May 12-13 marked the 16th annual Ag School Days held at the OSU Extension Eastern Agriculture Research Station in Belle Valley, Ohio.
This two-day event is presented by Noble and Guernsey County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, along with Eastern Agriculture Research Station staff, and the Noble and Guernsey OSU Extension.
More than 400 third grade students from Noble and Guernsey counties from six different schools attended this year’s event.
In the past 16 years well over 4,000 third graders have attended this event. Kids got to enjoy 12 different stations involving embryo development, electrical safety, animal products, nutritional foods from the farm, wildlife, forestry, sheep production, sheep shearing/wool spinning, bee-keeping, stream monitoring, soils, and fishing.
Educational events
Professionals from the ODNR Division of Wildlife, Division of Forestry, OSU Extension Educators, OSUE Master Gardner’s, Noble County Health Department Staff, NRCS, and Soil and Water staff/supervisors all took the role of giving multiple 15-minute presentations to many different groups throughout the two day event.
Kids got a chance to hold a baby lamb, hold baby chicks, see a sheep get shorn, make a candle from bees wax, dress up like a beaver, go fishing, go on a hayride, plant their own marigold in a pot to take home, and even look for crayfish and salamanders in the stream.
For some of these third-grade students it was the first time they ever got to experience something like this.
Thanking sponsors
Ag School Days would not be possible without our sponsors and presenters we have every year.
The Ag School Day Committee would like to give a huge thanks to this year’s sponsors and presenters. Sponsor donations are used to purchase T-shirts for every third grader that attends Ag School Days along with covering the cost of teaching materials at each station.
