By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent GREENVILLE, Mich. — Hands-on learning kept 181 western Michigan fifth-graders busy last week.
Participants in the annual Agriculture and Natural Resources Field Day at the Montcalm County Fairgrounds in Greenville on Friday got a first-hand look at farm life and conservation.
The day included stops at eight learning centers set up around the fairgrounds including recycling, dog husbandry, earth cycles, farm and forest, maple syrup production, horses, crops and dairy.
Eleven-year-old Mike Maddux, a fifth-grader at Sand Lake Elementary School, said the highlight of the day for him was learning to milk a cow.
“Milking the cow was my favorite because it was the most fun,” he said. “I’ve never been around cows before.”
The I Milked A Cow booth, put on by the Montcalm County Farm Bureau and Merry Makers 4-H Club, offered a brief discussion about dairy farming practices and culminated with an opportunity for each participant to try his or her hand at milking a cow by hand.
“It’s fun to watch them,” said 4-H member and volunteer Taryn Muilen-burg. “Most of them have never been around cows and they have no idea where milk comes from - they think it comes from the store.”
The eighth annual event was organized and sponsored by the Montcalm Conservation District and Michigan State University Montcalm County Extension.
Conservation District Executive Secretary Judy Cloer said the goal of the event is to expose area students to agriculture and conservation practices at a young age.
“It may be the only chance for any of these kids to learn about conservation and farm life,” she said. “So many kids live in the city. Even in the rural areas they have become very far removed from the farm.
“It’s always great to have hands-on-learning,” Cloer said.
Students learned many valuable lessons during the horse session.
Presented by former 4-Her Katie King and her mother, Terri King, the youths were taught about caring for a horse - from daily feeding to disease issues.
“One thing about horses is that they don’t have a lot of intestines. If they don’t feel good they can’t throw up.
“Whatever goes in here,” she said pointing to the mouth, “has to come out back there,” with a gesture to the horse’s rear.
Ruth Petersen, who taught the farm and forest session, displayed an animal hide, a mounted pheasant, agricultural food products and more while discussing how agriculture and natural resources coexist.
“I do this because I’m passionate about kids having a chance to visit the forest and the farm, and I know many of them don’t have a chance to do it. So, we’ll bring it to them,” Petersen said.
Montcalm County Farm Bureau members John Black and Lisa Ulrich-Johnson presented an Ag in the Classroom lesson about the cycles of life.
Students learned the significance of eight different colored beads and then made bracelets that signified the earth’s cycle.
A clear bead signified human life, blue was water, green was plants, brown was soil, orange was daylight, black was night, white was air and yellow signified the sun.
“Without the sun, we wouldn’t have any of the other lifecycles,” Ulrich-Johnson said.
As the students gathered to make their bracelets, they talked about the lesson.
“This will be easy to remember,” said one girl.
Black said the goal of the lesson was to reach as many youths as possible and present the basic lifecycle in a way that they would remember.
“When people think about the environment we want them to think about agriculture in a positive way,” he said.
“We assume by living in a rural county kids know these things and they don’t,” said MSU Montcalm Extension Youth Educator Pat Dignum, who was in charge of the event. “This is a great opportunity to expose the students to the resources we have primarily in our county. They can see, touch, ask questions and do things they can’t do in the classroom.” This farm news was published in the May 23, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
