Elementary school students in Valley Springs, Ark., receive an early education about agriculture and how to grow their own food thanks to Arkansas Farm Bureau’s Outdoor Classroom Garden Grant Program. After receiving the grant, Valley Springs Elementary transformed its courtyard into an outdoor agricultural classroom.

According to Deloris Smith, third and fourth grade gifted and talented teacher and coordinator of the school’s outdoor classroom garden, the project offers a hands-on way to teach students about the importance of agriculture, as well as how to grow their own food and protect the environment.

“The best way to teach a child about something is to give them a hands-on experience so the kids love being out here,” Smith said. “It’s either inside or out and we prefer to be out.”

The program enables teachers like Smith to teach lessons about life you just can’t learn in a textbook. Plus, she said children are 95 percent more likely to try a vegetable or fruit if they grow it themselves.

“What I’m doing with the classroom teacher’s help, we’re bringing the kids outside, we’re letting them plant vegetables they can pull and harvest themselves. They’re more likely to sample those, so their own nutrition will be better,” Smith said.

Along with the Farm Bureau grant, Smith obtained around $12,000 from the school, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and through other private gifts. Combined with in-kind donations of labor and materials, she estimates that the outdoor garden classroom is approximately a $24,000 project.

The project also has the support of local school officials, such as Valley Spring Superintendent Charles Trammell.

“You can take (students to) the classroom and do all the book learning you want to do, but until kids have actually put their hands in the dirt, or they’ve had a chance to experiment to see what works and doesn’t work, (the experience is) invaluable for them. It really is,” Trammell said.

The Arkansas Farm Bureau Outdoor Classroom Garden Grant Program was established in 2005. Since its inception, 70 grants worth a total of $37,000 have been awarded to schools across the state to support and encourage the development of outdoor agricultural education experiences.