KNIGHTSTOWN, Ind. — Nearly 800 fourth graders from a central Indiana county attended the Youth Ag Festival at Boondocks Farms, an agritourism site in Knightstown, Ind., on Sept. 13 to learn how agriculture fits into Indiana’s history and the global economy.

“This is great for kids who don’t get a chance to see and experience the farm,” said Katie Creamer, Title 1 teacher for Greenfield Intermediate School under Cory Schewe’s fourth grade class. “This is an incredible learning experience for the kids. Judging from their reactions, they loved seeing and learning about the livestock and forestry.”

Begun nearly 15 years ago by Purdue University Extension and Indiana Farm Bureau in Hancock County, the Youth Ag Festival invites fourth graders from local school districts out to the farm for a half day of rotations through eight educational stations. The stations teach elementary students with fun and interactive learning activities focusing on livestock, forestry, ag and your environment, supply and demand, soil to spoon, crops and bees.

For instance, in the supply and demand session, a general explanation is given to define supply and demand, then each student is given a cup of M&Ms. 

Each student is asked what color and how many of each color they would like to collect. Then, they trade with their fellow classmates to get their desired color and number.

At the end of the activity, the children discuss whether they had difficulty getting their color M&Ms because of high demand or if it was easy because not many students were desiring that color. Then elements of supply and demand are hashed out and examples such as the Nintendo Wii are given.

For instance, since many families already have a Ninentendo Wii, not as many families are purchasing the product, so the demand is low and prices are much lower than when the product was new and hot.

“The kids can understand examples in their everyday life and then we can relate that to agriculture. Because every generation is farther removed from the farm, they don’t realize how food is produced,” said Hill. “We have to understand that this is tomorrow’s consumer – we need to begin the educational process about food and farming and fourth grade is a great time because that is when they learn about Indiana history. We need to show the important role agriculture plays in Indiana’s economy, but make it fun and easy to understand.”

According to Hill, the event began at the Hancock County Fairgrounds at a much smaller scale with only 300 to 400 students in the spring.

“The event suffered from delays and freezing weather so we moved to the fall, then we started talking about a new venue,” said Hill. “Once we moved out here to Boondocks three years ago our attendance doubled.”

According to Hill, the coordinators felt the event needed a new perspective since they were limited to indoor classes at the fairgrounds.

“At Boondocks, we were able to expand to include forestry and soil sessions,” said Hill. “Once we moved out here, the event nearly doubled in size.”

The event is coordinated by Indiana Farm Bureau in Hancock County, Purdue Extension in Hancock County and the Soil and Water Conservation District in Hancock County.