CARTHAGE, Mo. — A piece of farmland at Carthage Technical Center is about to become a little more like a classroom.
Carthage Technical Center has received a $20,000 grant from the Missouri FFA Foundation to continue developing the Carthage School Farm, with the money specifically earmarked for construction of an outdoor classroom.
The new space is intended to expand the ways students can learn on the farm, bringing lessons out of a traditional classroom and into a working agricultural setting.
The project is designed to reach well beyond the students enrolled in CTC’s agriculture program. The outdoor classroom will be available to CTC students as well as K-8 students from throughout the Carthage School District.
The project also gives students in another CTC program a chance to put their skills to work. Most of the outdoor classroom will be constructed by students in the Carthage Technical Center Carpentry program, creating a collaboration between career education programs.
Cindi Noblitt, an agriculture education teacher at CTC, said the grant will help students experience agriculture in a more meaningful, hands-on way.
“We are grateful to receive this grant from the Missouri FFA Foundation, as it will allow us to expose our students to real world, hands-on agriculture experiences,” Noblitt said.
Noblitt said the school farm will provide opportunities for students for years to come, while also benefiting younger students and the broader community.
“Students will have the opportunity to use the facilities and gain a broader understanding of agriculture through hands-on learning,” she said.
The grant comes through the Missouri FFA Foundation’s Horizon and Rising Sun Grants program, which was created to help address gaps in agriculture education programs around the state.
According to Heather Dimitt-Fletcher, executive director of the Missouri FFA Foundation, agriculture educators have consistently identified a need for facilities, equipment, machinery and other expensive resources.
The grant program is supported through an investment from the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Horizon Grants are designed to help existing agriculture education programs expand or upgrade, while Rising Sun Grants are intended to help launch new programs and certificate offerings.
At CTC, the result will be a new gathering and learning space in the middle of the school’s farm, where agriculture lessons can become something students can see, touch and experience firsthand.
The project is another step in the continued development of the Carthage School Farm and reflects an effort to connect different CTC programs while giving students practical experience that extends beyond the classroom.
For a school built around career education, the project brings several pieces together: agriculture students learning on the farm, younger students getting an introduction to agriculture, and carpentry students helping physically build the space where those lessons will take place.
