Over the past two weeks, the Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center hosted a number of students from Prince Edward, along with some from Nottoway, Lunenburg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Dinwiddie and Amelia.

That was all part of the Ag Awareness Days program, helping teach students about agriculture through hands-on learning. For third graders, there were 15 diverse learning stations where they participated in paper making, vermicomposting, using simple machines, and milking dairy cows.

Fifth graders, meanwhile, enjoyed learning the math and science of baking bread, along with taking part in various hands-on activity stations covering topics such as animal cells, DNA, oobleck, and the apple/earth.

This year’s programming was made possible by the support of volunteers, staff, and community partners including Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, Fort Barfoot, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Nottoway FFA Chapter, Virginia Department of Forestry, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, Piedmont Soil & Water Conservation District, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Brickland Hatchery, Rocky Hills Farm LLC, The Dairy Alliance, WestRock, Central Piedmont Master Naturalists, Richlands Dairy & Creamery, Triple R Dairy, King Arthur Baking Company, and Society of St. Andrew – Virginia.