Kentucky Elementary School Incorporates Agriculture in All Aspects of Learning
For students at Creekside Elementary School in Sonora, Kentucky, the school day looks a bit different. Along with traditional subjects, including math, reading, and science, they also tend to garden beds, grow plants in the classroom, and adopt cows, thanks to the school’s innovative AgSTREAM program.
“As a new principal in 2020, I reflected on how we wanted to support our students in their return to the classroom after the pandemic,” said Brooke Custis, Creekside Elementary principal. “After meeting with families and staff, it seemed many of them wanted students to have less screen time and more social interaction. It also seemed like students lacked a connection to each other and their community in general.”
A solution rooted in agriculture became evident, so the school began cultivating a new program.
“The AgSTREAM program allowed us to look for ways to incorporate agricultural literacy into all subjects and curriculums of our school and help to solve those concerns,” Custis said.
Seeds of Knowledge
With the help of the University of Kentucky 4-H Extension Office and other agribusiness community partners, Creekside developed the program in time for the 2021-22 school year, with an emphasis on teaching students about the future of agriculture, how it impacts the community, and future career readiness skills.
“The Hardin County Board of Education was supportive of the creation of an AgSTREAM teacher position, and all students, kindergarten through fifth grade, began attending an ag class as they would physical education, music, and art,” Custis said.
Since the program’s implementation, the school has added an outdoor classroom, nature trail, and wildflower garden, plus teaching and mentoring opportunities with the Central Hardin High School FFA chapter.
It also has a fruit and vegetable garden that includes several fruit trees, and an area where students can grow field crops, including corn and soybeans, as well as a yearly mystery crop.
“The AgSTREAM program is designed to help children understand the need for agriculture and where their food comes from. I want the students to know that everything they do in everyday life is somehow connected to agriculture – not just the food they eat.”
– Laura Highbaugh, Creekside Elementary AgSTREAM teacher
As part of the program, Creekside had its first official Ag Day in 2022. AgSTREAM teacher Laura Highbaugh helped create the event where students spend a full day learning and participating in agriculture activities, including off-campus field trips, visits from local farmers, and new farm technology.
“One of my main goals with Ag Day is to help students see what they’ve been learning about in class and understand there are more components to agriculture than just farmers,” Highbaugh said.
Learning From the Best
“The AgSTREAM program is designed to help children understand the need for agriculture and where their food comes from,” Highbaugh said. “I want the students to know that everything they do in everyday life is somehow connected to agriculture – not just the food they eat.”
Highbaugh became the AgSTREAM teacher during the 2022-23 school year and continues to strengthen partnerships throughout the county and state. In 2024, she was honored as a National Excellence in Teaching About Agriculture Award winner by the National Agriculture in the Classroom organization, U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Farm Credit.
“I’ve been around agriculture my whole life,” Highbaugh said. “I love being a teacher, and I love agriculture, and now that I have the opportunity to combine my passions into one, I feel truly blessed.”
Custis was also honored for her work with AgSTREAM with a 2022 Excellence in Ag Literacy Award by the Kentucky Farm Bureau.
“My family is a fourth-generation farm family, and my mother was a public school teacher for 42 years,” she said. “To be able to teach a new generation of children the vital role both agriculture and education have in society is a responsibility and privilege.”
Looking to the future, Custis said her hope is for students to understand the importance of agriculture, not only in their local communities, but throughout the world.
“Whether our program is preparing students to work directly in agriculture, have a deeper understanding of life science standards, or connect to agriculture’s influence, we are an example of how public school positively impacts our community for generations to come,” Custis said.