Ag Awareness Days
Since its establishment in 2009, Ag Awareness Day events at the Southern Piedmont AREC have grown into highly anticipated annual educational opportunities for third and fifth graders. This award-winning program now draws students from Nottoway, Lunenburg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Dinwiddie, Amelia, and Prince Edward counties.
For third graders, there are 15 diverse learning stations where they can participate in hands-on activities such as paper making, vermicomposting, using simple machines, and milking dairy cows.
Fifth graders engage in learning about the math and science behind baking bread, along with taking part in various hands-on activity stations covering topics such as animal cells, DNA, oobleck, and the apple/earth.
The Ag Awareness Day events are made possible by the invaluable support and dedication of volunteers, staff, and community partners including :
- Brickland Hatchery
- Central Piedmont Master Naturalists
- Fort Barfoot
- King Arthur Baking Company
- Piedmont Soil & Water Conservation District
- Richlands Dairy & Creamery
- Rocky Hills Farm LLC
- Society of St. Andrew - Virginia
- The Dairy Alliance
- Triple R Dairy
- USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
- Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station
- Virginia Cooperative Extension
- Nottoway FFA Chapter
- Virginia Department of Forestry
- Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- Virginia Farm Bureau Federation
- WestRock