Marshall County Students Get Hands-On Agricultural Learning Experience
Alan Olson Trending
MOUNDSVILLE - Students from across Marshall County gathered at the county fairgrounds to get an up-close-and-personal look at the animals and produce which make up their daily meals, while having an opportunity to hear about them from the experts.
Dozens of fifth grade students from schools across the county attended the 12th Hands On Ag Day, which was hosted by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Northern Panhandle Conservation District. Students rotate between 11 stations, where local experts inform the kids on the details of keeping livestock, planting and raising produce, and other ways agriculture helps support the community.
At various stations, kids learned facts about what parts of each animal produce what food products, while also getting to touch, feed and interact with the livestock. At the dairy station, kids churned small containers of cream into butter, while the next station allowed human kids to brush and feed goat kids in their enclosure.
NRCS district conservationist Katie Fitzsimmons said the event provides a better opportunity to learn about the realities of the world than classwork does, as students can feel and see their subjects firsthand. Fitzsimmons said she and other organizers drew from their own educations to inform Ag Day.
"When we started this, it felt like when we were young, we got to go to a farm, or we had something like this when we were that age," she said. "If you're there, if you see it, if you touch it, you remember it more. That's a memory that kids will have growing up."
One of the new stations this year is the soil trailer, where kids saw a cross-section of underground life and the composition of the earth beneath their feet. Fitzsimmons hopes students will respond well to their newest addition.
"We get evaluations back from all the kids, and I always figure the kids will say they liked the horses or the cows the best," she said. "Normally their favorite station is about bees, but this year I would be really interested in the soil tunnel trailer."
Fitzsimmons thanked Marshall County Schools for transporting students and providing lunch for the kids, the Marshall County Commission for providing lunches for the adults, the Marshall County Fair board for the use of the fairgrounds, as well as the parents, speakers, volunteers, and the numerous organizations who also provided volunteers. These include the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, West Virginia Conservation Agency, WVU Extension Service, Marshall County Fair, Marshall County Farm Bureau, Marshall County Commission, and John Marshall Future Farmers of America.
"I believe we've lost one or two generations in the sense of knowing where their food comes from," added Mark Fitzsimmons, who serves as the Northern Panhandle Conservation District Supervisor and member of the planning committee. "We have to get them back and I feel the best way to do that is through their kids."