Agricultural Education
Overall Sponsor: Frederick County Farm Bureau
Programs
Chaperone Guides are used for the elementary school field trips during The Great Frederick Fair, Frederick County’s Largest Agricultural Classroom. Approximately 6,000 elementary school students attend the fair on field trips and use the chaperone guides to take them around, visiting the 5 zones of learning.
Area 1:
The Milky Way (bldg. 35)
Sheep, Goats & Fiber – Tent
The Birthing Center – Tent
Swine (bldg. 25)
Area 2:
My Plate Garden
City Streets/Country Roads (CSCR bldg.)
Machinery Row
Area 3:
Beef Cattle (bldg. 18)
Longhorns/British Breeds – Tent
Area 4:
Farm & Garden (bldg. 14A)
Poultry & Rabbits (bldg. 14)
4-H & FFA (bldg. 12)
Home Arts & Crafts (bldg. 9)
Area 5:
Lunch in the Grandstand
Area 6:
Horse Tent (Infield)
Outdoor Equine Arena (Infield)
Sponsors: Farm Credit – Printing Sponsor; South Mountain Creamery – Kit Sponsor
Spuddy Buddy is an educational tool to teach students the 5 senses. “One Foot, Two Foot, Bare Foot, Shoe Foot” is a learning activity to promote reading and writing and math skills, building on the theme of the The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss.
The activity booklet directs students and their parents to different stations at the fair where they can measure footprints. Activity booklets include charting, patterns and writing activities and can be picked up at one of the guest relation centers at the fair.
Sponsors: Fred. Co. Office of Economic Development & Woodsboro Bank
The It’s Fair Game…Banking on Agriculture’s Future, is a sticker brochure that students, teachers and parents use as they visit different learning stations highlighted on the fairgrounds.
A map is used to find the stations and integrated academic standards are emphasized at each of the locations.
Sponsors: Fred. Co. Office of Economic Development & Frederick County Bank
It’s Fair Game Cards
It’s Fair Game Board
This educational component launched at the 2012 fair, “Fair in a Box.” Put a Fair in a Box and what do you get? Science. Technology. Engineering. Mathematics. … STEM. Put a Fair in a Box learning kit in a school classroom and what do you get? Students THINKING like a scientist. Students WRITING like a scientist. Students TALKING like a scientist. Students READING like a scientist. Refer to The Great Frederick Fair as the Fair in a Box and what do you get? Fair-goers making real connections to their life, agriculture and science.
For K-second grade students in Frederick County Public Schools, that’s exactly what they got pre-Great Frederick Fair, during their fair field trips, and post fair … 80 classrooms outfitted with Fair in a Box kits filled with artifacts and materials focusing on the fair’s 44-acre scientific “mini labs.” {Boxes are only distributed to classes that attend the GFF field trip} A creative way to introduce young students into science, the fair’s field trips are designed to teach different grade levels different science techniques. This self-guided tour also engages the non-agricultural going public into this exercise by utilizing the Fair in a Box Guide.
No matter what age, or what grade level, fair-goers were encouraged to Think like a Scientist … look at the fair as a science lab. They were encouraged to seek their scientific information through reading, observation, exploration and investigation when visiting the various mini labs. For the pre-fair classroom tours, each Fair in a Box kit contained items including but not limited to feed corn, straw, toy farm machinery, pre-packaged coffee creamers, hay, sweet feed, livestock ear tags and, horse hair.
Sponsors: South Mountain Creamery
Ag… It’s What’s for Lunch! is the newest agriculture education program, replacing the Let’s Grow A Pizza lesson, a third grade curriculum. Learning box kits are placed in third grade classrooms, complete with fun and engaging learning tools of matching food groups/ingredients with specific recipe cards for two to four players each.
An interactive fairgrounds map that will take you on a virtual agriculture education tour!
(Created by Frederick County Public Schools)
Exhibits
Check out the variety of exhibits at The Great Frederick Fair!
The fair’s livestock Birthing Center, is an extension of the City Streets, Country Roads Agriculture Awareness Exhibit, located off Machinery Row it is an educational endeavor where the public can witness up close farm animals giving birth and caring for their young. Dr. Cindy Burnsteel of the Western Maryland Veterinary Medical Association helps the Birthing Center run smoothly. She and members of the veterinary association will be on hand throughout the week, volunteering to assist the animals through the birthing process and to answer questions from the public.
If you’ve never experienced the giving of birth first hand, the Birthing Center is a “must see” educational and experiential exhibit at the annual county fair. Each day a calf will be born, right in front of huge anticipating audiences. It’s the miracle of life at its best. For many, it’s the first time they’ve ever seen anything being born. On the farm, it’s a way of life. Fair-goers will also get to see a mother pig (sow) give birth, and a mother sheep (ewe) deliver their young. Bleachers will be provided for public viewing convenience.
Sponsors: Kenley T. Hubble, LLC
This expanded innovative exhibit showcases Frederick County’s Dairy Industry. When you visit the Milky Way you will see and experience:
- Representation of the six major dairy breeds and information about them
- Hands on activities
Dairy recipes - Exhibits about dairy products
- And much more…
Do you have a COW in your refrigerator?
Visit the milky way to see if you have a cow in your refrigerator.
Visit this state-of-the-art milking facility for a glimpse of the twice-a-day milking ritual with dairy experts on hand to explain what is going on. The facility built in 2001 provides our Dairy Exhibitors a clean sanitized place to milk their cows during fair week. Monies from the milk are used to maintain the milking facility and to support the Frederick County 4-H Dairy program by providing for additional learning experiences and scholarships for the dairy youth in Frederick County.
Did you know Maryland dairy cows produced an average of 7 gallons of milk or 100 glasses each day? To produce this much milk, a cow consumes 35 gallons of water, 20 pounds of grain and concentrated feeds and 35 pounds of hay and silage in one day. The first cow arrived in the U.S. in 1611. Now, there are over 10 million dairy cows in the U.S.
Each person in Maryland drank an average of 23 gallons of milk last year. Maryland can boast that the first commercial ice cream plant in the world was established in Baltimore by Jacob Fussell in 1841. Today, one of the largest milk processing plants east of the Mississippi River is located in Laurel.
Sponsors: Beachy Companies
The national-award-winning, City Streets, Country Roads exhibit is the place to be if you want to learn more about agriculture during The Great Frederick Fair. The 80 x 60 foot exhibit area will be packed full of live animal exhibits and educational displays for the full run of the fair.
This is an exhibit the public always looks forward to, with educational displays that include more animal exhibits, hands on activities, and workshops for the whole family. Each year, some 40,000 fair-goers visit City Streets, Country Roads!
There are plenty of fun activities during fair week for children of all ages to enjoy including arts & crafts and a Kid’s Tractor Pedal Pull.
The Sukup Agri-Theater provides Fair goers the opportunity to learn about the grain industry from inside a life sized grain bin.
Located outside Barn 27
This expanded innovative exhibit showcases wool fibers and how they are utilized in our lives everyday.
Have you ever thought about where your clothes come from?…sheep, goats, rabbits, alpaca, llama, camel, corn, soy, wood pulp, dog, cotton, etc.
Come experience animal and plant fibers at all stages of production and learn what nature and your clothes have in common. Maybe you will find a sheep in your closet! Lots of free hands on activities are offered in this exhibit.
Sponsors: McGriff Insurance