Agriculture Commissioner James Comer and Kentucky's agricultural literacy partners cut the ribbon to ceremonially launch the new Eastern Kentucky Mobile Science Activity Center that will travel to schools and events throughout the region.
“The new Mobile Science Activity Center is designed to negotiate some of the challenging terrain that can be found in parts of eastern Kentucky,” Commissioner Comer said during the November 13 ceremony at the Kentucky Exposition Center. “This unit will enable us to reach more schools in the region so we can help educators teach their students about the importance of agriculture in their everyday lives.”
The Eastern Kentucky Mobile Science Activity Center is a 36-foot-long trailer equipped with 10 iPad interactive workstations for students to conduct activities and investigations related to agriculture and the environment. It will be placed into service after the first of the year.
The new unit will join two 44-foot-long Mobile Science Activity Centers that travel to schools and events throughout the Commonwealth. The mobile units are administered by the Division of Agriculture Education and Outreach in the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Office of Marketing.
The Eastern Kentucky unit is part of the Appalachia Proud initiative that Commissioner Comer launched in February 2014 to promote farm products and improve agricultural literacy in 37 eastern Kentucky counties.
The new MSAC was purchased and outfitted with support from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund and Kentucky Agriculture and Environment in the Classroom Inc.’s member partners: the Kentucky Pork Producers, the AgriBusiness Association of Kentucky, Farm Credit Mid-America, the Kentucky Beef Council, the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association, the Kentucky Corn Growers Association, the Kentucky Dairy Development Council, the Kentucky Equine Education Project, Kentucky Farm Bureau, the Kentucky Goat Producers Association, the Kentucky Horse Council, the Kentucky Pork Producers Association, the Kentucky Poultry Federation, the Kentucky Retail Federation, the Kentucky Small Grain Growers' Association, the Kentucky Soybean Promotion Board, and the Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association.
