AG Awareness Program
Focusing on the importance of agriculture

   Many adults and children have little understanding and appreciation for the role that agriculture plays in their lives. They know very little of how food is produced and even less about issues affecting agriculture, such as biotechnology, and water and pest management.
   With this in mind, UAPB has designated seven acres of its Lonoke farm as the Agricultural Awareness Center where school-age children can come to learn first-hand of the importance of Arkansas agriculture, past and present. The site is being modified to resemble a miniature textbook farm. Small plots of the various crops grown in Arkansas, such as corn, milo, wheat and cotton surround the UAPB Farmstead Museum, a renovated farmhouse furnished to depict farm life on the Arkansas prairie in the 1930s.
   The program, termed Arkansas AG Adventures, is a cooperative program supported by the 1890 Cooperative Extension Program at UAPB and the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.
   Several agriculture curriculums have been developed to be offered at the site. While primarily for K-12th grade students, the facilities and curriculum are suitable for all age groups.
   focus is on the role and importance of agriculture.
   The third to sixth grade curriculum was recently piloted when 125 middle school children from the 34th Avenue School of Fine and Performing Arts in Pine Bluff and 100 children from Cabot Westside visited the Agricultural Awareness Center.
   Learning stations were set up to involve children in agriculture including the Farmstead Museum. Youngsters toured the farm house to see how Arkansans lived in the '20s, churned butter for their bread and butter snack and played games reminiscent of the times - walking on stilts, rolling hoops and throwing washers.
   When asked, what was the best part of their museum tour, it was unanimous - the homemade bread.