20 Years for Area Youth Earth Festival
W-C 5th Grade Attend
by Randy Pryor
May 12, 2010
By Randy Pryor
Extension Educator
Saline County
20 YEARS FOR AREA YOUTH EARTH FESTIVAL
Who would have thought a special emphasis, educational activity for youth coordinated by University Extension in Gage, Jefferson and Saline Counties would last 20 years. Area fifth graders had a blast last week (April 21st-22nd) at Camp Jefferson south of Fairbury and learned many new things.
Partnering with Extension on the event was the Lower Big Blue NRD, Little Blue NRD, NRCS, Fairbury FFA and a group of dedicated retirees from the Jefferson County and Fairbury area. Camp Jefferson provides an excellent location for the special event.
Attending this year were fifth graders from Friend, Freeman, Fairbury, Meridian, Tri-County, and Wilber-Clatonia. Beatrice Elementary Schools included Paddock Lane, Cedar, Stoddard, St. Joseph Catholic, and St. Paul Lutheran. The event is planned such that we teach rain or shine.
The main topics this year were Buffer Trees (youth experienced planting seedling trees in an actual buffer strip along the Little Blue River); Earthquake Heaven (youth learned about earthquakes and experimented with building structure effects using jello, marshmallows, and spaghetti); Wild World of Pests (youth learn multiple ways to control pests with living pest examples); River Runs Dry (large sand boxes simulate a river that shows interaction of groundwater wells with river water level and bank erosion causes and preventions); Rain Dance and Mud Pies (rainfall simulator visually shows the value of residue on the soil surface on land); Conservation Games (youth learn about crops and conservation); and Prairie Wind Power (youth learn about wind power from small scale wind turbines). Each educational session lasts 25 minutes and speakers get a chance to interact with the students with hands-on activities.
The Prairie Wind Session was new and from feedback, the kids really responded to it. John Hay, Extension Educator in Biological Systems Engineering at UNL; Eric Stehlik, Saline County 4-H Associate; and Fairbury FFA volunteers led the session. Through a grant, I purchased three weightlifter wind turbines and three volt-meter turbines about two feet tall. They have small, direct drive generators and rotor hubs that allowed for science experiments. Youth tried different rotor designs and pitch angles to generate power. Many did not know wind turbines could produce different kinds of power and how the design of the rotor blades can really affect the power. We used 20 inch box fans to supply the wind power to run the class sessions.
Retired Extension Educators Bob Stritzke and Larry Germer helped us set up for the program and helped in teaching. They do an excellent job each year. Volunteers make it happen and with this field trip, the youth and teachers left the camp with a lot of positive comments.
