Talking Ag at LCC and LHS

Lamar High School FFA Students at the Kiddy Barn

Students learn about levers and pulleys

Elementary age students from the eastern region of Colorado have been learning about agriculture A to Z with the CSU Ag-Fest at Lamar Community College, Thursday, April 28, and the FFA Kid’s Barnyard exhibit Thursday and Friday at Lamar High School.

Twenty CSU staff, under the direction of Mick Livingston and Connie Cecil, in charge of CSU Ag-Curriculum projects, was showing 4th through 6th graders, “where food comes from” at the exhibit hosted at the LCC Wellness Center. Students from Holly, Granada, Pritchett, Alva Vista, McClave, Manzanola, Kim, Branson and groups of home-schooled youngsters, visited various booths to learn about separate segments of science that relate to crop growth cycles. Ten stations provided information ranging from ‘Water and You’ to ‘Rangeland Ecology; Pollination-Bees, A Taste of Honey; Microbes-Little Things Mean a Lot’ and ‘Power-Simple Tools Mean Big Power.” Some of the segments offered displays, coupled with a brief explanation, and one outside exhibit taught levers and ergonomics; how pulleys and levers add strength to simple machines. Livingston said this was the second year for the Ag-Fest which teaches youngsters how their day-to-day math and science classes in school translates to the real world on a farm or ranch.

It was also hands-on learning of a different sort at the FFA Kiddy Barn display at Lamar High School. FFA students were headquartered at the small barn to the southwest of the school, offering information to local school kids who were visiting the two-day display. Sheep, goats, rabbits and horses were corralled or fenced in for youngsters who came to pay a call.