One Polk County school is leading the way for elementary agriculture education in Florida

Ducks and chickens received a warm welcome in Mulberry at Willow Oak elementary school last school year.

The ducks, affectionately named Cheese and Quackers by the school’s second-grade to fifth-grade students, are like characters from the pages of children’s books about farms.

This school year, kindergartners and first-graders at the school will have the chance to learn how to harvest food for animals and humans as well as collect eggs from chickens as part of an expansion of the agriculture classes for elementary level kids. 

While middle and high school students have had the opportunity to learn farming across the school district for decades, the nascent Willow Oak program was the first of its kind for Polk County elementary students.

Mulberry middle and high schools both have an agricultural program, which is affiliated with the Future Farmers of America at the high school. It is hoped that the Willow Oak students will feed the more established secondary school programs.

School Board Member Justin Sharpless, who is a professor of agricultural studies at Warner University, said he's excited about the expansion of the pilot program, which introduces elementary level students in Polk County to the “lifeblood” of the county and the second leading industry in Florida’s economy.

“Elementary education has the potential to increase agricultural literacy and prepare students for entry into middle school agriculture programs,” Sharpless said. He credited the district administration, and the school’s principal and teachers for the vision to create a program headed toward statewide acceptance.

In April, the school board learned from Jessica Anderson, the district’s curriculum specialist for workforce education, that because of the success of the Willow Oak pilot program last school year, the district has requested the Florida Department of Education add an elementary agriculture course for the coming school year as part of a statewide effort with other districts and stakeholders to spread agriculture education to lower grade levels.

Elementary agriculture standards and curriculum were developed by Manatee Public Schools and Florida Agriculture in the Classroom, which helps develop professional training for teachers, Anderson said. Polk County was the only public school district to pilot a course for elementary students.

“Polk County is kind of leading the way in this, and this has been noticed at the state level and they are really excited by that,” she told the School Board at its April 11 work session.

Florida agriculture generates 2 million jobs and supports $253.86 billion in sales revenue per a 2021 report by the University of Florida Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences, Anderson said. She said Polk employs 103,000 people in agriculture.

If students are exposed to at least one agriculture class before high school graduation, she said they would be better consumers in addition to having an introduction to farming. Further, elementary agriculture aligns with state efforts to inform residents about better food choices for their diet and wellbeing.

Specials teacher Danielle Emmons had proposed the program to Principal Michelle Townley at Willow Oak, as well as Anderson and other administrators with the district, and the pilot program was approved for the 2021-2022 school year.

“Agriculture is an important economic driver in our community, and we wanted students to have experiences to bridge the traditional academics with connections to agriculture,” Townley said.

The class in agriculture is attended during student’s specials rotation, she said. This allowed approximately 600 students to experience a 50-minute agriculture class every six school days.

In the 2023-24 school year, all students at Willow Oak from kindergarten to fifth grade will have the agriculture class on their specials rotation. An elementary specials class is similar to elective courses for secondary school students. Specials are not graded.

Eventually, a state standard for elementary agriculture will be established, Townley said. The University of Florida is currently leading a collaborative for developing standards.

“We are involved with the project,” she said. “Ms. Emmons utilizes science and mathematics benchmarks heavily as well as informational benchmarks from English Language Arts to help develop her curriculum in alignment with the 6-12 (grades) state approved agriculture benchmarks.”

The district’s Career and Technical Education office has provided support by sharing curriculum resources with Willow Oak, Townley said.

“Primarily, our students work on projects in class, from growing their own plants, adopting a cow, hatching eggs, then raising our own chickens and ducks,” Townley said. “Mrs. Emmons gears her lessons around the practical application of agriculture in a hands-on, minds-on approach.”

Further presentations at the elementary school have been made by the University of Florida's IFAS, local farmers, Mulberry High School FFA, Polk Education Foundation, Central Florida Ag News and Home Depot (Grant for Plants). Emmons was able to participate in the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference.

As any experienced soccer parent knows, it’s not easy keeping a kindergartner’s eye on the ball, and Willow Oak staff know there will be challenges to keep the kids engaged.

“Successfully adding kindergarten and first-grade students to the course will require thoughtful planning and preparation to make the content age-appropriate and relevant for our youngest learners,” Townley said.

And there is plenty of new stuff coming to keep the kiddos engaged.

“We are also in the process of adding a greenhouse, which will increase our students’ abilities to deepen their understanding of horticulture and allow us to grow a greater variety of plants,”  Townley said.

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The greenhouse and an outdoor classroom are expected to keep the young ones focused.

“We are also working on creating an outdoor learning classroom for students to engage in agriculture class both inside and outside,” Townley said. “Our goal is to also have this area house a Florida native certified butterfly garden.”

While it is too soon to tell if a career in agriculture is in the future for the students at Willow Oak, Townley said “so far, our elementary students are highly engaged and motivated and we hope they choose to stick with agriculture classes in their middle and high school days.”

Even parents have rolled up their sleeves to help kick start the program.

Last school year, a student’s dad and fellow teachers installed a fence to keep the chickens and ducks contained. Emmons and a fifth-grade student and his family put together the chicken coop.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Willow Oak has a first-of-its-kind elementary ag program in Polk