South Florida External Affairs Manager for Florida Crystals Corporation and Rosarian parent Caroline Villanueva helped organize and provide the entire experience for the students.

The day began in the conference room with a brief overview of Florida Crystals and the process of harvesting sugarcane.

The 33 students then divided into four groups for a variety of hands-on experiences: the students saw how the team uses drones to take pictures of the fields to find the exact locations where crops are not growing properly in order to increase production; each student had the chance to climb inside a tractor and feel how the seats move up and down with hydraulics; the students transplanted sugar seedlings into new gel nutrients in a real science lab; and students placed grown sugar sprouts into soil to grow in the greenhouse.

The field trip concluded with an excursion to the corn fields, led by John Scott Hundley of Hundley Farms. Hundley showed the student-farmers how to harvest corn. The students were then allowed to run through the corn fields and harvest as much sweet corn as they could carry.

The fourth-graders have been studying Florida history and agriculture and using various pieces of literature to accompany what they are learning in social studies. They also recently completed a science unit about types of energy. This out-of-classroom experience added tremendous value to making learning come alive.

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