Adventures in Agriculture.

 

The popular “Agriculture Adventures: Kentucky” program is on the road for the third straight year. The full-day program begins with “Lunch Room Live,” an entertaining show in which children see that all of the ingredients used to make one of their favorite foods, pizza, come from a farm. Following that show, students milk a fiberglass cow, grind wheat into flour, test soil samples and participate in many other handson experiments and activities. AAK is produced for the KDA by COSI on Wheels, a program of the COSI museum in Columbus, Ohio.

 

(Chris Aldridge photo)

 

Thoughts on paper

The KDA sponsors an annual poster and essay contest for kindergarten through eighth grade students. Commissioner Farmer hosts the winners, their parents and teachers at a Frankfort awards luncheon. Winners receive $100 U.S. Savings Bonds.  In 2007, for the first time, each winner’s classroom was awarded $500 for agriculture-related materials or activities, courtesy of the Kentucky Grocers Association.

 

Support of livestock shows

The top overall exhibitors in the 2006 Kentucky Proud
Points program.

The KDA conducts annual livestock showscthroughout the state, highlighted by three Kentucky Junior Livestock Expositions and the Kentucky State Fair. In 2006, hundreds of young people exhibited almost 1,900 animals at the expos. Exhibitors earn Kentucky Proud points at the Department’s livestock shows, and top scorers in each species are honored at the Kentucky Proud Points luncheon each fall.   “Livestock shows are educational as well as competitive,” Commissioner Farmer said. “These events teach young people the value of discipline and hard work.”

 

Teacher education

 

To help Kentucky teachers share with their students the importance of agriculture to the history, economy and culture of the Commonwealth, the KDA provides schools with Kentucky Proud Lessons that meet Kentucky Education Reform Act standards. The lessons use agriculture to teach mathematics, history, geography, economics, science, social studies and practical living to students in the third, fourth and fifth grades.