Third-grade students at Strode Station Elementary received a unique science lesson Tuesday from Brandy Graves with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

Graves is one of three instructors in Kentucky who travel the state in a mobile science activity center aimed at teaching students about Kentucky agriculture and how it can be used.

The center works with students on one of six experiments allowing them to make something using products of Kentucky agriculture, Graves said.

Students at Strode Station made ice cream Tuesday, mixing together ingredients in baggies before placing them in containers full of ice and shaking them to make the cream solidify and freeze.

Graves said students at other schools have made bouncy balls, slime and other items.

“We mostly focus on teaching the students where their food comes from and how it gets made,” Graves said.

Graves and her mobile center mostly cover schools in central Kentucky, but there are two other centers operating in different parts of the state.

“I cover from Louisville to northern Kentucky and as far west as Elizabethtown,” Graves said.

She said the trucks stay busy, and are usually completely booked from September through May. The trucks visit both public and private schools upon request, and the visits are mainly funded through contributions from a number of agriculture organizations and agencies in the state.

“The schools only need to pay a small fee to cover the cost of materials,” Graves said.

While the science centers will work with any students between kindergarten and eighth grade, she said they tend to focus on teaching older elementary students, like third and fourth graders.

Graves and the mobile science activity center will remain at Strode Station today as well, working with fourth graders before heading to Fleming County to work with students there.