Fourth grade takes a field trip

Walter Sprague
Arts and Culture Reporter
 
On Thursday, Sept. 5, the FFA and 4-H Ag Expo played host to fourth graders from Newcastle, Upton and Elk Mountain. During the field trip sponsored by the Saddle and Sirloin chapter of the FFA, the children rotated around 13 stations from 9:30 a.m. to noon, learning about various vocations and activities that they usually would not have access to. The topics ranged from making commercial apple sauce to soil testing, from a shooting gallery to the apiary and honey production. 
According to Taylor Rieniets, the Newcastle High School agriculture teacher and FFA adviser, 90-plus students from Newcastle Elementary School, nine from Upton and 23 FFA members all participated in the event. Rieniets has run this program for the past four years. With her direction, the Ag 2, 3 and 4 classes determine which clubs get to come in to promote FFA education. 
“This gives the students organization and leadership skills,” Rieniets said. 
The ag students gain experience “setting up the stations and running them properly,” she said. The “hands-on” experience is instrumental in developing quality character in youth and gets them excited about the future of the Ag industry, according to Rieniets. The Ag Expo is just one event that helps preserve a way of life, Rieniets said, that is under threat by the 21st-century rush toward automation. 
The children spent 10 minutes at each station and rotated around the barn at the fairgrounds as FFA and 4-H advisers educated them on the various topics. While most of the fourth graders were from Newcastle, Upton and Elk Mountain schools, there was also a mix of homeschooled children in attendance. Rieniets said that the event is “open to anyone who wanted to attend.” She said that the primary objective was to teach children about the ag industries. While many students were from farms and ranches, others were from town and might not have access to information about agricultural life and work. 
The children, who had smiles on their faces and were asking appropriate questions, at the stations were benefitted by FFA advisers and members who were more than willing to share their expertise on different topics. 
At one station, Scott Johnson, of K & M Apiary LLC, educated attendees on the importance of obtaining honey from local bees. Most of the “honey” in the grocery and big box stores was not even honey, Johnson said, but was a syrup of sugar and thickeners. Most of it isn’t from the United States but is sold, by China, to other countries and then sold to the United States, he said. 
At another station, John Till and Hailey Turner, two student FFA advisers, explained about the ground beneath our feet. They layered different foodstuffs, such as cookie crumbs and pudding in plastic cups to represent the layers of soil and rock that make up the earth. Using these tasty treats as a way of visually demonstrating how the ground is layered had every student’s attention. Afterward, students then gleefully consumed the model of the earth.
Weston County 4-H educators Brittany Hamilton, John Orban and Galen Stafford held a shooting gallery. Each student advanced through gun safety education and then shot pellet guns at various moving targets contained inside a metal trailer, under close supervision. Hamilton thinks this was the favorite event for many of the kids. When the time came for them to rotate to the next station, a couple of boys asked to shoot “one more.” 
Exhibits displaying the different wildlife and livestock that exist in the area allowed children and adults to interact with a pig, a rabbit, goats, sheep, a miniature horse and three Scottish Highlander cows. The children were educated with a hands-on opportunity to learn about the behaviors of some of the native wildlife, such as elk and deer, sage grouse, turkeys, and other animals of local interest. Lacey Sloan had pictures, antlers, feathers and even owl pellets available to touch and interact with. Brad Troftgruben, with the USDA Wildlife Services, described the different predators in the area and some of the methods used to manage their numbers, including a demonstration of the female mating call of coyotes. The students got to touch and feel the fur from these carnivores.
After the expo was over, the FFA and 4H volunteers were treated to lunch by the Weston County CowBelles. 
Rieniets said she is excited to be able to bring the expo to the community again next year and anticipates that the number of stations, volunteers and students will increase.