INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana State Fairgrounds officials hope to begin offering in-person educational opportunities to students again later this year, but in the meantime, virtual field trips are available to teach children about agriculture.

The in-person programs – Farm to Pizza; Plants, Animals & Me; Exploring Biotech – have been on hold due to the pandemic, said Stephanie DeCamp, director of education for the fairgrounds and event center. Officials hope the programs can resume in the late fall.

The virtual programs – There’s a Pig in My Classroom; It’s All About The Genes – will remain so because they were designed as virtual presentations, she noted. For example, the Pig in the Classroom program virtually takes viewers to the pig operation at Fair Oaks Farms. “We couldn’t do that on a live basis,” DeCamp explained. “The camera is so close they can see the hairs on the pig. We encourage viewers to watch on a big screen. The pigs are larger than life.”

In March, the fairgrounds began offering free augmented reality programming for grades 8-10 in three areas: crops, dairy and hardwoods. Officials said students may download an app with their mobile device or school tablet and activate the experience, which operates by scanning a QR code. Each of the apps includes an animated video overview.

Whether a program is live or virtual, the goal remains the same, DeCamp said. “Ag literacy is our main focus. We feel part of the mission at the fairgrounds is to educate about where food comes from. We don’t produce, we don’t sell. We just tell the whole story of ag. We find ways to talk about what we’re passionate about.”

Once the in-person field trips were canceled, officials never considered turning them into virtual programs, she stated. “We’re waiting to bring them back in person. We don’t want to flip everything virtual. Farm to Pizza is very hands on. The kids are making pizza, interacting with animals. We couldn’t replicate that virtually to the level it is in person.”

The virtual field trips are free. The in-person programs, once they return, are $5 for students and free for teachers; additional adults are $5 each. There’s a Pig in My Classroom is for 3rd-6th graders and shows students how pigs are raised and how to buy pork in the grocery store. It will be offered April 20-22 and May 4-6. It’s All About the Genes, for grades 7-9, looks at biotechnology. As of press time, all spring semester dates for this program have been filled.

Annually, about 50,000 students participate in the fairgrounds’ Youth Ag Education programs, including events offered at the state fair, DeCamp said. About 10,000 students have signed up for virtual programming this semester.

Fairgrounds officials prefer to offer their virtual programming to a classroom setting but will take home schoolers as a group as long as one teacher registers and shares the link, she said.

“A large majority of the students are urban but we always have a lot of rural schools too,” DeCamp said. “A lot of the students don’t come from a farm background. They’re so eager to learn. Kids get very curious about what ag is.”

Educators do get questions about some of the common misconceptions surrounding farming, she added. “They ask if brown eggs are more nutritious than white and if chocolate milk comes from brown cows. The things we take for granted we need to educate about. For example, some may think farmers still go in and milk cows by hand. No, we tell them, there’s technology for that.”

For more information, including a schedule, visit www.indianastatefair.com and click on the education tab. The website also offers several experiments and activities geared toward at-home learning.