First-grade students at South Central Calhoun Elementary in Rockwell City and Manson Northwest Webster Elementary in Barnum traveled back in time recently to learn about Iowa agriculture history.

Kalene Berte, Ag in the Classroom coordinator for Farm Bureau, used a PowerPoint presentation and hands-on learning to bring to life farming, from the first settlers in Iowa to modern-day farming. LuAnn Christopher, a Farm Bureau volunteer, helped with the program.

The lesson began with making butter the old-fashioned way. Students watched a video about milking a cow by hand. Then they learned how the cream was skimmed from the top of the milk to make butter. Students had the chance to make their own butter.

Each child received a test tube filled with heavy whipping cream. Then they dropped a marble in the tube. The marble acted like a paddle in a butter churn. After shaking their test tubes for only a few minutes, the kids discovered how the cream started to foam up and then become more solid. The buttermilk was poured out of the test tube, and the students tasted their own butter on a cornbread muffin.

Next, the students explored the history of North America and the Native Americans who started farming the land more than 10,000 years ago by growing maize (corn). Students then learned that many of their ancestors emigrated to North America in hopes of a better life. The kids learned how the Native Americans taught settlers on the East Coast how to grow corn by planting the seeds with a piece of fish in the soil.

The lesson also explained the Homestead Act, which helped encourage many settlers to move west, often with few resources to start their new life on the frontier. Berte showed photos of a covered wagon, log cabin, and a horse-drawn plow to help students understand that farming demanded hard, physical work, with every member of the family helping. The kids learned that farms started small, producing only enough to feed the family and their animals.

Berte showed more photos, explaining how new machines — including tractors — helped the farmers grow more crops in less time. More technology advances through the years have made it possible for one farm to now feed more than 160 people a year.

To make these concepts easier to grasp, presenters displayed an antique corn planter that was operated by hand. The kids could hear the kernels of corn drop through the planter as the handles were opened. Then they watched the kernels drop out of the bottom of the planter when the handles were closed.

Then the presenters used a vintage, corn-husking glove to demonstrate how each ear of corn would have been harvested and husked by hand years ago. Each student received an ear of corn to run through an antique, hand-cranked corn sheller.

“One student commented that he had always wondered what corn felt like,” Berte said. “The students were extremely excited to take their shelled corn home.”

Students also enjoyed learning about daily life for rural children in years past. Back then, students walked or rode their horse to a one-room schoolhouse, where all the grades were taught by one teacher. In the early 1900s, Iowa had about 12,000 country schools, located every 2 miles. The kids also learned that many schools did not have electricity. They were surprised to hear that most children, especially boys, did not attend school after eighth grade, because they were needed to work on the farm.

What did kids back then do for fun?

“I felt was important for the lesson to address this question in an exciting, hands-on way, so the kids could understand how simple toys were made from items available on the farm,” Berte said.

She made a family of corn-husk dolls and showed a rag doll made by Chasity Cowan, a Farm Bureau sales associate in Humboldt. The students also enjoyed seeing a vintage spinning top and a replica of the wooden ball-and-cup game. They were also amazed by how much fun they had with a garden vine. Students had the opportunity to jump rope with the vine and use it to play tug-of-war.

The lesson concluded with every student receiving a ball-and-cup game that Berte made from supplies in her home, including paper cups. Time was allowed for the students to use their hand-eye coordination to get the ball in the paper cup.

“This lesson provided a great opportunity for students to gain an understanding of how difficult farm life was for early Americans, and how advancements in technology continually improve agriculture allowing farmers to feed our growing world,” Berte said.

On behalf of Farm Bureau, Berte would like to thank all the teachers who support integration of agriculture into their regular classroom instructions. Thank you also to LuAnn Christopher and Chasity Cowan, as well as Mike Ludwig, a Humboldt-area farmer who provided the corn for this ag history lesson.