Mark Kline, agriculture lab teacher, brings hands-on learning opportunities to classrooms through the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's Mobile Agriculture Education Science Lab. Kline, a retired school teacher, spent time Wednesday with kindergartners at Portersville Christian School.

Portersville Christian School kindergartner Isaac Wise transformed into a bug last week when he put on six legs, black wings, orange glasses and red fuzzy antennas.

“I was a funny bug,” said Isaac, 6. “I learned that some bugs that I didn't know are pests — an ant.”

Isaac was one of six kindergarten students who learned about insects at the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's Mobile Agriculture Education Science Lab that came to his school.

Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation, a division of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the mobile unit is a 40-foot trailer with 12 work stations that creates an opportunity for students to learn about agriculture through hands-on experience.

Students from different grade levels visited the lab and performed a variety of science experiments focused on farm, food, fiber and the environment.

Brenen McDaid was one of the 13 first-graders who also participated in the lesson. The 7-year-old said his favorite activity was making a crawly critter he could take back to his classroom.

“My favorite part is the antennas,” Brenen said. “They help them feel and smell.”

Mark Kline, an agriculture lab teacher, explained how students dressed in the different insect parts to help them understand insect anatomy, adding how a take-home activity allows them to discuss what they learned at home with the families. Kline is one of several retired educators who travels across the state with mobile unit.

“We start with the idea that insects may or may not be pests for farmers,” Kline said.During the afternoon, students learned to make glue with milk, a farm product, and vinegar, water and baking soda. They tested its holding strength and compared it to Elmer's glue.Kline pointed out that the largest industry in the state is agriculture. Of the 53,157 farms in Pennsylvania, there are 955 farms in Butler County, according to the United States Department of Agriculture's 2017 Census of Agriculture.“If you talk to kids about agriculture, they'll say it's farms, which of course is true,” he said. “But then, they will also think farms don't have anything to do with (them).”Kline said he uses food as an example that the students can relate to their lives.“If you eat food, agriculture affects you every day,” he said. “The idea is to let them know that agriculture affects all of us and it's so vital.”

Isaac Wise, 6, a kindergartner at Portersville Christian School, takes part in a hands-on learning activity thanks to the mobile agriculture lab.