MIDLAKES AGRICULTURE PROGRAM EXPOSES STUDENTS TO AUTHENTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCES

BY SUZIE WELLS

Western NY is home to incredible agricultural opportunities, from dairy and livestock farms to orchards and elds that supply thousands of consumers around the region with everything the heart and tastebuds could wish for. Agriculture a ects all of us, from the food and products we consume to our surrounding atmosphere and lifestyle. As Midlakes Middle/High School teacher Marina Bartolotta-O’Brien says, “We all have the need to eat, put clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads. None of that would happen without agriculture.”

Midlakes Middle/High School’s growing agriculture program exposes students in grades 7-12 to potential career opportunities, area employers, and techniques used in the local ag industry. Midlakes o ers several classes that form a concentration in agriculture as well as a separate extracurricular Ag Club. Current courses include Ag Exploration, Career Explorations & Development, Ag Business, Aquaculture, Outdoor Education, and 8th Grade Ag Tech. e district plans to grow the program with Ag Exploration 2, Small Animal Science, and Floral Design courses next year and potentially additional courses in coming years.

According to Midlakes’ public relations coordinator, Todd Clausen, three teachers bring agricultural expertise into the classroom: Ethan Sleeman works on farms during the summers, Marina Bartolotta-O’Brien taught Animal Science at the Finger Lakes Technical and Career Center, and Jessica Spence previously worked for the 4H Youth Development Program in Yates and Wayne counties. Each grows food at home. Bartolotta-O’Brien also raises ducks and chickens for meat and eggs, has dairy cows, goats, and other animals.

Midlakes’ Agriculture program has evolved over time, and Sleeman says, “Our goal is to connect kids to something they are interested in and give them some non-traditional options –something they will get excited about. It may not be their major in college, but when they have a home or apartment someday, they may take advantage of what they learned to grow a garden.”

Spence says, “We need to be able to feed our population and we’re not headed in that direction without innovation and creativity, like creating alternative foods in labs, being able to grow vertically instead of horizontally.” She says agriculture lends itself to hands-on learning, allowing them to take eld trips to see agriculture in action and bring in guest speakers to demonstrate what they do. “I think the excitement of bringing it in is just getting students interested in a more hands-on, interactive way so they will maybe engage in some of the professions that are available right here in our area.”

Teachers and administration have advocated for program development to meet the needs/requests of the community. Fi y area businesses and nearly twenty local farms in the Midlakes district rely on the agriculture industry to support operations. Many classroom speakers come from these businesses. Students have taken eld trips to many of them to learn more about careers, how these businesses use technology / innovations, and their place in the local agriculture industry.

Overall, Midlakes’ focus re ects the expansive agriculture industry, from growing to innovation to entrepreneurship and more. For example, Ag Tech provides an introductory/general level view of the agriculture industry. Earlier in the year, students hollowed out pumpkins donated by a local farm and planted mums in them to make sustainable planters. Recently, they followed along with the incubation and hatching progress of ducklings, a project inspired and led by an eighth grader who brought in his own eggs to incubate for the class.

Higher-level courses focus more precisely on speci c areas. Spence’s students learned about gra ing wine vines and making cheese from scratch. Sleeman’s students grow large-mouth bass in a tank at school and recently worked with a science teacher to grow disease-resistant chestnut trees. As classes add to the program, students will be able to follow speci c pathways, such as animal science or plant science.

Midlakes’ Ag Education is an intracurricular model that allows students to develop an understanding of a topic in the classroom, practice those learned skills in a real-world setting, such as an internship, to foster personal growth and leadership. Whether a student wants to be able to grow a more successful garden, be a better educated pet owner or start their own business, every student can gain something from Ag Education and be successful. Some students may not even know of the possibilities and opportunities that are out there and it’s our job to help share those with them.