The Shadow
WACHAPREAGUE—A tour bus full of educators recently traversed Virginia’s Eastern Shore, where the area’s agricultural and natural resources yielded inspiring ideas to take back to classrooms.
Hosted by Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom on Aug. 8, the inaugural traveling workshop included stops at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Wachapreague, the Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Painter, and Shore Breeze Farms in Cape Charles.
“The vision of this tour was to provide educators with information about agriculture in their community,” said Tammy Maxey, Virginia AITC’s executive director. “The seafood industry, vegetable operations and hydroponic agriculture are significant to the southeastern part of the state.”
Participants toured VIMS’ facilities to learn about Virginia’s robust aquaculture production—Virginia is No.1 on the Atlantic coast in seafood landings—and how oysters and other bivalves help clean the Chesapeake Bay’s waterways. Presentations at the Eastern Shore AREC’s field plots provided an overview of the area’s crop cultivation along with examples of weed science, plant pathology and entomology studies.
Shore Breeze Farms demonstrated how farmers use water instead of soil to grow lettuce and herbs in greenhouses. Several Virginia classrooms have incorporated hydroponics on a smaller scale, allowing students to witness the growing process year-round without requiring much maintenance and upkeep like traditional gardens.
“Providing educators with firsthand experiences with agriculture increases their personal knowledge and gives them a point of reference as they share information with their students during the coming year,” Maxey explained.
AITC’s tour was open to all educators, and participants included K-12 teachers, homeschool instructors and other community instructors. While most were from the Virginia Beach and Newport News areas, some traveled farther to attend.
“It was a great event,” said Spotswood High School agriculture teacher Elizabeth Lam, who traveled from Rockingham County. “I was interested in the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. My classes do several programs with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation throughout the year, and this looked like something we could introduce for a different impact to the students.”
Lam said she plans to incorporate what she learned into her school’s agricultural program and will share lesson ideas with colleagues.
“Workshops like this present options to vary instruction and meet more educational needs of our students,” she added.
Virginia AITC plans to host more traveling workshops for educators in the future in other parts of the state—offering localized professional development opportunities featuring agriculture.
“In the past we’ve conducted trainings at a single farm location but never a tour with multiple stops,” Maxey explained. “Virginia AITC wants to provide teachers with the next level of on-the-farm experience.”
