Montpelier  (CSi) Montpelier School District has received a $10,000 grant from America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund. The district will use the money to enhance agricultural education through new digital measurement technology.

MontpelierstudentsMiddle and high school students will now have access to digital probes and sensors that connect to handheld computers for real-time data collection and analysis. One example of how this new technology will be incorporated into the classroom is studying soil pH levels.  Students will take soil samples from local farms to determine pH levels and discover its effect on crop growth. In addition, software will be purchased for students to graph their findings and make connections with the data.

“Today, there are a number of tools available to help farmers improve their productivity, including the use of scientific data,” said Jerry Waagen, superintendent. “The items purchased with this grant give students the opportunity to use these same tools in the classroom. Once they are comfortable with the technology, they will venture to local farms to conduct their own experiments. While they work with and learn from local farmers, students will collect data, analyze it and share their results. Thanks to this grant from the Monsanto Fund, our students get to see the relationship between STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and a successful farming operation.”

Farmers who nominated the school district and representatives from the school and the Monsanto Fund attended a check presentation to celebrate the grant during a school assembly on Oct. 30.

This year the school district also received an educational starter kit from Monsanto Company to help establish a pollinator garden, which will give students first-hand knowledge of the critical role habitat plays in providing bees and butterflies with food, shelter and places to lay eggs.

Since 2011, Grow Rural Education has awarded more than $9 million to help keep rural public school districts growing. The program works with farmers to nominate public school districts to compete for math and science grants of $10,000 or $25,000. Grant applications are reviewed and finalists selected by a panel of teachers. Winning applications are chosen by an advisory council comprised of farmers from across the U.S.

Visit www.GrowRuralEducation.com to see the full list of winners for this year. A sister program, America’s Farmers Grow Communities, is currently enrolling farmers for 2016. To sign up, visit www.GrowCommunities.com before Nov. 30.

These programs are part of the America’s Farmers initiative. The America’s Farmers campaign and programs have advocated on behalf of farmers and their efforts to meet society’s needs through agriculture. Today, consumers are more interested than ever in agriculture and how food is grown. Farmers and others in the industry are joining in on the conversation to help raise awareness about agriculture and share their stories with their communities. Learn more at cfiengage.org.

 

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Montpelier  (CSi)   The Montpelier School District has been selected as one of six schools in the state to receive a $10,000 grant for the America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education Program.

The district will use the grant to purchase sensors and probes for collecting, recording and analyzing data to develop an understanding of farming operations in the school’s agriculture science curriculum.

Representatives from Monsanto will be at the school along with local farmers who nominated the school for the grant during a ceremony on Friday, October 30th.