OREGON, Ill.— Students across Ogle and Carroll Counties learned how many farmers are behind one of America's most iconic candies. By the end of their lesson, students discovered that it takes at least five different types of farmers to produce all the ingredients for a Tootsie Roll!
The lesson began with the main ingredient in a Tootsie Roll, which is sugar, so students were shown a picture of a combine harvesting sugar cane. Then we moved on to the corn syrup and vegetable oil. Students learned that the vegetable oil is derived from soybeans, and the lecithin from those soybeans also keeps all the Tootsie Roll ingredients from separating. Students were reminded that corn and soybeans are grown all around us here, and some pictures from harvest time were shown.
The next ingredient requires a dairy farmer. Condensed skim milk and whey are needed for a Tootsie Roll, and both of those are products that wouldn’t be here without cows. The final ingredient comes from a little further away, and the growing process is usually brand new to students. The cocoa beans provide the chocolate flavor, and students were able to see pictures of the pods growing on the trees, and of the drying process after the beans are harvested.
All of these agricultural products were then provided to the students in their final ingredient form, and the older classes were able to make their own Tootsie Rolls to take home. In the younger grades, students cut out shapes of these ingredients and attached them to a tube to create their own Tootsie Roll mobile. The classrooms were amazed that something as “simple” as a Tootsie Roll would involve so many different farmers.
Kindergarteners at Forreston and Eastland made the Tootsie Roll mobiles. The actual Tootsie Roll making happened in either 2nd or 3rd grade at Polo, Kings, Faith Christian, Chadwick-Milledgeville, Eastland, Forreston, Stillman Valley, Oregon, and Byron. High school FFA chapters also provided student helpers to assist with ingredient mixing at their respective schools: Byron, Oregon, Stillman Valley, and Forreston. This chocolately program reached 578 students and showed them that agriculture really is everywhere!
Agriculture in the Classroom is a program to help students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture in the economy and society. Students learn that thousands of farm products are in the world around them—on their plate, in the clothes they wear, in the medicine that makes them well, and in earth-friendly fuels and plastics.
Ag in the Classroom is offered through the University of Illinois Extension-Ogle County in partnership with Ogle County Farm Bureau, Carroll County Farm Bureau, Ogle County Soil & Water, and Carroll County Soil & Water. For more information about the program, call the Ogle County Extension Office at (815) 732-2191.
University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 500 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through five program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, health and community wellness, and natural resources, environment, and energy.