By Emmy Powell
Communications Specialist

Classrooms across Texas are once again invited to virtually visit farms and ranches next spring through Texas Farm Bureau’s (TFB) Farm From School program.

Farm From School is a live, virtual visit with a farmer or rancher that is streamed in classrooms across the state. The program is open to public, private and homeschool educators in Texas who teach kindergarten through fifth grade.

“Farm From School allows students to tour a farm, ranch or other ag operation right from their classrooms,” said Jordan Bartels, TFB associate director of Organization Division, Educational Outreach. “The program is unique because it offers students an opportunity to learn about and see Texas agriculture that they might not see in the area where they live. Coupled with the resources provided by TFB, this program truly allows students to connect agriculture to the concepts and topics being learned in the classroom.”

Each monthly session discusses a new agricultural commodity to help students understand how diverse agriculture is across Texas.

“By bringing agriculture to the classroom and connecting it to what is already being taught, students grow an understanding of where so many of the things they rely on each day come from—food to clothes, blankets and more,” she said.

Past sessions gave students the opportunity to learn about pumpkins, peanuts, poultry, Christmas trees, Angora goats, hydroponics, beef, horses and planting and technology.

Students visit farms and ranches without ever leaving their classrooms.

“Teachers consistently share that their students learn something new during each visit and make connections that they weren’t making prior to the visits,” Bartels said. “The classroom discussions that come from these visits resonate as a program highlight. Without this program, those conversations might very well never take place in the classroom.”

Classrooms will connect virtually with the farmers and ranchers once a month from February through May. Student questions are submitted via the Q&A function on the virtual platform during the visits.

TFB will provide recommended TEKS-aligned lessons, activity books and other companion resource materials for the virtual farm visits.

Farmers and ranchers are encouraged to promote the program to local teachers, Bartels noted.

Teachers can sign up on TFB’s Agriculture in the Classroom webpage at texasfarmbureau.org/aitc.

Sign up closes Jan. 11, 2023, for the spring semester.

Additional details about the program, including dates and crops featured, will be added online as they become available.

Contact Bartels at edoutreach@txfb.org or call 254-751-2569.