Explore the World of Farming
Ag STEM Gallery
Get up close with a life-size pivot irrigator, physically stamp out blight, or experience farming from a real-life tractor cab simulator. The Ag STEM Gallery is a place for learners of all ages to explore the intersection of farming and food, the people who make it happen, and the processes that take it from field to fork. Below are just a few of the exhibits you’ll experience at the Food + Farm Exploration Center.
Get your hands in the soil in the interactive sandbox. Level your field, install windbreaks, plant and water your field. Shape the soil to collect, channel or drain away water.
Test your skills at harvesting a crop using interactive media and model equipment.
Watch an optical sorter in action! See it kick out unacceptable potatoes and keep acceptable ones in real-time.
Touch a crop to light up where it grows on a map of Wisconsin.
See the faces of agriculture in Wisconsin and hear their stories.
Seedlings Children’s Gallery
Come play with agriculture! Activate your imagination, senses and creativity in a space designed for kids! Learn about agriculture in a way that is most familiar to our littlest learners – through play!
Get creative cooking in a play-style kitchen.
Pretend you’re a food truck chef designing a menu and preparing customer orders.
Visit our little grocery store, complete with small shopping carts and a checkout counter.
Play with the interactive Bean Machine to see how food travels along a path from beginning to end.
Climb aboard our play tractor and other farm machinery or pull up some crops from our planter boxes to see what’s below the soil surface.
Kitchen Lab
Combine agricultural science with culinary arts in a creative collision! Build cooking confidence in a space that mimics a home kitchen. Programmatic offerings will range from novice to expert, youth to adult. Explore food in a way that’s creative, social and tasty!
Ag Lab Makerspace
Experience a space uniquely designed to cultivate creativity and innovation with an agricultural focus. This classroom environment will engage visitors with both their hands and high-tech tools to promote problem-solving skills and critical thinking.
Farm Tech Shed
Meet the machines that feed the nation. Get face-to-face with awe-inspiring equipment showcasing the latest in technology and innovation. Sit in the driver's seat, explore the inner workings of the equipment and even experience a bird’s-eye view from the mezzanine of the machinery that keeps the industry moving.
Farm Demonstration Fields
Comprised of four one-acre field plots, the Farm Demonstration Fields are a learning space extension spanning beyond the actual walls of the exploration center. Each field has its own crop rotation and a center pivot irrigator. Witness agriculture in action right where it occurs – in the field.
World’s Largest Potato Masher
At nearly 39-feet tall, our potato masher is an iconic attraction that will welcome visitors to the exploration center. The potato masher honors the agriculture industry, growers, innovators, and consumers in a fun, unique way. See it for yourself and be sure to take a masher selfie.