JOHN YANG: And finally tonight, when classes begin this week at a special charter school in Florida, some of the lessons will be taught in barns and animal pens.

Colleen Bradford Krantz of PBS Iowa explains.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): Instead of heading to a sports field or music room after class, many students at this public charter school in Dade City, Florida, spend their afternoons caring for farm animals.

It's called the Academy at the Farm, and its mission is to give these young students a stellar education and a new understanding about how agriculture impacts their everyday lives.

Robin Carter is one of the teachers here.

ROBIN CARTER, Agriculture Teacher, Academy at the Farm: A lot of kids automatically have the idea that agriculture is just playing with animals all day or feeding animals or having pets or something like that.

And we want them to expand their horizons and have the knowledge that agriculture is actually giving us life.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): This hands on experience is woven into the science curriculum and the goal is that by the time these students leave here after 8th grade, they head into the world as more informed consumers and with lifelong memories of a unique school experience.

ROBIN CARTER: When I came here 10 years ago, academics and high expectations were the things that were drawing kids.

Today there are people that absolutely want to come to our school because of our agriculture program.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): Recently retired school director Ray Polk encouraged the expansion of the academy's ag program.

He was raised nearby on what used to be a 6,000 acre cattle ranch.

RAY POLK, Former Director, Academy at the Farm: I felt like kids needed to know where their food comes from.

Less and less kids are educated with that.

And I found that kids thought that, you know, their hamburger came from McDonald's.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): Polk says not only do these kids learn where that hamburger actually came from, he also says working with these animals has a profound impact on their behavior.

RAY POLK: It's an interesting phenomena to me when you can take kids that are having, are struggling or having trouble and you can take them over to the barn for 15 minutes and it can change the whole day.

You can go hand them a baby goat and their life changes.

It's almost like magic.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): And despite the popularity of these animals, Polk says the school has never lost sight of its core job.

RAY POLK: The state doesn't test whether the kids know how a pig has piglets.

What they test on is their math, reading.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): Making sure every aspect of the agriculture program is academically sound falls to Robyn Carter.

ROBIN CARTER: Drinking this fancy juice, you have to do it with your pinky up, okay?

I integrate a lot of this Florida science standards into the elementary agriculture lessons that I do.

So that's how I try to support the elementary school teachers.

I talk a lot about what it means to be a scientist.

I talk a lot about what it means to research something and not just believe everything you hear, but to actually go to a good source to get your information from.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): She says as critically important as those skills are, working in agriculture also teaches a few things no classroom is likely to match, like how to be resilient when unexpected challenges arise.

ROBIN CARTER: In education, sometimes the expectations is everything is done perfect all the time.

And in agriculture, that's not how life goes.

You could have a project or a crop or animal that suddenly passes away or suddenly dies, or there's a hurricane or something happens and you have to be able to roll with the punches.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): Some of the students spend extra time practicing to show their animals at fairs.

These public events help boost community support for the academy.

And the kids benefit from working side by side with their classmates.

Robin's husband Tim manages the barns here.

He says that a shared sense of responsibility is something these young kids learn to embrace.

TIM CARTER, Barn Manager, Academy at the Farm: After school, if you have animal here, it's got to be fed, it's got to be taken care of.

And on the weekends they're responsible for feeding and any changes.

Most of the kids that we get, we're very lucky.

They don't grumble about the work at all.

And these projects are also family projects.

You know, a 10 year old can't drive themselves here on a Saturday to feed their animals.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): Christiana Williams is a former student at the academy and she still keeps pigs on site and helps younger children with their projects.

CHRISTIANA WILLIAMS, Former Student, Academy at the Farm: So the really nice thing about this is everything is hands on.

When I first started, I told the Carters that I would never ever get a vaccination to a pig.

It freaked me out.

I didn't like needles, I didn't like anything like that.

Flash forward a couple months later, I was giving almost all of the injections at the barn.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): 11-year-old Connor Groover sees everything he's learning as preparation for life.

CONNOR GROOVER, Student, Academy at the Farm: Having to stay responsible to feed them and like being responsible with my money.

Having to pay for their foods and their all their equipment stuff.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): Experiences like these are confirmation to Robin Carter that bringing agriculture into the classroom can change lives at an early age.

ROBIN CARTER: We need to create students who are feeling confident at an early age to be outside getting their hands dirty, being hands on.

They know that they want to do it the right way, and they don't want to lose the privilege of being able to do these fun activities.

And middle school kids are at an age where I feel like they're not given a lot of trust.

So when you give them that trust, they just shine.

COLLEEN BRADFORD KRANTZ (voice-over): For PBS News Weekend, I'm Colleen Bradford Krantz in Dade City, Florida.