Two members of the Natural Resources Conservation Service presented to Mr. Lauffer’s Aquatics-Forestry-Wildlife class. Mark Myers and Rob Weaver, both soil conservationists for NRCS, spoke to the class on the importance of soil conservation.

They used a power point designed to stress areas of importance in soil science. Topic included soil erosion, soil structure and texture, use of the websoil survey, conservation planning, stream bank fencing, and nutrient management.

Bryan Peter, Paul McFarland and RJ Davis literally get their hands dirty as they determine  soil texture with NRCS soil conservationist Rob Weaver.  This  a hands-on lab on determining soil texture using tactile senses and forming a ribbon of soil to determine the percentages of clay, silt and sand in a sample.

Seth Yoder, Nathan Good, Paul MacFarland and Bryan Peter study a soil profile monolith and identify    the various soil horizons and the characteristics of each.

Lastly the NRCS representatives showed some slides of best management practices they had helped local landowners put into place. They talked about what made their jobs rewarding.  High on the list of positives were that you get to work in different locations and situations, that each day is different, that you help people solve problems and make a difference for the environment.

Three teams of Garden Spot students wil be competing in the Lancaster County Envirothon on May 3. One of the five stations in which they will be tested involves soil. The others are aquatics, forestry, wildlife and this year’s current issue non-point source pollution.

Being shot, surviving, and still being able to forgive was the message brought from Chad Esh when he met with the Grassland FFA on Wednesday, April 4, 2012. In February of this year, the Grassland FFA held a fundraiser called Whole Hog for Chad, to support this local young man who was shot while on a missions trip to Haiti. A few of the FFA members knew and worked with Chad, and thought it would be nice to donate the proceeds  from this fundraiser to help cover his medical costs and other expenses.

A Check for $2,500.00 was presented to Chad Esh from the Grassland FFA, after he shared his amazing story with the FFA members. All who listened were blessed and inspired by Chad, who said he plans to go back to Haiti to help again in the future. Grassland FFA was delighted to be able to help and wishes to thank all who supported the Whole Hog event. This year the event had a local connection and an amazing outcome.

SLLC (State Legislative Leadership Conference) was held in Harrisburg on April 18-20, 2012. Three sophomore Grassland FFA members attended: Clayton Lehman, Abbey Martin and Rachel Weaver. During this conference, members were given the opportunity to work with actual bills that were in the Pennsylvania house and senate that dealt with issues that impacted young people and agriculture. Students went through three workshops and learned about proper etiquette, how a bill goes through the system to become a law, and parliamentary procedure. Afterwards, the FFA members did some role-play and were split up into either the senate or the house to discuss the bills. The students were also involved in a service project to a retirement home, orphanage or church. On the final day of the conference, members met with, talked to, and ate breakfast with their state representative, Gordon Denlinger. The members took a tour of the capital. Everyone who attended from Garden Spot said that SLLC was the best conference they ever attended. The members were accompanied by student teacher Robyn Bechtel and FFA Advisor Bob Lauffer.

Can you find our three participants in the sea of blue on the steps of the capital?

Members of the Grassland FFA recently competed in county and area competitions. The competitions were hosted at Garden Spot High School on Tuesday March 27^th. The evening started with a demonstration by last year’s team which won the county and area competition and fell just shy of making it to the state championship round. Team members were: President- Cortney Martin, Vice-President- Jon Martin, Secretary (early grad Alli Weller with Katelyn Byram filling in) Treasurer- Regina Sauder, Reporter- Kaitlin Zimmerman, Sentinel – Paul McFarland.

Jon Martin, Cortney Martin and Regina Sauder share a laugh during the questioning phase of the Parliamentary Procedure Competition.

This year’s team, the top team in Lancaster County, then competed against Octorara, the top team in Chester County. Both teams qualified for regional competition but the Grassland team will not be competing due to several scheduling issues.

Congratulations to the following team members for their first place effort: President- Paul McFarland, Vice-President- Jon Martin, Secretary- Katelyn Byram, Treasurer- RJ Davis, Reporter- Seth Yoder and Sentinel – Connor Bender.

2012 team members taking the written exam.

In an FFA  parliamentary procedure competition contestants must take a written exam and an open book research quiz using Robert’s Rules of Order. They then walk into the contest site and have a card with a main motion and 5 other motions: 2 incidental, 2 subsidiary and 1 privileged at their seat. Each seat has one of the five motions highlighted. Contestants have one minute to individually gather their thoughts and must then conduct opening ceremonies and discuss and act upon the main motion. Each contestant is responsible for appropriately working the particular parliamentary motion highlighted on their card into the discussion. The competition brings out the best in team work and the ability to problem-solve and think quickly on your feet. These are skills FFA members can use throughout life.

9th grade environmental science students completed an authentic assessment of their understanding of the complex issues involved in land use planning as relates to watersheds. Students worked in small groups to take what they had learned in the watersheds and wetlands unit and put it to use. Each group had to determine how and where various land uses would be implemented within a watershed.  Agricultural education student teacher, Robyn Bechtel, developed a 3 dimensional template out of Styrofoam to simulate the topography of the watershed.  Students were given certain required parameters that had to be included in within their watershed such as:  housing, a way of making a living, forests and open space, roads, cropland, a landfill an of course water features. They were also encouraged to locate wetlands strategically throughout the watershed. Once the mock watershed was designed it was drawn with markers on a large sheet of butcher paper and then fitted onto the Styrofoam mold.  Each land use was depicted with a different colored marker so that the students could track any runoff or pollution and trace its origin. Students had to reach agreement as to where they would locate land uses within their watershed. Students explained why they had made the decisions they did regarding the placement of the various elements and were asked to predict what would happen during a “rain event”. The instructors then created a simulated rain event by spraying water on the watershed.

Students observed what happened within their watershed and then evaluated the results and discussed what they could have done differently to reduce run off and pollution.  Students were evaluated on their decision making as well as how well they understood and suggested potential modifications. The environmental science class incorporates a hands-on component along with the written unit exam for each of the units in the course.  Students rated the hands on watershed assessment very high and felt it was a great way to learn and show what they had learned about runoff, infiltration and pollution within a watershed.