Teaching agriculture through hands-on learning

Angela Fitzgerald: I’m at Food and Farm Exploration Center in Plover, discovering how technology is advancing how we grow the food we eat.

Alexandria Behrend (Executive Director, Food and Farm Exploration Center):So, the mission of Food and Farm Exploration Center is to teach current and future generations about agriculture, where their food is grown, and those who grow it, and just connect those dots of appreciation.

Angela Fitzgerald: I love that. And how does that connect to collaborations within the community?

Alexandria Behrend:Central Sands of Wisconsin is where we’re located right now, which is a beautiful place to grow many of our focus crops. So, the soil is exactly right to grow potatoes, peas, corn, cabbage, a couple others. And so, we’re just really bringing homage to those family farms in the area.

Angela Fitzgerald:And what makes Food and Farm Exploration Center so unique, and what do you want people to take away from their time here?

Alexandria Behrend:We have probably one of the coolest experiences that families can have. We have 60 interactive exhibits that are available for people from age 2 to age 92. You get to get in and simulate driving a tractor in a potato field or a carrot field, and we have four demonstration fields right out our back door. But what we do is we really introduce students at young ages, really take them through the whole process of farm to food.

Angela Fitzgerald:Absolutely. ‘Cause you hear terms like “farm to table,” but we don’t always know what that means, especially at a large scale. So, I appreciate you all breaking that down and hoping that that has a long-term impact in how these young people think about kind of food and where it comes from, and what it means for them.

Alexandria Behrend:Yeah, thank you.

Angela Fitzgerald: I was off to explore the Ag Lab, starting from the ground up.

Brittany Marquard (Educator, Ag Lab):We’re gonna look at different soil types and why those soils are so important to production agriculture in Wisconsin.

Angela Fitzgerald:We tested each soil…

Brittany Marquard:But with a sandy type of a soil, once we get it wet, it’s really not gonna hold much together.

Angela Fitzgerald:…Observing their differences. It’s going to adhere more to the water.

Brittany Marquard:And now, if you tried to kind of bounce this one, you should be able to get a little bounce out of it without it completely falling apart.

Angela Fitzgerald:Yes, it has better integrity.

Brittany Marquard:Exactly.

Angela Fitzgerald:And how it all connects back to the food we grow in our state.

Brittany Marquard:So, in Wisconsin, our state soil is the Antigo silt loam, and so, silty soil, loamy type soil has the best properties of sand, silt, and clay components in it that make it ideal for growing.

Angela:What are some of the reactions you see from the youth or others that engage in this activity?

Brittany Marquard:So, this activity is one of my favorite activities, especially with the littles because one of the things, like, we all are exposed to soil at some point in time. And we always joke, dirt’s a dirty word around here. We don’t use dirt. We’re talking soil. This is soil, this has a purpose, this has a plan. But they love that component of getting their hands dirty, feeling it, and really putting that to knowledge.

Angela Fitzgerald:We moved on from dirtor should I say, soilto creating culinary concoctions in the Kitchen Lab. So we get to taste-test?

Brittany Marquard:You bet we do.

Angela Fitzgerald:It’s good. Awesome. Whether it’s getting creative in a lab or playing to learn, Food and Farm Innovation Center connects us to the food we grow and the farmers who grow it.