Outreach Kits
Engage your students with hands-on activities that help reinforce core academic areas through real-world agricultural examples. Our Outreach Kits include STEM kits, Breakout boxes, and Literacy kits.
STEM Kits
Each STEM kit centers around a specific topic that is taught with an agricultural focus. Kits contain all, or most, of the equipment and supplies needed to conduct the activities. Kits are free of charge to teachers and may be checked out for one week at a time and are available year-round.
Water and Irrigation STEM Kit (Grade 4-5)
This STEM kit focuses on the concept of water and how it is used in agriculture. Students will engage in activities that evaluate where water is found on Earth, play a creative game to illustrate the water cycle and how it applies to agriculture, build their own irrigation system and investigate center pivot irrigation systems.
Colorful Chemistry (Grade 8-12)
This hands-on lab-based lesson engages students in learning about pH. Students will use household chemicals to create acids and bases that represent the “rainbow” of universal indicator.
The Plant Game (Grades 9-12)
This activity will not only give students the opportunity to think about how plants grow, but also some of what farmers go through while growing crops. In the game, teams of students grow green pea plants composed of leaves, roots, and flowers. The goal of the game is to produce the maximum number of flowers. In the game the only way for students to produce flowers is if they have a good strategy to keep their roots in water and produce enough leaves to support adequate photosynthesis.
Light Waves (Grade 4)
This kit focus on light waves and the application of light waves in agriculture. The book Light Waves! is incorporated into the kit as an informational text. This kit is designed to be done in centers or stations. However, the activities can be done individually or used as demonstrations. Several of the activities below do require a darkened room to be successful.
Strawberry DNA Extraction (Grade 6-12)
This hands-on lab-based lesson focuses on DNA. Students will use household chemicals to extract DNA from a strawberry while learning about the importance of DNA.
Breakout Boxes
Breakout boxes are a great way to engage learners while teaching them about the importance of agriculture to their daily lives. A breakout box is a fun hands-on educational activity in which students work together and think critically to solve a series of clues that lead them to combinations to open a locked box. The boxes are designed with a scenario in which students must solve clues to reach the solution inside the box.
Water and Irrigation (4-6th grade)
In this breakout box students will learn about the importance of water to agriculture as they work together against the clock to open the locked box revealing a key that “unlocks” a farmer’s irrigation system!
Cooking With Sunshine (Grade 3-5)
This STEM kit utilizes the book Cooking with Sunshine: How Plants Make Food by Ellen Lawrence to engage students in building a deeper understanding of plants, photosynthesis, and how they affect human and animal life.
How Sweet Is It? (Grade 7-12)
This hands-on lab-based lesson can be differentiated for middle and high school. Middle school students use refractometers to measure the sugar content in different juices and compare it with industry standards. High school students use refractometers to measure the sugar content in bananas at different stages of ripening to illustrate cellular respiration.
Agricultural Commodities (2nd-4th grade)
In this breakout box students will learn about various Wisconsin commodities as they work together against the clock to open the locked box revealing Wisconsin’s Famous Vegetable Stew recipe!
Soils (2-4th grade and 7-12th grade)
In this breakout box students will learn about soil and its importance to agriculture as they work together against the clock to open the locked box revealing the lost edible soil cups recipe!
There is a primary and a high school version of this box.
Literacy Kits
Knowing that teachers need more time to incorporate science and social studies into their curriculum, this program offers teachers the opportunity to use literacy time to do just that. Teachers can check out a literacy kit that includes a class set of an agricultural-focused book and student activities that are aligned with state standards for literacy, science, social studies, and math that go with the story.
No Small Potatoes: Junius G. Groves and His Kingdom in Kansas
by Tonya Bolden/ Illustrated by Don Tate
Junius G. Groves came from humble beginnings in the Bluegrass State. Born in Kentucky into slavery, freedom came when he was still a young man and he intended to make a name for himself. Along with thousands of other African Americans who migrated from the South, Junius walked west and stopped in Kansas. Working for a pittance on a small potato farm was no reason to feel sorry for himself, especially when he's made foreman. But Junius did dream of owning his own farm, so he did the next best thing. He rented the land and worked hard! As he built his empire, he also built a family, and he built them both on tons and tons and tons of potatoes. He never quit working hard, even as the naysayers doubted him, and soon he was declared Potato King of the World and had five hundred acres and a castle to call his own.
Jump into Science: Dirt!
BY STEVE TOMECEK / ILLUSTRATED BY NANCY WOODMAN
What is soil? Who lives in dirt? How does earth help things grow? The answers are within this fun- and fact-filled picture book. Just follow the gardening, star-nosed mole in the colorful outfits . . . and dig in! This book introduces young readers to the basics of soil science with a creative presentation of the subject matter.