The Kentucky Department of Education sponsors All in for Agriculture Education week twice a year in March and September. Schools across the commonwealth celebrated agriculture and learning about agriculture last week.
Adair County Schools take part in the event by hosting representatives from the Kentucky Department of Education and Kentucky Department of Agriculture, including Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Warren Beeler, Kentucky State 4-H President Case Shirrell, and Clinton Corner, Kentucky State FFA Vice President of the Lake Cumberland Region.
The theme for All in for Ag Education Week is the dairy industry in collaboration with The Dairy Alliance, which is a nonprofit organization funded by dairy farmers in the southeast United States to educate the public about dairy farming and dairy foods, along with Farm Credit Mid-America.
During the visit, Adair County FFA members Myla Curry, Maycee Hovious, Alyssa Greer and Alexa Castrejon visited Jessica Simpson’s fourth grade math classroom at Adair County Elementary School and Sarah Dean’s second grade classroom at Adair County Primary Center to teach a lesson about how cheese is made from milk into cheese, changing states of matter. Students in both classes were given the opportunity to try mozzarella cheese and learned about dairy farming.
Also, during the visit to the elementary schools, Pam Phipps and BreAnna Coffey’s library technology students and Jennifer Mann’s library students enjoyed a read aloud of this spring’s All in for Ag Education Week book, Millie’s Farm Day.
Later in the day, teachers across Adair County and the state tuned in to a virtual field trip hosted by Compton Dairy Farm in Fairplay.
Tony Compton was interviewed about his operation while students got to meet his family’s dairy cows.
Compton was joined by Kentucky Education Commissioner Dr. Robbie Fletcher, Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell, and author Ayla Tolentino on the “Ask the Aggies” panel.
After school, the group returned to Adair County Schools where the Adair County FFA Chapter hosted an after-school learning opportunity.
Students from Camp Casey, Camp Safari, and Camp Arrow were transported to the high school where they went through rotations to see some of the projects high school students are involved in.
The students learned about soils and planting seeds in the FFA greenhouse with Brittany Smith.
The students saw welding in the FFA ag shop with Gabby Barnes and taking care of baby calves with Robin Hancock in the FFA barn.
The Adair County FFA officers were also on hand to help with each station.
