Farm Camp Minnesota connects 5-12 grade students to an on farm experience in a three part customized learning opportunity. The three parts include in class learning, using standards-based curriculum, hands-on farm or agribusiness tour and culminates in career exploration all while integrating with existing classroom curriculum.
Farm Camp to Autumnwood Farm
Prior to visiting the Autumnwood Farm, eleventh and twelfth grade students from Gordon Parks High School, located in St. Paul, Minnesota, learned standards-based, grade specific curriculum that established the foundation for the field trip, the second step of a Farm Camp. The purpose of this experience was to get urban students into a hands-on experience learning about farming and where their food comes from.
About Autumnwood Farm
The Autumnwood Farm is a dairy farm and creamery located in Forest Lake, Minnesota whose story began in the early 1900s. They have been a dairy farm since the beginning and later began the creamery in 2008. With the slogan, "Milk From Grass to the Glass" this third and fourth (and soon to be fifth) generation farm focuses on local, fresh, and tasty milk produced and bottled right on their farm. Students from the Gordon Parks High School got to experience this milk to glass process first-hand.
Highlights from the Farm Camp Experience
The students had an amazing time and learned something new and ABSOLUTELY loved the products.
Educator
Gordon Parks High School
We enjoyed visiting with the group and they were some awesome students. They asked a lot of great questions and were invested in what was going on as well as seeming to enjoy the experience of learning about our creamery, farm, and animals.
AgHost
Autumnwood Farm
Impact of Farm Camp Experience
Prior to attending the Autumnwood Farm Farm Camp experience, students completed a pre-tour survey to identify their knowledge base around agriculture and careers in agriculture. In this survey, over 85% of students could not identify five agricultural careers in the world other than farmers. This demonstrates the importance of exposing our youth to agriculture and the many career opportunities that the field presents. As a result of visiting Autumnwood Farm, students personally witnessed careers in agriculture including but not limited to transportation, milk production and distribution, marketing, packaging, veterinarian among other careers.