(NBC 26) — As many kids start heading back to school, a new program is turning kids into the teachers to get them talking about agriculture.
Livestock Lessons is a new program through Wisconsin Youth Livestock. The goal is to have kids show what they know about beef, sheep, swine, or meat goats through a video project or PSA.
"When you have to teach about something, then you learn the most about it," said Bernie O'Rourke, UW Madison Animal & Dairy Sciences, Extension Youth Livestock Specialist.
The program is open to kids in grades 3-13. O'Rourke said its another way to keep kids connected to the industry and help them learn to communicate what they know. By doing so, it could help set them up for an agriculture career in the future.
"Agriculture certainly has a lot of opportunities for young people in Wisconsin," she said. There's so many jobs, there's so many opportunities for careers, and we just want our young people to instill those kinds of mindsets in young people through those projects."
The program was modeled off of what a few other universities are doing. O'Rourke adds with this initial project, they can hopefully move onto other areas in agriculture, like precision farming or other technology.
The winners of each age group will be showcased on their social media sites, as well as receive a monetary prize.
"We've already got some great submissions and some great testimonials from moms and dads that really have helped them learn technology, and how to utilize YouTube to upload types of video files, and how to edit."
To find out more about how to submit your Livestock Lesson or what you need to do, click here.
