In the spring of 2021 Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County was awarded a grant from New York Agriculture in the Classroom to integrate dairy education into our county’s schools. The generous grant allowed us to facilitate classroom lessons to 5th graders across Madison County from May to September 2021. In 2021, we reached over 1400 students with six different dairy education lessons including, “It’s a Moo-stery” and “Cow to Cone – Virtual Field Trip”. We were also able to provide a different dairy product to accompany each lesson, such as yogurt and string cheese.
We are very excited to announce that we have been awarded this grant for the second year in a row and are continuing dairy education in our schools for 2022! The project was made possible by the support of New York State’s dairy farmers and the Dairy Promotion Order funding. According to the American Dairy Association of the Northeast, New York ranks 4th in overall dairy production in the United States, producing 15.3 billion pounds of milk each year. In New York, the total economic impact of dairy is $39.6 billion each year, making it an important topic for youth to learn about.
This interactive program will continue to feature lessons ranging from virtual field trips to dairy farms and the tasting of dairy products, to educational games and activities using the National Agriculture in the Classroom curriculum. These programs will not only be engaging and hands-on, but they will provide a unique learning experience that students will remember and feel a connection to for years to come. “As we face a rapidly growing world population, we know that students sitting in our classrooms today will be needed to solve our world food problems of tomorrow, and this project will expose them to the opportunities for exciting and innovative careers in agriculture.”, says New York Agriculture in the Classroom Director, Katie Carpenter. Currently, New York Agriculture in the Classroom provides high-quality programming to Pre-K-12 teachers in every corner of the state, with a current reach of over 18,000 teachers and 460,000 students. Stay tuned in the coming months for examples of these programs in and out of schools in Madison County!
For more information on what we are doing, check us out on Facebook at CCE Madison County and Madison County NY 4-H, or visit our website at www.madisoncountycce.org.
To get your Madison County school and classrooms involved in the Dairy Education Grant please email tas264@cornell.edu or call 315-684-3001 ext. 110.
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