Northwest students team up to host ag camp
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY MISSOURI FARMERS CARE
Students sign thank you cards at Northwest Missouri State University’s Agricultural Learning Center on the R.T. Wright Farm north of Maryville.
MARYVILLE, Mo. — Emma Brushwood, a senior at Northwest Missouri State University studying to become an agricultural educator, teamed up with fellow Northwest senior agricultural education student Meghan Hunerdosse to facilitate an ag camp for children in Maryville this past summer.
These future teachers partnered with Missouri Farmers Care’s Agriculture Education on the Move, a curriculum of 10 hands-on, STEM-focused lessons that teach agricultural literacy to elementary students, according to a news release from Missouri Farmers Care.
The lessons explore crops, livestock, soil and water conservation, nutrition, and careers in agriculture. The lessons align with Missouri state learning objectives in science, math, social studies, and language arts, and show students how agriculture is entwined in their daily lives, the news release stated.
Brushwood said she connected personally with Ag Moves.
“I grew up north of St. Louis and I was a kid that thought chocolate milk came from brown cows,” she said in a statement. “During my high school years we moved to Elsberry, and I joined FFA. It is so important for younger kids to have the opportunity to know where their food comes from.”
Hunerdosse came at it from the opposite perspective. A native of Indianola, Iowa, Hunerdosse grew up experiencing the farm and FFA.
With support and guidance from Northwest faculty and staff, Brushwood and Hunerdosse designed and organized the weeklong ag camp at Northwest’s Agricultural Learning Center, held during the afternoons of July 15-19 for campers from kindergarten through seventh grade. Seventy-three students from Maryville and the surrounding communities attended the camp, according to the news release.
“It is good to reach out to kids with little to no rural experience. It was fun to see the kids be amazed as they learned new things about their food,” Emma said. The duo also built relationships in a variety of summer school programs located in both rural and urban communities, including at Maryville Middle School.
“We saw a difference in students from various communities,” Brushwood said. “Students I taught in Carrollton kept the agriculture conversation going and recognized the pictures I shared. A student in St. Joseph asked how we got seeds for crops, a great question which the Ag Moves curriculum answered.”
Ag Moves is offered exclusively to students in Missouri, but as Hunerdosse shared her experience with the program, neighbors from her home state of Iowa took serious notice, she said.
“I have had lots of people back home ask me questions about the curriculum and how the Ag Moves program works,” she said. “They are excited about students getting exposure to agriculture at elementary ages. It is important to expose kids to agriculture through a positive experience. It is so fun to see their faces light up as they learn.”
Thanks to the dedication and drive of professional educators, collegiate interns, and 836 FFA partner educators, Ag Moves engaged over 12,400 third-grade students in 2024, the news release stated.
PHOTO SUBMITTED BY MISSOURI FARMERS CARE
Students take part in an agriculture camp held by Northwest Missouri State University students at the university’s Agricultural Learning Center on the R.T. Wright Farm north of Maryville.
