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Georgia Ag Experience prepares to hit the road
Posted on November 15, 2020 12:00 AM
By Jennifer Whittaker
photos by Logan Thomas
For the past year, the Georgia Foundation for Agriculture (GFA) has been preparing the ultimate farm field trip for third through fifth-graders. The twist is students won’t have to leave their schools; the farm will come to them.
The foundation’s Georgia Ag Experience - a mobile classroom housed in a 36-foot trailer - is designed to give students the virtual experience of visiting a poultry house, a cattle pasture, a stand of timber, a horticulture nursery, a produce stand full of fresh Georgia fruit, vegetables and pecans, cotton and peanut fields. Colorful farm photos, interactive technology and displays of products made from the various ag commodities highlight the importance of Georgia agriculture to our daily lives.
Students will learn how farmers plant and harvest their crops, take care of their animals and preserve the natural resources on their farms. There will also be a station highlighting the many career options in agriculture. All exhibits and lessons that are part of the Georgia Ag Experience have been professionally designed to meet science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) standards.
Beginning Jan. 4, 2021, the Georgia Ag Experience (GAE) will hit the road visiting schools in South and Middle Georgia through March in Georgia Farm Bureau’s 10th, 9th, 8th and 6th Districts. The GFA worked with county Farm Bureau offices in these districts to arrange local mobile classroom visits.
Click here for a virtual tour of the mobile ag classroom.
The GAE classroom will visit schools in GFB’s 5th District in April and will visit schools in GFB’s 3rd District from April 26 to mid-May. County Farm Bureaus in GFB’s 5th and 3rd Districts will sign up for visits in January.
Visit www.gfb.ag/experienceplanavisit for a list of dates the mobile classroom will be available across Georgia in 2021, signup periods and instructions to schedule a visit.
Only a trained county Farm Bureau representative may submit a school visit request. Teachers or school representatives interested in working with their county Farm Bureaus to bring the Georgia Ag Experience to their school should first contact their local Farm Bureau office. Visit www.gfb.ag/contact to access your local Farm Bureau’s contact information.
For more information about the Georgia Ag Experience and a list of the ag organizations, agribusinesses and Georgia commodity commissions that are generously supporting the mobile ag classroom visit www.georgiaagexperience.org.