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The Bayard School launches new agriculture science program, future expansions in the works

The Bayard School pilots a new agriculture science program to better connect students in urban areas with nutrition education.

Although agriculture is the number one industry in Delaware, State Rep. Sherry Dorsey Walker (D-Wilmington) and the Village Hilltop Foundation noticed a stark lack of access to plant and animal sciences in northern Delaware.

Dorsey Walker and the nonprofit foundation teamed up to pilot a program at The Bayard School to provide K-8 students the opportunity to grow plants using hydroponic kits and then transplant them outside, as well as experiment with Tower Gardens which are soilless structures that use LED lights to grow plants indoors.

“What we wanted to do in this moment in The Bayard School — a high needs, high poverty school — is ensure that our children have access to agriculture, hence why we were able to get the hydroponic kits and the towers here to expose our children to another way of being," Dorsey Walker said.

This initiative seeks to educate students on nutrition options and urban food ecosystems, topics agriculture science teacher Chris Bradshaw says students in Wilmington rarely get to explore.

“What I tell people is you can’t be what you can’t see. So exposing the kids to the animal science, the plant sciences [it] gives them different options, gives them different tracks as they get into high school and further on in their education," Bradshaw said.

He explains the program is in its preliminary stages, but he hopes to eventually pair the growing lessons with consumer sciences so students can eat the vegetables they grow to promote healthier eating habits.

Bayard School principal Suzanne Wong says they plan to begin integrating the classes into elementary programming, and when students reach middle school, they can choose agriculture sciences as an elective.

Village Hilltop Foundation Board Chair Johnita Mizelle says they are already in talks with a Wilmington area high school to expand the program and hopes to eventually take it statewide.

Before residing in Dover, Delaware, Sarah Petrowich moved around the country with her family, spending eight years in Fairbanks, Alaska, 10 years in Carbondale, Illinois and four years in Indianapolis, Indiana. She graduated from the University of Missouri in 2023 with a dual degree in Journalism and Political Science.
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