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Jessica Brogley, an instructor in educational technology at UW-Platteville, has been overseeing the project with science teacher Bud McDonald.

“Between semesters (at Platteville), I’ll travel around to schools and work with teachers on lead projects,� Brogley said. “I’m just facilitating the project, but I’m in his space with him as a co-teacher.�

McDonald said Brogley initially came up with the project to create a website after researching Rock County farmers. She discovered there wasn’t a single place people could go for a comprehensive list of county food producers and buy from them..

“You have to google all that stuff separately,� McDonald said. “It would be interesting to try to bring all the local growers together on a single website.�

Students in McDonaldÃÛèÖÊÓƵ science classes are the ones doing the research, finding local growers and compiling the information for the website.

The students are digging to find whether farmers “have a website, Twitter account, Instagram or anything like that,� McDonald said. They also research what kinds of produce each farmer offers.

Brogley said the big question the students are trying to answer is how growers in the Janesville area support the community. The students work in teams and are assigned a local grower to research.

“We’ve pulled some stats on Rock County and helped the kids realize that agriculture in Rock County is incredibly diverse,� Brogley said. “We have so many local growers.�

Once the website is finished, it will connect prospective customers to locally grown food from as many Rock County growers as the student researchers could find.

“If they wanted to buy a quarter of beef or whatever, they can look at the directory and be able to figure out whoÃÛèÖÊÓƵ selling that product and how close they are to wherever they live,â€� Brogley said. “It turned out to be a really cool study in local agriculture.â€�

St. William Catholic School Principal Diane Rebout is excited about the project and how it ties into the countyÃÛèÖÊÓƵ agricultural community.

“Agriculture has strong roots in our community and with the current pandemic, there is increased interest in obtaining food locally,� Rebout said. “It is exciting for the students to see each of their individual projects combining to form a resource that will be beneficial to the entire community.�

Brogley said they hope to have the website live in early February. She is currently working on adding students’ research to the site.