Cornell Cooperative Extension

St. Lawrence County
Milk chugging out of the "9 Essential Nutrients" cup
Student with calf on field trip
Student making ice cream
Demonstration milking cow
Student with milk mustache

Dairy In The Classroom

Dairy in the Classroom: Tasty and Educational Lessons for Students

Dairy in the Classroom brings high-quality, hands-on, and tasty dairy lessons directly to your students! These engaging lessons are tailored to your classroom's age and educational needs, ensuring that students gain a deeper understanding of dairy products while expanding their taste buds.

What Students Will Learn

  • Nutritional Benefits: Students will discover why milk is good for them and explore various dairy products.
  • Hands-On Learning: They will have the opportunity to taste (and even make) different dairy products, helping them develop a broader palate.
  • The Lifecycle of a Cow: Students will learn about the stages of a cow's life, what they eat, and how they are cared for at each stage.
  • From Cow to Carton: They will also explore how milk moves from the cow to the carton, understanding the entire process.

Advanced Lessons for Middle and High School Students

For middle and high school students, we offer more advanced lessons, including:

  • Animal and Crop Genetics: Students will delve into the science of genetics and explore the role it plays in agriculture.
  • DNA Extraction: Learn how to extract DNA from a strawberry and understand the importance of genetics in agriculture.
  • Agricultural Careers: Students will gain insight into career opportunities within the agriculture industry, specifically in dairy farming.

Our Main Focus

The primary goal of Dairy in the Classroom is to help students:

  • Understand the scope of the dairy industry in New York State and St. Lawrence County.
  • Identify and taste different types of dairy products.
  • Learn the process of how milk moves from the farm to the table.
  • Explore careers in the agricultural and dairy industries.

In a time when not every family is involved in farming, it is crucial to teach students where their food comes from and how it is grown or produced. We strive to answer the important question, "Where does our food come from?" during our lessons.

Customized Lessons for Your Classroom

We offer a variety of lessons tailored to different grade levels and classroom needs, along with exciting new interactive activities.

We look forward to bringing these fun and educational lessons to your students!

For more information or to schedule a lesson for your classroom, please reach out to:


Contact

Tamara Hill
4-H Youth & Family Team Lead
tlh233@cornell.edu
315-379-9192 ext 261

Last updated January 8, 2025

4-H Activities, Programs, Events

Classroom Lessons

Calves and Heifers

Students learn how farmers take care of the calves, what they eat and what they need to stay healthy and warm in the winter. They then learn how the calves transition to eating different feed and become a heifer (teenager) cow.  

Cows: What do they eat and how do we milk them?

Students learn what has to happen in order for a cow to start producing milk, learn, touch and see what kind of feed cows eat and learn how farmers milk cows using our demonstration milking cow "Kool-Aid"

Cow to Carton

Students learn the process of how milk goes from the cow to the grocery store through a hands on around the classroom activity. Students will follow the journey milk takes to get into your glass at home.

Hands On, Tasty Lessons

Making Cheese:

Students learn the basics of cheesemaking and make mozzarella cheese right in the classroom from start to finish! 

Making Butter:

Students learn how to make butter and how only one ingredient and a lot of hard work is all that it requires. 

Making Ice Cream:

Students learn how to make homemade ice cream in their classroom. The students learn that hard work pays off and as long as they contributed to making it, they get to eat it!