Hello Vera,
While I'm not on a farm, our historic site does have an onsite garden for programming, and we bring garden/planting programming to schools, and I've worked to balance this very idea with all our programming. What I've found works is to keep it simple and yes, many times the experience of doing something with your hands or engaging other senses meets the learning goal. This past summer I did a program all about tomatoes. Some of the learning goals that I listed were that students (PreK- elementary) would smell a tomato plant, pick a tomato, and recognize tomatoes come in different colors and shapes.
It's also always best to ask the teacher or group coordinator. This could be in a pre-program discussion about what you are hoping students take away and what is most valuable in the teacher's perspective. The teacher may be able to reinforce the ideas either before or after the trip. I provide teachers/ group coordinators with a brief sheet or two with the basic information we will cover during the program. Depending on the age group this includes vocabulary, concepts, questions, and themes. That way they also feel empowered and have the information to help the student's comprehension. I've also been experimenting with that sheet serving two purposes: for the teacher and a handout that can go home with students for parents/guardians. You can also ask after the trip with a post trip survey. I do ours in a simple Google Form to get information post program. It's a great place to ask about what students took away, the age appropriateness of the activities, the value of the program/activities, etc. Many times, if you have a grant to do a program the questions for the grant report help populate the questions in the survey. I'm happy to share a link to the one I used last summer for our gardening program. I have been surprised that many times the feedback from the teacher is that the value of the program and the learning experience was simply being outside in the space and having hand-on experiences.
I hope this is helpful!
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Karina Filipowski
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-13-2025 02:09:14 PM
From: Vera Simon-Nobes
Subject: Thoughts on doing activities during a farm field trip and learning!
Here's a post from an FBEN member - would love your thoughts!
I'm curious about how to balance activities with also making sure students are actually learning something. They're definitely days that I walk away wondering if students take away the big picture behind some of the activities versus just something cool they did with their hands - which maybe is its own learning goal!
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Vera Simon-Nobes
Farm-Based Education Network
Shelburne VT
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