May 29, 2008 issue
Avery YO! Students Experience Environmental Education First Hand
Story by Jenna Crawley
The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Agency and Soil and Water Conservation teamed up this month to give Avery YO! students a taste of a wide range of local and global environmental issues, as well as possible solutions to the pending energy crisis. During the month, specialists covered topics ranging from watersheds in the area to local agriculture options to flashlight production centered around recycled materials.
The month began with NC Cooperative Extension Specialized Agent Rob Hawk traveling to Cranberry Middle and Freedom Trail Elementary schools armed with flowering dogwoods saplings and a wealth of knowledge regarding the global importance of trees. Hawk also talked to students about how to use trees to conserve energy throughout the seasons in individual homes. The presentation was interactive, with students reading facts from cards and using their own skills to figure out home energy solutions involving trees.
Flowering dogwood saplings also traveled to Avery Middle YO! where Site Coordinator Pat Hopper presented a similar program with her students. In two days, more than 50 trees reached YO! family homes.
Mark Forbes, a Soil and Water Conservation technician, echoed the need for awareness of human impact with his Enviroscape model. Forbes toured countywide YO! sites, bringing with him a small and interactive model landscape. During his presentation, students were able to witness the impact that trash, oil, fertilizer and animal waste have on a watershed when barriers are not in place to prevent contamination.
With student input, Forbes also used the model to find possible solutions for watershed pollution. Students were able to put solutions to the test each time it “rained” on the model. By the end of the presentation, the model watershed holds cleaner water as barriers are put into place.
Cooperative Extension Livestock Agent Adam Keener returned to Cranberry Middle School to hold a forum with the students on global and local agriculture issues. Keener originally worked with CMS YO! students during a six-week embryology program.
Keener brought corn chips, salsa, locally grown and internationally grown tomatoes, canned corn and local strawberries to the site. Students were able to sample the taste differences in tomatoes, as well as study each salsa ingredient to determine where most foods are grown. He stressed that agriculture is both a global and a local issue, especially as food-growing farms in the United States struggle to survive financially and more and more food is shipped in from other countries.
“What happens in the United States affects the whole world. What happens in the rest of the world affects the United States,” said Keener, “Agriculture is global.”
Keener encouraged students to act locally by growing food that thrives in the High Country, such as strawberries. Under his direction and with the support of C & K Huffman Nursery that donated the pots and soil, each student planted strawberry plants to take home.
4-H Program Associate Debra Buchanan-Hughes also traveled to both middle school sites and Freedom Trail Elementary where she worked with the students to make flashlights using regular household materials. Buchanan-Hughes uses old toilet paper tubes, batteries and bathroom cups to create portable and usable flashlights. Her hands-on presentation completed the series of workshops on environmental and energy issues.
Avery YO! plans to host another interactive energy and environment series with students who attend the fall after-school programs. For more information, call 828-737-0057.
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