From looking at different types of crops and digging up worms to petting baby alligators, piglets and calves, the LSU AgCenter’s AgMagic gives participants a taste of all that the field of agriculture has to offer.
AgMagic takes tour groups through seven portals: Louisiana 4-H, “World of Wonder,” “Farming the Waters,” “Plant Products,” “Bugs Rule!,” “Animals Produce For You” and “Farm Gate to Dinner Plate.” These seven portals show event-goers the different aspects of the wide field of agriculture, from forestry, wildlife and bugs to working with livestock and growing fresh produce.
“The whole thing is very exciting to them, and I think they realize that the agriculture is very broad,” Frances Gould, AgMagic coordinator and AgCenter communications and public relations director, said. “It’s not just cotton and rice and sugarcane. [Agriculture] affects every part of their life.”
Every year, AgMagic has 8,000-10,000 visitors. The week-long event hosts school students for five days and then is open to the public for two days. School children, ranging from preschoolers to teens in junior high, visit AgMagic with their school groups. The groups come mostly from a nine-parish perimeter around Baton Rouge, but some groups come from as far as St. Charles Parish and Lafayette, Gould said.
Animal sciences assistant professor Shannon Cruzen said seeing the livestock often makes the children excited, sometimes too excited, but serves as a good learning experience.
“A lot of the kids here, they’re urban kids only. They’ve never been exposed to any of this, so realizing where their food comes from is really important,” Cruzen said.
Ashley Boyle, a first grade teacher at Tanglewood Elementary School, said the event is often memorable for the children.
“They hear about cows and goats and crawfish and dirt, but they often don’t get to see it,” Boyle said. “I mean them walking into the room and seeing the huge cow, it’s like a huge impact. They’re definitely going to remember it.”
AgMagic is a free event that offers a great interactive experience that children love, Gould said, which brings schools back year after year to expose students to agriculture.
Because the event is free, the funding comes from the state and sponsors, and the event is run by volunteers, Gould said. Last year, nearly 500 volunteers, ranging from high schoolers to retirees, donated 1,633 hours of their time to help make the event happen, Veronica Del Bianco, volunteer and leadership development specialist, said.
All the exhibits are stocked and run by members of the University community, with the exception of a few livestock animals, Gould said.
Entomology professor Rodrigo Diaz, who helps run the bug exhibit and displays Madagascar hissing cockroaches, a scorpion and a tarantula for event-goers to see, said that while the children are typically afraid of the bugs at first, they love it once someone comes forward to hold or touch one. Diaz said he finds that AgMagic provides a good opportunity to show children the different aspects of agriculture.
“This [is] nice exposure to diversity in the broad sense of agriculture, and they are just fascinated,” Diaz said. “The more colors and movement, the more attractive to them.”