8th Grade Tours for 2023
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Collapse ▲8th Grade Agricultural School Tours were delivered to over 100 youth in Henderson County Public Schools. This was the 5th annual ag school tour to raise agricultural awareness and teach about careers in agriculture! These tours are designed to highlight farmers and introduce youth to the numerous careers in science, genetics, nutrition, business, economics, teaching, etc. within real-world experiences outside of the classroom.
We are thankful to our partners who took the time to create an incredible tour for our Henderson County youth! We had a total of four locations and 18 speakers!
Tours with Rugby Middle School and Hendersonville Middle School.
North River Farm
Jason Davis, farm owner and operator of North River Farms, welcomed 8th graders to his farm and shared about their operations!
Other guests on location included:
Sophie, with MillsRiver Partnership, with activities teaching about water quality!
Isaac Wyatt teaching about soil and cover crops!
Abby Whitaker with animal science and livestock!
Gleaning with Society of St. Andrew in North Rivers Farms fields!
Note from North River Farm:
“It was the perfect day for Henderson County Cooperative Extensions 8th Grade Field Trip! We were excited to have Hendersonville Middle and Rugby Middle come to our farm to see a few different careers in agriculture; learn about bugs, soil, & livestock from Isaac & Abby from HC Cooperative Ext. and learn about water quality from MillsRiver Partnership!”
The students finished out the tour learning about gleaning and then gleaned eggplants for the Society of St Andrews!
“We can’t thank HC Extension enough for letting us be a part of this wonderful program every year!”
Mountain Horticulture Crops Research and Extension Center
Career exploration and hands on education continued at the Mountain Horticulture Crops Research and Extension Center touring the entomology in the apple fields and maple trees, tomato breeding fields, and apple breeding program in the orchards!
Tours with Flat Rock Middle school and Apple Valley Middle school.
Blue Ridge Community College
Blue Ridge Community College is full of wonderful opportunities for our youth to begin their higher education. The youth were able to see how careers in science, engineering and technology are extremely important with todays agriculture/horticulture “fields!”
“We love an opportunity to educate young minds about all the options they have after high school. We were pleased to host 8th-grade students from Apple Valley and Flat Rock Middle Schools for part of their 4-H Field Trip. Our experts shared about the different careers within the agriculture and farming industries.
Horticulture instructor Annie Higgins introduced the job opportunities within her field in Henderson County.
Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard
Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard was another wonderful partnership location for the tour!
Did you know, apples are the number one agriculture product in Henderson County? Followed closely by tomatoes as our second largest product! Youth were able to hear from the farmers of Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard and why agriculture education is so important!
Dr. Terry Kelley enjoyed teaching youth about apple production, grafting, and why we have so many apple varieties through an apple tasting test and testing for pH levels and sugar content!
Where would happen to our food without our pollinators? There would be none! While the honey bee is probably the most commonly heard of pollinators it is just one of thousands that do this work for us! Jim Poe with Henderson County Bee Keepers Club brought his observation hive and descriptive pictures to share about the process of pollinators and the important role they have! 
Abby Whitaker had an opportunity to share about Animal Science and her job as an Extension Agent. Abby’s background and current career with Extension is a huge help to livestock owners diagnosing issues they may be experiencing and holding educational workshops. for a hands on educational opportunity and learn about careers.
Thank you to all our host locations, guest speakers, and Henderson County Public Schools who made this tour a great experience!