of the math and science that they study," Winter said.
"When I see the students straining to see around each other because they are intrigued by every project, and when I listen to teachers and parents tell how their children come home and look at food labels to discover what crops are in them, that is when KFAC has accomplished its goal. That is when children begin to take an active role in the world around them and recognize that agriculture is a necessity to life."
The presentation at Centre Elementary School was given to third and fourth grade students from Hope and Centre. Local support came from Dickinson County Farm Bureau, Marion County Farm Bureau, North Central Kansas Co-op, Agri-Producers, Terry Vinduska, and Peterson Farms.
