Each year the Volusia County Farm Bureau offers educational mini-grants to educators throughout Volusia County. The grants are purposed to engage students in agriculture programs and science projects.
For the first time in the mini-grant program’s long history the Board of Directors and Women’s Committee voted to expand grant eligibility to include high school and pre-school students. The response was overwhelming.
Volusia Farm Bureau gave 18 mini-grants this year for a variety of agriculture and science projects to teachers of students from all qualifying age groups.
At Ormond Beach Elementary School teacher Francesca Knutson’s third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students participated in a #GoGreenGoGrow garden project and an Earth Day celebration.
The 15 students “Enjoyed hands-on experiences in three to five life science benchmarks. The students made learning connections by investigating plants and the environmental influences affecting plant growth along with healthy eating and composting,” said Knutson in her year-end report.
Third-grade students also participated in the “My Healthy Plate” program celebrating the end of the school year with a healthy salad planted, grown and harvested by them.
“Student involvement is the key to the success of this program at OBE. The students will continue to be leaders of our ‘Eat Healthy, Feel Good’ school goal,” Knutson explained.
With the assistance of the Downtown Ormond Beach Rotary whose members provided weeding and maintenance assistance, “we now plant and maintain five raised garden beds, three butterfly gardens, a pineapple strawberry patch, and one arid rock garden,” said Knutson. “Thank you (to Farm Bureau) for your support of this program and for helping us to continue to develop our student’s healthy habits.”
Students at Pine Ridge High School in Deltona learn education skills in a school-run day care center there. A $150 agriculture mini-grant gave Early Childhood Education Instructor Christina R. Marrero’s students another opportunity to teach.
“Students taught lessons focused on planting and maintaining a healthy garden. They also explored their five senses as they tasted, smelled, and touched our homegrown herbs. We have continued to teach lessons each week as our garden continues to grow and blossom,” Marrero explained in her year-end report.
“This grant has assisted my students in creating and planning engaging preschool lessons. On behalf of all my students and tiny preschool students we send a big thank-you.”
At New Leaf Montessori school in Lake Helen students revived two existing garden beds and added four more with their grant money. They planted vegetables, herbs and grew a butterfly garden.
“Supplies funded by the Volusia County Farm Bureau gave our gardening program a breath of fresh air which we are immensely thankful for,” said Tenille Collins, garden volunteer.
Mainland High School AFJROTC Cadets used their grant monies spent building and successfully launching rockets. Sixty-four students participated in this science-based educational opportunity. Each cadet was awarded a rocket badge.
“The donated monies paid for half of our overall expenses. This really helps us in this difficult year and truly enhanced the learning and just fun aspect for our cadets. They are very excited to wear the badges. For many new cadets, this is the first thing they’ve earned to wear on their uniform,” said Senior Aerospace Science lnstructor, Michael J. Miglioranzi, Maj. USAF (Ret).
Jennifer Floyd, dean and gifted teacher at Burns Science & Technology Charter School used her grant monies to teach third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students about honey bees, business and science.
“We learned about bees and how they help our environment. Watched how they get the wax from the hives to make the pellets. My students then did a study of a business model on creating a company to produce lip balm,” said Floyd.
Other projects her students did included desktop greenhouses, a video on popcorn and learning about different types of corn. “My third-graders created lessons on states of matter and used popcorn to show changes in states of matter, (solid; popcorn), (liquid water and gas; steam that escapes the popcorn),” said Floyd.
Volusia County Farm Bureau not only supports local farmers, but it supports agriculture education through these mini-grants and scholarships.
“During a challenging year for educators the Mini-Grant Program allowed teachers to keep their students engaged, interactive and to be creative,” said Caroline Newby, Volusia County Farm Bureau administrative assistant and Women’s Committee member.