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Impact Report

For plan Expanded 4-H & School Enrichment(Santa Fe County)
Date October 13, 2009, 5:25 pm
For Objective Medium-term Show medium-term objectives
Impact Report The chick embryology project is among the favorites of teachers for school enrichment projects in Santa Fe County. As spring approached schools from across the county were targeted to conduct this project in the classrooms. The response was overwhelming and materials for the 21 day project were booked solid for the several weeks. The lesson included approximately four lessons to be delivered throughout the duration of the project. Eggs were placed in incubators and educational display boards as well as supplementary handouts were placed at each site. During routine visits, the 4-H agent would candle the eggs and listen to heart beats with the students as well as discuss the developmental stages of the embryo. The agent conducted the project in grades ranging from first grade through fourth grade. This included seven first grade classrooms that were “spanish speaking only”. Curriculum for the project was translated into Spanish to meet the needs of these students. This included handouts as well as an in depth display board. The agent also conducted the project in two private schools that had never before used 4-H curriculum. The satisfaction of this project by both teachers as well as students was overwhelming. Students received a pre and post test to measure their knowledge gained throughout the project. Students were asked to define basic embryology terms, and basic egg anatomy. The results of this evaluation showed that there was an overall increase in knowledge of 27%. Teachers also received an evaluation asking them to describe their satisfaction with the project. Teacher evaluations showed extremely high satisfaction with the curriculum. Some comments from the teachers included; “Great, Wonderful, Yes-We’ll do it again next year.” “It is a great project. The Children were very interested and excited. They learned a lot and are familiar with embryology.” “Thank you very much for such a wonderful learning experience for our students. They were very excited about the Egg Embryology Unit. It’s an experience which I’m sure they will always remember.” Requests for the project have already been made for next year.” As a result of their work with the Santa Fe Children’s Water Festival the Ag agents developed a water education workshop to present during the festival. The workshop focused on water as it relates to agriculture. The information was delivered in a Jeopardy style game where students competed on teams using responders to answer questions. Students then reviewed the correct answers and explanations for these answers. Over two days the agents reached over 200 4th grade students and their teachers. The success of the game prompted the agents to pursue further funding to expand youth water education. A grant proposal was submitted to the Southern Regional Water Coordination Project. The grant was awarded and the project, now entitled "Water Ripples" received $12,000 to develop a youth water curriculum. The agents will work collaboratively with New Mexico State University, Louisiana State University, and University of Kentucky to develop both a computer based as well as a non-computer based curriculum to be delivered to students throughout the 13 state southern region. The original goals of The Water Ripples project included developing youth water education materials designed for interactive ‘fun-time’ learning. These materials were to include interactive educational games for age groups ranging 4th to 6th grade. Materials would be designed for standalone instruction as a packaged presentation for young audiences. Popular game formats such as Jeopardy, Trivial Pursuit, etc, would be used to facilitate learning about water. Games would introduce students to various concepts that can be adopted for a particular setting, e.g. rural or urban. Playing the games would help students understand relationships of cause and effect in protecting water resources. Each response, correct or incorrect, would provide additional information to enhance knowledge gained. The ultimate benefits of these program materials would be to increase understanding of water quality protection and conservation. Four interactive games with four categories in each game were developed. The games are entitled “H2OME Use”, Astounding Agriculture, Water Science 101, and “Let’s Get Growing”. Each game is designed in an electronic format for use in LED projection, much the same as large screen television. This capability will allow broader viewing for group team interaction. Approximately two hours of instructional ‘game playing’ will be available from the entire package. A hard copy of the game was also developed in a “Trivial Pursuit” style. The game contained cards with over 1500 questions that students could pick from. A draft of “Water Ripples” was presented to the Southern Regional Water Coordination Committee. Upon reviewing the game, the committee recommended that the entire game be converted to an electronic version rather than the hard copy. Currently work is being done to convert the game over to an electronic version. Work on this project is nearing completion and should be ready to pilot in select schools by the end of the year. Kid & Kows & More is an educational program designed to teach youth about where food and fiber comes from and for them to understand the importance of agriculture to their local communities. This program was once again offered to 500 fourth grade students from the Santa Fe area elementary schools as well as to 300 fourth grade students from the southern Santa Fe County and Torrance County elementary schools. The Agents secured funding to offset the cost of transporting the youth to the Santa Fe County Fair Grounds and the Moriarty Civic Center where the educational programs were conducted. The youth were rotated through the various stations where they learned about vegetables production and marketing, field crops, ranching, water quality and conservation, bees and apple production, and the dairy and sheep industry. The program information was presented by representatives from various organizations including, Cooperative Extension Service, New Mexico Beef Council, New Mexico Apple Council, Edgewood Soil and Water Conservation District, Farm to Table, Santa Fe County 4-H Council, and the Southwest Dairy Producers. To keep the program fresh and new the agents re-organized the program structure over the last couple of years offering longer workshops and incorporating a lunch break. The new schedule alleviated transportation issues and offered the students more time to spend at each workshop. The presenters had more time to deliver their information. The agents also added a new workshop to both sites. This year students had the opportunity to learn about the sheep industry in New Mexico as they watched a real sheep being sheared. The students and teachers responded positively to the change and participation increased from the previous years. This year 498 youth and 66 adults from 22 classrooms in 8 different schools were reached at the Santa Fe site. Unfortunately the Moriarty site had to be cancelled at the last minute due to the H1N1 virus scare. This past year the agent worked on an “Ag in the Classroom” package curriculum that could be delivered in a classroom through a series of lessons. The project entitled “Agriculture for Life” is broken into four different units; Livestock, Plant Production, Agriculture Bi-products, and Natural Resources. The intent of this project is to introduce classrooms to a broad idea of what agriculture means to them on a daily basis. The agent intends on delivering the hands-on lessons over a period of four separate lessons. Lessons will include science based experiments, arts and crafts projects, children’s literature, and food preparation. A preliminary version of the project was delivered at a private school that was new to 4-H curriculum. Included in their curriculum package was a field trip to a local farm where the students got to see sheep shearing, turkeys, and rabbits. Students also took a field trip to the local county fair. Another preliminary version of the curriculum was delivered at the Santa Fe County 4-H Cloverbud Day Camp. Both groups that took part in the project enjoyed the content. The agent is currently refining the project and hopes to advertise it and offer it in the public schools this school year.