With apple trees swelling with fruit, our grocer’s shelves will soon house an abundance of the latest crop of this crisp and flavorful fruit. Local grocers create eye-catching displays and provide access to fruit provided by farmers, but how they get there can be a mystery to our youngest generation.
St. Joseph School’s second and third graders recently learned more about this delicious fruit as they welcomed a guest speaker from the Illinois Farm Bureau’s ‘Agriculture in the Classroom’ (AITC) program. As a Farm Bureau member and certified biology/earth science teacher, Ms. Marie, as she was introduced, brought a wealth of knowledge to these students as she discussed the growing process of apples.
Previous generations learned about farming through schoolbooks full of agricultural references and examples, because farming and farm animals were a familiar part of nearly every child's life. Yet today, as our farm population shrinks in DuPage County and across our country, emphasis on agricultural learning has decreased and has become more of a specialty for those interested in farming.
As an avid gardener and horticulture enthusiast, Ms. Marie shares her interests with those she speaks to. As a volunteer with AITC, she travels to schools discussing the various foods produced on today’s farms and how they are grown. As DuPage County is now home mainly to a few smaller ‘farmettes’, most students are missing the visuals of farming and the food chain connection so many have grown up on. It’s teachers and volunteers like Ms. Marie who teach our students about the food chain.
The second and third graders at St. Joseph learned that apples are actually part of the rose family. They learned that apples love the number five, having five leaves on their branches, five flower pedals and five seeds (or multiples of 5) inside the apples. They learned how important bees are in the pollination process and also learned how growers graft apple trees to create different varieties. The students learned that if you want to plant apple trees in your backyard, you must plant two different varieties in order to grow apples. Ms. Marie supplied small hands-on projects for her students, providing more learning through this creative process.
St. Joseph School and all schools benefit from this free program. Founded in 1981, the USDA established “Ag in the Classroom”, and schools still enjoy this today because of the partnerships of agriculture, business, education, government and dedicated volunteers like Ms. Marie. It is regarded as a refreshing and flexible educational program designed to supplement and enhance the teacher's existing curriculum.
Patricia Luster, Agricultural Literacy Coordinator for the DuPage County Farm Bureau located in Carol Stream said there are six volunteer presenters who serve DuPage County schools, all being certified teachers who have a background in agriculture. “Our overall goal for the program is to teach where our food comes from. Funding for these programs exist because a lot of people think it is important for our students to know,” she said. Their programs are based on different agricultural themes, which include apples, pumpkins, trees, Spring Illinois, Earth Day, May Planting, seeds and horticulture. The program services 260 DuPage County schools. For more information on the DuPage County Farm Bureau or Ag in the Classroom, go to www.dcfb.org.
