School & Community group Field Trips

A hands-on experience for youth of all ages

Rooted has two beautiful field trip sites: Troy Kids’ Garden is located within Troy Gardens (502 Troy Drive) on Madison’s Northside, while the Madison School Farm is tucked away in Madison’s far east side (5107 Sudbury Way). Each site offers unique, hands-on experiences that allow youth of all ages to connect with the land and with their food from seed to plate.

Rooted offers field trips for classroom and community groups from April through October. On field trips, students are active participants in the garden or on the farm. Students build real-world connections to a variety of subjects, from social studies and math to nutrition and art. Field trips can be tailored to meet classroom learning goals. Some groups schedule one-time field trips, while others visit weekly.

Troy Kids' Garden

A field trip to the Troy Kids’ Gardens offers students hand-on experiences in gardening and ecology, and provides young people with an outdoor classroom where they can develop meaningful connections with the natural world. Our skilled garden leaders guide and encourage children through a variety of activities such as harvesting carrots, wrangling chickens, and cooking a healthy snack. We welcome groups pre-K through 8th grade, of any ability level.

Madison School Farm

Students are actively engaged in all the steps of running a small, urban farm. Students are divided into small field groups, and rotate between farm activity stations such as planting, harvesting, farm-to-table cooking, beekeeping, and donating fresh produce to local food pantries. Each station is led by a trained farm educator. We welcome groups of all ages and ability levels.

Interested in a field trip in the future?

Good things to know

Field trip costs

$5/student; teachers and chaperones attend free.

We are committed to making our youth programming available to all students. Scholarship application and rates are included in the field trip registration form.

We also offer discounted rates for groups that make three or more visits with the same students. Contact Travus for more information on multiple visits.

Busing assistance

Bus funding may be available through Nature Express; learn more here.

Picnics

Groups are invited to bring a picnic lunch to enjoy on site before or after their program!

Pair a Youth Farm field trip with a Challenge Course visit

The Goodman Youth Farm is lucky to be located directly next to MSCR’s Elements Challenge Course! We encourage groups to schedule a challenge course visit in conjunction with a Youth Farm visit for a fun, engaging day outdoors. To schedule a trip to the Youth Farm, contact Travus Maloney. To schedule a visit with Elements, contact Emily Peffer.