Event

Activity Plan Explanation:

Title of Event: Adventures in Agroecology

Target Audience: Group of Track Out Kids from Lake Lynn Community Center

Programming Wave: See below.

Group Starters:

• Bus Questionnaire- This activity was a way to get students pumped up and excited about the field trip. We asked fun, simple trivia questions related to agriculture. This activity helped participants start anticipating the tour of the agroecology farm and related activities. See appendix for trivia questions.

Welcome:

• We had the people who worked on the farm introduce themselves, as well as the rest of us introduced ourselves. We then went on a tour of the farm.

Bulk of the Wave:

• Planting Seeds - Students learned their lesson from the agroecology team about NC crops and how they are grown. After the lesson was given, we directed the students to the area that had been set up for planting the seeds. Each student was given a 6-count egg carton and 6 different types of seeds of vegetables that are grown in North Carolina. The activity leaders guided the students, step-by-step, on how to fill the egg cartons with soil, place a seed in the soil, then cover the rest of the seed up with soil. The purpose of this activity was to give the participants a chance to gain hands-on experience with planting seeds. The students did this activity right after learning about the seed-planting process, so having them plant their own seeds completed their understanding of the process of planting a seed.

Team Dividing:

• Animal Sounds Game - Students were given slips of paper that have an animal on it. They were then instructed to keep this animal a secret and told to spread out and leave space between them and the other people. They were instructed to cover their eyes and make the sound of the animal that was given to them. They found the other students with the same animal only by listening to the sounds they are making. The first group of animals to find each other wins. This activity transitioned students from plant lessons to animal lessons. See appendix for the list of animals.

Climax Event:

• Cow Milking Relay - We introduced this activity after playing the animal sounds game. Students were divided into 4 teams. They raced one by one to the other end of the field to a cutout of a cow with a glove of milk (water) attached underneath. They "milked" the cow to fill their cup and then raced back. The first team that filled their cups won. This activity gave participants the chance to play a fun activity with examples of animals that are on a farm, and how the milk is produced. It also gave the participants a chance to engage with one another and develop team building skills.

Program Enhancements:

Planning :

We asked the track out coordinator to really hype up the event to the kids and families. We also sent advertisements for the events that make the event seem fun.

Anticipation:

We told Lake Lynn Community Center about this field trip and we had them let the families of the kids know that they will be going on a field trip to the NC State’s agroecology farm. They were ready for us when the bus came.

Travel To:

On the bus ride to the farms, we asked the kids farm-related trivia questions and played simple games such as making farm animal sounds to help excite them. Team leaders also talked in announcer style voices to get the students excited.

Participation:

During the event the students were able to participate in hands on activities, such as a pollination activity with Cheetos and planting their own plants in egg cartons so they wouldn’t get bored with just a person teaching them about plants. They also were able to play some fun games such as the cow milking game and the animal sounds game.

Travel Home:

We walked back to the bus with the children, and talked with kids personally and asked them about what we learned that day and what their favorite part of the day was. We walked them onto the bus and waved them off.

Reflection:

We sent the kids home with both a craft and a plant of their own so they can have something to remember the field trip and their experience with agriculture by.

Marketing Plan:

Our program consisted of a “captive” participants. We took a group of already existing track out kids on a field trip to the Agroecology Farm, therefore we did not have to depend on marketing to ensure that we had participants at our program. However, we did have to send general information about our program to the track out director so he could share the information with the parents. The track out location we chose had 30 kids registered for that week. The highest number of students who had attended track the days before our program was 24 students, and on the day of our event there were 29 students. This showed us that the information that we sent the track out director was effective in that it either interested the student, parent, or both, and persuaded the parent to send their child on the day of our program. Therefore, although we did not have to “market” our event, our information about the event was still effective in getting more students to come.