Rock Hills Elementary students learn about conservation

Eight sponsoring agencies pro- vided help for the Jewell County Conservation fall education programs held Thursday, Sept. 26 at the elementary school gym and the Mankato City Park. 

Each kindergarten through fifth grade student was able to view the soil tunnel, earth balloon and play a game of Predator vs Prey during the conservation morning.

The non-inflatable soil tunnel was manned by Shannon Smith, Amanda Johnson and Grace DeMars.

What are the keys to healthy soil, soil biology and just what is alive in soil were the topics explained to the students. Soil has a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids and organisms which work together to allow it to support life. Students were reminded that soil provides us with food, feed, fiber and fuel and helps provide habitat for wildlife.

Each student walked around the earth balloon, and was shown volcanoes, mountains and the seven continents. The varying colors for both land and water were explained. Browner colors representing drier areas and greener colors representing land that receives more moisture and grows more plants, plus the darker the blue of an ocean the deeper that area is, was explained. Then they went inside the balloon with Jeremy Jacobs and Sherry Koster to get a view from the inside out!

Javier Marin, Brenda Mikesell, Corbin Larson and Gunner Coffman helped with the game of tag called Predators vs. Prey.  Some students were the Predators – a snake, hawk or coyote. The others were the Prey – pheasants and quail. The need for habitat, cover, food and water for all wildlife was explained. Students who were the pheasants and quail quickly found out how hard it could be to get from the cover through the habitat to their food when there was less cover. Adding more predators made it ever harder to get to where their food was.

In the afternoon the fifth grade classes walked to the city park for their conservation tour.

Jan Boyles was the timer, to keep each of the three groups rotating through their 15 minute stops at Forestry, Soils, Stream Flow Trailer, Wildlife & Parks, and Worm Farmand Composting.

Ashleigh McMichael showed students recently cut examples of hedge, cottonwood, locust and cedar. Tree growth rings and the benefits of planting trees was explained.

Matt Brungardt reviewed the state soil – Harney Silt Loam. The differences in texture between sand, silt and clay was shown and soils commonly found in Jewell County were gone over.

Sherry Koster and Jeremy Jacobs were stationed at the Stream Flow Trailer. Each student had hands on participation in stream design, dam building and lake dredging.

Brandon Tritsch brought the always popular Skins and Skulls display. Students were allowed to guess what kind animal provided each pelt.

The most talked about stop was Shannon Smith's Worm Farm. The red wigglers were busy turning compost into worm castings. All the students learned that the longest earth worm ever, was found in South Africa in 1967. The Microchaetus rappi was 21 feet in length the 0.8 inches in diameter.

After the five stops, students played corn hole for prizes. Pencils, highlighters, bracelets and candy were provided by the Jewell County Conservation District. Rick and Sheila Diamond, Mankato, and Rhonda Coffman, Agenda, provided the corn hole games.

The following education partners helped with the days events:

Gunner Coffman-Cloud County Conservation District; Amanda Johnson-Mitchell County Conservation District; Grace DeMars-student assistant; Shannon Smith-Ottawa County Conservation District; Brenda Mikesell and Corbin Larson-Republic County Conservation District; Javier Marin-Pheasants Forever; Brandon Tritsch-Kansas Dept. of Wildlife & Parks; Ashleigh McMichael-Kansas Forest Service; Matt Brungardt-NRCS Soil Scientist; Jeremy Jacobs and Rick Gardner-Jewell County NRCS and Jan Boyles-Jewell County volunteer. The district's conservation education activities would not have been possible without their help.