Students in the Iowa City Community School District will be immersed in experiential learning about agriculture and the environment through a partnership with the nonprofit Grow: Johnson County this fall.

Grow: Johnson County works with children throughout the community and allows them to participate in sustainable farming practices. This fall, all sixth-grade students at Iowa City schools will work with a group and tour the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm, where the Grow farm is located.

Grow education and outreach coordinator Lisa Stark said the farm has worked with the district before by providing informational videos during the COVID-19 pandemic, and working with school cafeterias and nutritionists to serve Iowa-grown produce to students. However, they’ve never done any education at this scale.

The goal of the partnership for Stark is to show kids where their food comes from and the farming processes that impact them daily.

“We really hone in on education and make that part of the community involvement,” Stark said. “We thought that this partnership with the Iowa City school district would be a good fit in order to deliver more education to young people in our community.”

From a curriculum standpoint, Patrick Snyder, Iowa City Schools’ K-6 social studies and science coordinator, said visiting the farm will fold in well with existing sixth-grade lesson plans. Since sixth-graders will be in middle school starting this fall, he said it is a great time to start exposing them to different career paths and opportunities for their futures.

“One of the most exciting things that I get to do is provide students with experiences that might have a lasting impact,” Snyder said. “I’m really excited to be able to give kids the experience of getting out to a really unique location, interacting with really unique organizations, and trying to build them up for success.”

Snyder said visiting the farm allows students to gain knowledge on environmental, life, and social sciences when learning about the history of the farm. Carmen Gwenigale, Iowa City Schools’ director of curriculum, said students will also get exposure to the culinary arts and cooking meals with fresh food grown on the farm.

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“It allows us to have more of an interdisciplinary mindset as we’re thinking of education so we can connect different curricular areas under one umbrella and through one project,” Gwenigale said. “​​There’s so many pieces embedded into the practice that allow students to see learning as one holistic experience, and we’re trying to make it a little bit more meaningful for them.”

Grow Executive Director Jason Grimm said the farm offers many resources and internships for high school students, such as helping out with harvests and in their greenhouse, and kids going into college so they can gain agricultural experience.

“I’m always excited when young youth are interested in agriculture as a career,” he said. “Less than 1 percent of the U.S. population is actually involved in agriculture, so it’s very important that students understand the role of agriculture and producing food for our communities.”