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 brings high quality, hands-on, and TASTY dairy lessons to students right in the classroom! Lessons are formulated based on your classrooms ages and needs. Students learn about why milk is good for you and identify dairy products while having the opportunity to taste (and make) these products to help expand their taste buds. Students also learn about the lifecycle of a cow, what they eat and need at each stage, how to milk a cow and how milk moves from the cow to carton. 

Specifically formulated for middle and high school classes, students have the opportunity to learn more about animal and crop genetics, extract DNA from a strawberry and learn about job opportunities in the agriculture industry.

Our main focus is for students to understand the scope of the dairy industry in NYS and St. Lawrence County, identify and taste different types of dairy products, correctly sequence how milk moves from farm to table while learning about careers within the agricultural and dairy industry. In a time where not every family is a farming family, teaching students about where our food comes from and how it is grown or produced is extremely important to us. We strive to answer the question "Where does our food come from" during our time together!

We have a variety of lessons based on different grade levels and needs for your classroom, as well as some new and exciting interactive lessons! Please reach out to Tamara Hill for further questions or to communicate about setting up future lessons for your classroom! 

Contact

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

Last updated October 8, 2024

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!