Sunday, November 12, 2006
8-15

Agronomy Discovery.

Catherine Byers, Virginia Tech, 2933 Cara Court, Blacksburg, VA 24060

For the past five years the Virginia Tech Agronomy Club has participated in educational programs to instruct students from local elementary schools about agronomy.  The Commonwealth of Virginia has Standards of Learning, which is a curriculum guide set forth by the state for each grade level.  In order for extra-curricular field trips to occur, the program of interest must fulfill one or more of the requirements set forth in the SOLs.  Elementary students are required to know about soil science, including an understanding of soil formation, soil horizons, and soil characteristics.  They are also required to know about plant growth.  To meet these requirements, the Virginia Tech Agronomy Club, with the help of its advisors, Dr. Jim McKenna and Dr. Ozzie Abaye, as well as other department faculty members, have put together short lesson plans.  These plans involve a soil pit or a soil lithograph and teaching students how to plant a seed and showing them what happens to that seed as it grows.  Since the beginning of the program, the members of the VT Agronomy Club have presented over 65 lessons to more than 2,500 students, all the while, still attending classes of their own.  Not only are the Virginia Tech Agronomy Club members doing a service to the surrounding community, they are having fun while doing it.