Children get to the opportunity to learn about agriculture from the Columbia Farmers Market

One of the ideas Cook is planning to do is to start a vertical garden with milk crates to hold the soil and crops and run a pipe system to irrigate the plants.

Julius Evans
KOMU 8
Apr 1, 2023

Excerpt:

Along with people being able to buy everything from fresh produce and meat to plants and other products, families got to drop off their kids to the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture School House to learn everything about how farmers do agriculture.

Organizers like Katie Bartels makes sure that children get the most out of learning about agriculture without boring them while they stay there.

“We have garden beds where kids get to plants different types of crops and they get to see during the market. We plant them throughout the year they can see their plants grow which is pretty cool,” Bartels said.

Along with the planting seeds and crops, children also get to do activities like cut open plants and learn what’s inside of them. Bartels and her co-workers also make sure to cover everything from the water cycle to anything relating to the environment.

This isn’t just a learning opportunity for the kids. Brian Cook, a second grade teacher in Cape Girardeau, loves to come down and learn what activities the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture is doing with the kids.

“Every time I come up to Columbia, I always check out the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture. They always have great activities going on for kids, I often take those ideas back to my classroom,” Cook said.

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