Mobile lab takes food, farms and environmental lessons on the road
OXFORD – For the seventh straight year, the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation, a division of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, recently brought its Mobile Agriculture Education Science Lab to Elk Ridge Elementary School.
The lab is designed to teach students about agriculture, Pennsylvania’s number one industry, in a fun and hands-on way. The lessons were led by Christine Kimble, a former Philadelphia School District teacher, and are coordinated with each classroom teacher prior to the lab’s arrival.
PA Friends of Agriculture Mobile Ag Lab instructor Christine Kimble is pictured with, from left,:Elk Ridge Elementary School first graders Camilla Sanchez, Jazzel Ochoa, Edwin Bernal and Elias Salas-Santiago. The students concluded their lesson on pollination by making special bookmarks featuring the parts of a flower.
Each year, every first and second grade class at Elk Ridge visits the lab to perform science experiments focusing on farms, food and the environment. The lab comes equipped with all the necessary materials and supplies for lessons and craft activities involving plants, bees and other insects, which are consistent with the first and second grade science curricula.
First grade teacher Laura James, with help from Oxford Area Board of School Directors member Howard Robinson and Principal Herbert Hayes, has coordinated this event since it first came to the school. Mrs. James learned about the Ag Lab several years ago while attending “Ag in the Classroom,” an agricultural graduate class at Penn State University.
For the past three visits to Elk Ridge, the Mobile Ag Lab has been made possible in part by a $500 grant from the Pennsylvania Soybean Board.
