Educators explore student learning opportunities

Northeast Nebraska teachers visiting the Haskell Agricultural Laboratory this month learned that the 550-acre site is full of learning opportunities for students.

Teachers from Summerland Public School participated in the event.

The arboretum at the Haskell site, part of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s network of ag research centers around the state, can help children learn identification and biology for trees and plants. The beehives and pollinator gardens illustrate the interactions of insects and plants. The sweeping fields of corn and soybeans are prime sites to learn about everything from basic horticulture to soil conservation and nitrate management.

The lab’s Mesonet weather monitoring system can provide a starting point to explain meteorology, climate science and environmental management. And the range of ag equipment, from tractors to sensors to drones, can be of great interest for mechanically inclined students.

Teachers gathering at the lab, 15 miles north of Wayne, took part in the latest step in strategic planning by the Northeast Nebraska Agricultural Science and Natural Resources Education Compact. That partnership, created in 2019 and expanding in membership in 2022, involves a range of the region’s school districts, educational service units and higher education institutions including Nebraska’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

Haskell “is the perfect spot to do a lot of those things that we strive for,” Amy Hall, a teacher with Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Public Schools, said during the compact’s June 12 teacher summit at the ag lab. She cited the example of a honeybee event she holds to teach students about bee behavior and science.

“It would be fun for the kids to come out in the spring” to Haskell, she said, “and see all the different wildflowers and what impact they have on the honeybees.”

Brainstorming during the planning session showed the encouraging potential for future educational collaboration, said Meaghan Vollers, another teacher with Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Public Schools.

“I think that there is a great potential to bring science in a realistic way to students,” she said, “not only agri-science but biological sciences and environmental sciences, even physical science, so that students can explore this in a tangible way and excite that interest in learning.”

Participants in the teacher summit included representatives from CASNR, Nebraska Extension, Haskell and the university’s Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication Department. Tammy Mittelstet, CASNR’s statewide education and career pathways coordinator, explained online assets, including a comprehensive CASNR newsletter, to inform teachers about educational resources and events.

The precision agriculture program at Northeast Community College in Norfolk is a helpful information source, said Mittelstet, the northeast compact’s coordinator. The college’s precision ag instructor, Courtney Nelson, provides online information including lesson plans and related material on precision agriculture. She also uses a mobile classroom for outreach to schools in the northeast region.

Mini classes on water sampling, nitrate application, farm-to-table concepts and mechanics of farm equipment are educational possibilities at the lab. So is creating STEM learning initiatives where students can come to Haskell on a monthly basis to check ongoing projects.