Middle schoolers learn about agriculture in summer program

Middle schoolers got their hands dirty on the Beddingfield High School farm Thursday.

“We’ve been planting,” 12-year-old Joshua Riggins said. “They’ve been teaching us about organic and inorganic, how much width we need between each plant so they won’t grow together.”

Joshua is one of nearly 100 middle schoolers who are part of Wilson County Schools’ Accelerator Summer Program. The free program is made possible thanks to federal Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief grant funds. This year’s Accelerator program is targeting sixth through ninth graders who get the chance to explore specific career and technical educational pathways.

“It’s an opportunity to highlight our CTE pathways we offer in Wilson County Schools,” said Matthew Crayton, Wilson County Schools CTE director. “It gives them an opportunity to see what’s waiting on them in high school, what types of things they’d be doing if they took CTE classes. They also get to learn job-related skills that match the needs in our area.”

Prior to the start of the program, students were able to choose which pathway they wanted to explore over the next three weeks. Those pathways include agriculture, carpentry, manufacturing, health science, public safety, computer science, culinary arts and science, technology, engineering and math.

“The idea is to make it fun, too,” Crayton said.

This particular group chose agriculture.

Joshua along with fellow classmates 12-year-olds Zyon Ward and Valentina Vasquez and other students planted rows of watermelons, peppers, tomatoes and okra.

Beddingfield High School agriculture teacher Bryant Glover said they’ve already covered a lot, including learning about the animals on the school farm.

“The animals were fun,” said 12-year-old Gracelynn Moore. Students will next head to the N.C. Forestry Service and also take a Wilson County farm tour. Glover said students will get the chance to see how watermelons are picked in the field, harvested, cleaned, packaged and prepared before they head out to the grocery store.

Glover said students will later start pumpkins and peas from seeds. Students have also been taking care of another garden that was planted by Beddingfield’s exceptional children self-contained class during the most recent school year.

“We get to pick stuff like blueberries, strawberries and cucumbers,” Joshua said. Glover said what the students recently planted will be carried over for this high school horticulture students when they return from summer.

Glover said most of the Accelerator program students never knew what agriculture entailed prior to starting the program. Now, that’s all changed.

“They’re getting their hands literally in the dirt and experiencing stuff that they may have never ever seen before,” Glover said.

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