June 18, 2021 – Today was the final day of the Ready, Set, Grow Ag Camp at the Living Science Farm at Enterprise Elementary School. The program is a five-day excursion for 7th and 8th-grade students to learn about agriculture, leadership, and opportunities available in the community. The goals of the week were to have fun and help kids get introduced to the programs available to them in the future.
Activities for the week included different leadership activities, games, and teaching opportunities around the ag industry, such as a team scavenger hunt for ag products around the farm with clues, a segment on pollinators in plots, and designing and branding their own style of popcorn product.
When asked why about the importance of teaching kids about agriculture from a young age, Lexi Ruemker, Agriculture Education Intern said, “Their minds are still shaping, and their passions and what they want to do. They’re doing a lot of self-exploration right now. Their brains are forming around that and their identity is forming, so being exposed to different parts of the world like this is so important because they’re able to learn that it is an option for them. It’s important in high school too, but this is just laying that foundation for when they get to high school.”
Earlier in the week, the students were taken to Richland Community College to learn about how watermelons get from seed to the market, which was a highlight for middle school science teacher Katie Libbey. “Richland showing us their seed market was important because a lot of these kids don’t see that. Things like that, that help the kids engage in learning in a fun way, really helps to get kids into the program.”
There will be two more weeks of camp available from June 28 through July 2 and July 12-16. If you would like to sign your student up, click here.
Below is a gallery of photos from the final day of camp:
