Virginia State University’s Mobile Education Unit Takes Agriculture Education to Communities Along the East Coast.
25,000 miles along the East Coast from Virginia all the way to Florida: this is the distance Virginia State University (VSU)’s Mobile Education Unit (MEU) has traveled since its first road trip just two years ago. What started as a grant-funded opportunity from agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Virginia Department of Agriculture, Farm Bureau and more has taken on a life of its own with over 10 sponsors, most of which are Virginia-based. The MEU is a state-of-the-art trailer with dynamic, interactive exhibits that showcase Virginia’s rich agriculture and forestry industries. While the MEU team is already accomplishing the unit’s mission of agriculture education outreach, there’s even more on the horizon.
The iconic trailer is a mobile classroom that shows visitors the importance of agriculture in their daily lives. Young children, students and adults can interact with hands-on exhibits like the virtual reality-enabled “visits” with Virginia’s beef, dairy, vegetable, timber and aquaculture farmers, the map that teaches users about the five different USDA gardening zones and a large plate puzzle through which visitors can learn about nutrition and pick different elements of a well-balanced meal. Moving through the trailer, guests can test their knowledge with a quiz and play against each other in an on-theme video game. Some exhibits reflect the MEU’s sponsors, like the Virginia Beef Council, with a display that educates visitors about different cuts of beef and offers downloadable recipes to try at home. In addition to the wealth of knowledge visitors can gain in the trailer, the MEU also serves as a bold advertisement for VSU’s College of Agriculture and the multiple sponsors who help keep the MEU running. The MEU team has a CDL driver and program assistants who give visitors information about the sponsors, exhibits and educational spaces within the trailer.
Ms. Cartelius Travis is the MEU’s coordinator and has served with Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) for five years in VSU’s Small Farm Outreach Program. She became the coordinator when the MEU launched just two years ago, maintaining the unit and managing its sponsors and busy schedule. Currently, interested parties must request the MEU no less than four months in advance, and the MEU team recently launched a digital scheduling tool to help manage the inundation of requests for the unit. “We’ve already had over 10,000 visitors go through the unit,” says Ms. Travis. The MEU has been to the Virgnia State Fair plus other community fairs, community engagement events in Floria and Georgia and multiple school districts.
Ms. Travis views connecting with students as one of the highlights of coordinating the MEU. “When we go to schools, you can see how the interaction and engagement brightens students and helps them along their educational journey,” she says. “When a student first hears ‘agriculture,’ they might think about old school farming,” Ms. Travis explains. “When those students talk with our team they get a new perspective on what agriculture really is, and different career opportunities like agribusiness.” Opening students’ minds to opportunities is one of the most impactful aspects of the unit’s community outreach efforts. While visiting high schools, the MEU team has successfully recruited multiple students to apply to VSU’s College of Agriculture.
Currently, Ms. Travis and her team are developing MEU curricula to meet Virginia Department of Education Standards of Learning. “We partnered with a consulting group to create lessons plans and I’m excited to release those in the fall. It’ll be a great next step for the Mobile Education unit,” she says. The MEU has an oversight committee with members from VSU’s College of Agriculture, sponsors and other stakeholders. Recently, the committee decided to keep the MEU’s educational capacities fresh by changing the exhibits every two years or so. “We take it to the state fair every year,” says Ms. Travis. “We want our visitors to have something new to see every year. So, through new sponsorships and partners and rotating displays, we can keep it engaging.”
The Mobile Education Unit has already impacted students, individuals and communities along the southern East Coast. Everywhere the MEU travels, the team connects visitors to where their food comes from and raises awareness about College of Agriculture’s and VCE’s work with farmers and communities. “We get to engage the community and inform people about the richness of agriculture that we have in the Commonwealth,” explains Ms. Travis. “We promote VSU, the College of Agriculture, and how we benefit the agriculture community.”
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