Students Get Their Hands Dirty at SEEAG's Farm Lab in Saticoy

By Isaiah Murtaugh / Monday, February 6th, 2022 / Ventura County Star

In small plastic tubs, the third grade students layered gravel and wood chips. The gravel represented a water-storing aquifer, the wood chips represented soil.

"What else do we have on a farm?" educator Laura O'Malley asked.

The students stayed quiet as they clustered around their irrigation models at the educational farm site in Saticoy run by Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture, or SeeAg.

O'Malley pointed to a group of farmworkers gathering strawberries in a neighboring field. "What are those moving things over there?"

"People!" one student piped up.

The students, from Glen City Elementary School in Santa Paula, had piled off a bus Thursday morning onto the grounds of SeeAg's Farm Lab, a small slice of land on the corner of Petty Ranch that the education nonprofit uses to teach third graders the basics of agricultural science.

"Agriculture is life in Ventura County," teacher Mike Post said as his students moved between Farm Lab stations. He estimated he'd taken students on the field trip five or six times in recent years. "It's a great opportunity."

Last year, SeeAg hosted more than 2,500 students on 56 field trips at Petty Ranch and a second Farm Lab site in Santa Maria. Founded in 2008, the nonprofit is also responsible for November's annual Farm Day, which opens up local farms and ranches for tours and activities.

Chris Sayer, Petty Ranch's manager, said it was a "lot of fun" to watch students draw connections between the things they learn about at the outdoor lab — like soil composition, irrigation and the water cycle ― and the food they eat at home.

Once, he said, he and his wife were having dinner at a Ventura restaurant they supplied with produce when he overheard a child at a nearby table excitedly recognize Petty Ranch's name on the menu. The student, who had visited the ranch on a field trip to the Farm Lab, then turned and recognized him.

"I don't care if they grow up to be farmers, but I do care if they get interested in science," Sayer said. "It opens their eyes to different possibilities. You never know where that is going to end up."

Split into three groups, Post's third grade class rotated between stations where they tested soil composition and planted baby broccoli plants in small pots to take home.

O'Malley's group, after putting away their farm models, moved to a sample irrigation system, then put in time watering raised vegetable beds.

"What do you think that one is?" O'Malley asked, pointing to a cluster of cauliflower.

One of the students chimed in: "It looks like popcorn!"