Ag in Classroom hosts bus tour

MADISON

How often do you get the chance to see lettuce grow in water or a cow milked by a robot?

Teachers and volunteers should plan to attend the Summer Teacher and Volunteer Bus Tour held by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Foundation's Ag in the Classroom program. Attendees will learn how to incorporate agricultural concepts into their K-12 curricula, network with fellow educators and obtain free resources available to students and classrooms.

Teachers and volunteers can 'Board the Bus' on July 13-14 to Wisconsin farms, food processors and agribusinesses in the Beaver Dam area. This year's visits include: Windy Drumlins, Horicon Marsh, Maple Leaf Alpaca Farm, Roessler Fish Farm, Hammer and Kavazanjian Farm and Lepple Ridge View Dairy.

Participants are responsible for their own hotel expenses and additional purchases at venues. A $50 registration fee covers admission and busing costs, lunch on Wednesday and Thursday, and Wednesday night's dinner. Other expenses of the training opportunities are covered by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Foundation-Jeanette Poulson Fund.

The University of Wisconsin-River Falls offers undergraduate and graduate credits for attending the tour. Please contact Dr. James Graham at 715-425-3555 or James.Graham@uwrf.edu for more information. Those taking the training for credits will register and pay tuition fees directly to UW-River Falls.

For more information, contact the Wisconsin Farm Bureau at 608-836-5575. To register for the event, visit www.wisagclassroom.org.

Farm Bureau's Ag in the Classroom program provides teachers and K-12 students with an understanding of how their food is produced. The program seeks to work within existing curricula to provide basic information on our nation's largest industry: agriculture. Wisconsin's Ag in the Classroom program is carried out by a network of local educators, volunteers and representatives from agricultural organizations and businesses. The goal of the program is to help students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture in the economy and society, so that they may become citizens who support wise agricultural policies.