Vermont Business Magazine A Vermont program helps farmers and farm-based educators learn how to engage school groups and visitors of all ages, working to connect people with agriculture, nature and their local food systems.
From Sunday to Tuesday, October 23-25 at Shelburne Farms, the ABCs of Farm-Based Education Workshop 2022 participants will gather to explore Shelburne Farms’ dairy, farmyard, garden, and forest classrooms as they learn kid-tested activities and ideas on how to engage school groups and visitors of all ages.
ABCs is a long-running program of Shelburne Farms, and is being offered for the first time since 2019. “With our learning campus safely back open, we’re thrilled to offer ABCs once again,” shares workshop facilitator Vera Simon-Nobes. “This program is so special because we know hundreds of farms have taken what they’ve learned in ABCs over the years back to their own communities, and helped visitors connect to agriculture and nature. There’s a real ripple effect.” Moving forward, ABCs will be offered twice a year at Shelburne Farms, once in October and once in spring.
Activities are based on Shelburne Farms’ publications Project Seasons and Cultivating Joy and Wonder. The workshop is led by instructors Susie Marchand and Vera Simon-Nobes, who are passionate farm-based educators. “The farm has years of experience to share,” says Vera. “But attendees are also experts in their fields. That’s what’s so valuable about ABCs. We give these educators the space and time to ask questions and seek answers, from us and from each other.”
