After being paused for a year, the Des Moines Public Schools’ agriscience program is returning. This time, with more greenery.
Before shutting down last year, the program focused on teaching students how to care for and raise animals such as sheep, goats and chickens. It offered a Central Market by McCombs Middle School, where students sold meat from the animals they raised.
When the program paused, the animals were sold and the market closed.
Now, the program will take on agriscience with a focus on farming and growing. DMPS partnered with Lutheran Services in Iowa’s Global Greens program and the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden to create a program that will teach students how to become a farmer.
“Agriculture is such a big part of the Midwest, certainly a huge part of Iowa, but students are just really looking for those hands-on opportunities on an actual farm,” Outgoing Director for Central Campus Tascha Brown said. “Students understand that when they have a basic foundation in agriculture, the sky’s the limit in terms of the jobs and opportunities that they can have.”
The new program better suits the ‘needs’ the community
Brown made the decision last Spring to shut down the agriscience program due to low enrollment so the district could rework the program to better suit the “needs and interests of our students, community and state.”
Brown put together a steering committee with community partners to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the program. She said they focused on marketing and engagement of the program, so they could get more people interested to participate in the program.
With the decision to take on more of a growing approach in the program, Global Greens’ Community Garden Specialist Amy Joens aimed to amplify students and their interests.
“That was sort of my biggest interest — making the program more relatable to students so that more of them would be involved and kind of see themselves in that field in the future,” Joens said.
As of mid-June, 30 students are enrolled in the program for the 2026-27 school year. Brown said the district hired a new teacher from Oklahoma, who has been teaching high school agriculture for a decade.
President of the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens Kim Perez, who served on the advisory board, said the goal of the new curriculum is to draw connections from plants to everything else.
“I think for students to understand and learn all the different ways that growing plants connect to every aspect of life is really important. And I think that perspective tends to get lost,” Perez said. “All of those connection points, to medicine and health and mental health, that nature brings, these are all really important connections.”
With the connections made through this program, Perez said the possibilities are endless.
“You can be a grower, you can be a gardener. You can also be part of the business end of what that means and thinking about logistics and supply chain,” Perez said. “All the different aspects of the way that our world works today. It’s exciting to see that there are going to be those connection points where these kids are going to learn from seed to whatever the next step is.”
Students will learn from mentor farmers through Global Greens
A Global Greens garden, in collaboration with this program, was installed late Spring behind McCombs Middle School for students to help with and learn from.
Global Greens is offered through Lutheran Services in Iowa, giving farm plots to Iowans who either need it, or want to learn how to grow, such as immigrant refugees and others who are curious.
The plot at DMPS has 45 gardeners, each with their own plots. They grow food for themselves and their families.
The students will work alongside the farmers to expand their education on different types of growing.
“One of the things we talked a lot about in sort of reimagining what the ag-program could entail was having more adult mentors and leaders that are coming from different diverse backgrounds to help show students the different ways that agriculture could look like for them,” Joens said.
Joens believes the collaboration with Global Greens will help students challenge their ideas of who a farmer is.
“I think traditionally, there’s a view of who we see as a farmer, especially in the state of Iowa,” Joens said. “I think having an introduction into this field and maybe folks students are not familiar with is a pathway for them to really see themselves in a future where they’re engaged in this kind of work.”
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: DMPS’ agriscience program returns, but now with a garden
Reporting by Veronica Meiss, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Veronica Meiss, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
