Virtual tours, real impact

By Matt Reese

The real-time reactions for participating students are exactly what makes virtual field trips so engaging. GrowNextGen — a project of the Ohio Soybean Council and soybean checkoff — has connected Ohio growers with over 103,000 students since 2018, and brings the Flynns’ Lorain County farm directly into elementary classrooms.

“One of the most interesting things is the questions you get from the kids,” says Eric Flynn, watching a chat window fill with student reactions during a virtual farm tour. “When my wife Adele and I shared that we can plant as many as 9 million soybean plants in an hour, they were amazed. You can see their brains working in real time through the questions they ask.”

Growing up in rural Ohio, Eric was surrounded by farms but didn’t live on one. It wasn’t until after attending Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute and marrying Adele, a farmer’s daughter, that led the couple to eventually take up farming full-time.… Continue reading