43
First-graders learn about milk
Photo
Neighbors | Sarah Foor .The first-graders helped make butter by helping to hand-crank an old fashioned butter churn. When their butter was finished, the students were invited to try their concoction, which first-graders Emily Bayerl (left) and Rozlyn Utley happily did.
Photo
Neighbors | Sarah Foor .First-grader Emma Wolfe (right) said hello to her friend Nik McAleer (left) with a cow puppet that MetroParks Farm manager Brenda Markley had passed around the room.
Photo
Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Markley explained the importance of a milking machine (right) to a group of first-graders on Jan. 17. The machines are used at many modern dairy farms.
Photo
Neighbors | Sarah Foor .First-grade teacher Alice Colella (right) helped steady the hand churn as student Emma Mayle (left) gave the churn a spin.
By SARAH FOOR
The first-graders at Union Elementary were udderly excited when they received a visit on Jan. 17 from Mill Creek Metroparks farm agricultural facilities manager Brenda Markley, who met with the students to teach them how milk gets from the farm to the table.
The team at Metroparks Farm strives to teach the importance of farms in how our food is made.
“There are times when I will ask students where milk comes from and their answer is the grocery store. Although technically true, we try and go back to the very first step and show how many of our favorite foods and drinks start on the farm,” Markley said.
Markley explored how cows are fed and taken care of on dairy farms. The educator explained that milk-producing cows will aid in milk production by eating for about a total of eight hours and drinking a bathtub worth of water every day.
“Dairy cows can produce 100 glasses of milk in one day and their babies have no way of drinking that much. People started drinking and using milk many years ago to help the cow get rid of its excess,” Markley explained.
To show that milk can do more than sit in a glass, Markley brought a churn to the classroom. Every student was able to give a churn filled with milk 10 spins. After Markley separated out the buttermilk from the concoction, Alice Colella’s first-grade class were proud to see they had made butter.
The students were invited to try their creation on a cracker. Although some were scared to try, many took the leap and even asked for seconds.
“Can I have two crackers and make a butter sandwich?” offered Emma Wolfe after getting a taste.