Your dollars are being put hard to work with another of our cornerstone programs, Farm Camp Minnesota. Farm Camp Minnesota is a three part experience for 5th through 12th grade learners that’s customized for each classroom. The three parts include standards-based in class learning, hands-on farm or agribusiness tour and career exploration all while connecting with existing classroom curriculum.
What is Farm Camp Minnesota?
There’s three different types of Farm Camp depending on the needs of the classroom. At the end of the day each Farm Camp experience connects farmers back to agriculture helping them to further understand where their fuel, fiber, field and natural resources come from. Farm Camp also helps students understand that there is room in agriculture for everyone. You can still contribute to the success of agriculture even if you don’t want to get your hands dirty.
The three types of Farm Camps are Single-Stop Farm Camp, Farm Camp field day and Virtual Farm Camp.
Single-Stop Farm Camp
A single-stop Farm Camp is a personal on-farm experience for a 5th-12th grade classroom. It is typically a single classroom and the Farm Camp Director helps make a connection for an educator to local AgHosts that is relevant to what students are currently learning in the classroom. For example, if students are working on genetics, maybe they are going to go to the University of MN Extension and learn about apple varieties and how they are created.
Farm Camp Field Day
A Farm Camp Field Day is a larger day on farm and agribusiness experience often involving multiple classrooms and/or ag stops. There are multiple ways to host a Farm Camp Field Day. One way involving multiple classrooms and multiple schools is the Redwood, Renville and Brown Counties 5th Grade Ag Day. Their Field Day Coordinators host an event where both AgHosts meet students at one location and students visit AgHosts on location.
Virtual Farm Camp
A Virtual Farm Camp is another option for 5th-12th grade classrooms who are unable to take an entire day to dedicate to visiting a farm or agribusiness. Think in person tour without being there in person physically, very similar to MAITC virtual field trips with the exception of the Farm Camp being customized to your individual classroom.
Growth of Farm Camp Minnesota
Farm Camp Minnesota was originally acquired by Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom (MAITC) Foundation in 2019. Since this time, they have revitalized the program and shifted programming to better align with other MAITC classroom resources. Soon after acquisition the COVID-19 pandemic halted all in-person experiences and the program went through a major shift, focusing heavily on virtual experiences. Today Farm Camp Minnesota has grown impacting 981 students in the 2023-2024 school year with 12 different Farm Camp experiences.
How Investor’s Make a Difference?
This year’s success of Farm Camp is due in large part to investors assisting with overcoming obstacles such as transportation. Teachers asked and our investors answered, resulting in the creation of a transportation grant opportunity. Transportation grants are available to classrooms allowing students to physically experience the on-farm and agribusinesses in person without burdening the school district to pay for transportation. In the 2023-2024 school year, 18 buses were funded via these grants.
How You Can Help
Partners can connect with local 5th-12th grade teachers about hosting a classroom for a Farm Camp Minnesota experience, to help spread the word and increase the number of students gaining career exploration opportunities.
We are always looking for partners and content experts for a variety of our programing, including AgMags, Farm Camps, virtual field trips, teacher tours and more! As we work together to share the story of agriculture with K-12th grade students, we need your help. Please reach out with your partnership ideas!