HUMBOLDT — Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom returned to local elementary schools in Humboldt in late October, including second-grade classes at Taft Elementary and first-grade classes at St Mary Catholic School.

This time the lesson was a hands-on, fun-filled learning experience focused on the importance of corn and soybean plants.

“Each AITC lesson begins with the word ‘agriculture’ and an explanation of what it means, since almost everything starts on a farm,” said Kalene Berte, the local AITC coordinator.

Berte took corn and soybean plants and several of these crops’ by-products to help students learn how the plants grow and why they are so important.

“I also used this opportunity to present a brief safety lesson to the students by showing them a toy combine and explaining how to stay safe around it,” Berte said.

The students were eager to explore the plants, see their different root systems, learn how they pollinate, and discover the many things that can be made from corn and soybeans. Berte also brought ears of popcorn and flint corn to show the students how different these crops are from field corn.

“The students were surprised to learn that there are more than 4,000 uses for corn,” Berte said. “They were also interested to learn that both corn and soybeans can be used to make fuel.”

Each student received a soybean plant so he or she could take a closer look at the pods and feel the fuzzy outer structure of the plant. They discovered that most of the pods had three beans, while some had four. A few just had one or two.

“There was lots of excitement when the kids found out they could take their beans home,” Berte said. “Most of them wanted to keep the stalk and empty pods, too.”

The lesson also included a word-search worksheet and some taste testing of vanilla soymilk and corn chips.

The lesson concluded with a game called Ag Feud. Students divided into two teams to compete for the correct answer to questions based on the corn/soybean lesson. They used bright yellow desk bells to ring in with their answer. Each correct answer scored the team one point.

“To make it even more interesting, a few of the questions came from the previous AITC lesson on pumpkins,” Berte said.

The game ended with a five-point question where the students had to huddle together and come up with their answer as a team.

“Lots of cheering, excitement, and laughter followed,” Berte said.

Humboldt-area farmer, Mike Ludwig for providing the corn and soybean plants.

“I had one student say this was the best day of her life,” Berte said. “While corn and soybeans might seem like something everyone knows about, these crops can open up a whole new interesting, fun world for kids to explore.”