Sustainable Inquiry Research and Education Network (SIREN)

Sustainable Inquiry Research and Education Network (SIREN)

Summary

This is the third annual report on the SIREN grant relating to engaging educational institutions in SW Minnesota and their respective faculty. The first year our report focused on the planning leading up to classroom implementation.
The second year was focused on actual in classroom activities centered around the impacts of varying soil nutrient levels for plants and the impacts of these varying levels on the plants themselves. With the ever growing interest in soils among university researchers and farmers as well we decided to make the focus of the third year center around a single factor in soil studies, namely soil pH, what it is, how to measure it and how the varying levels impact plant growth and how all of this connects to sustainable agriculture and sustainable management decisions for farmers as well as others.
To better introduce the participants to soil research and more sophisticated approaches we spent the better part of the Fall 2011 workshop touring the research plots and other research structures at the SWROC. It allowed the participants to see first hand the complexity of research that can result in some meaningful data collection which in turn can change the landscape of agriculture and agriculture practices.
Much of the balance of the September workshop was spent having the teachers review both orally and pictorially their experiences from the past school year working with the students in the classroom on the soil nutrients studies.
The workshop finished with a roundtable discussion among the participants about what area of soil as it relates to agricultural sustainability work they would like to look at for the upcoming school year. The outcome was the decision to move forward with soil pH.
The November workshop was then spent introducing the concept of soil pH, defining it, understanding it and looking at possible ways that the concept might be introduced into the classroom for study and inquiry including better understanding of soils and how soil pH impacts sustainability across agriculture. Soil pH was decided on as a natural transition from the previous year’s work. Soil pH is also an area that would introduce new concepts to the students and teachers alike by requiring them to use some more advanced laboratory equipment.
Much of the remainder of the November workshop was then having the teachers more deeply immersed in the concept of soil pH through presentations by SWROC staff soil scientists.
In the March workshop, after a review of the concepts of soil pH the teachers were given hands on opportunities to learn how to operate soil pH measuring instruments and lay the ground work for the actual work they intended to carry out in their respective classrooms by school year’s end.
The year culminated in two days of farm tours for the participants. In the summer of 2012 we toured a total of four farms over two days. Two if the farm operations were certified organic operations; one of over 1000 acres in size and the second a father/son operation a bit smaller in size. Both operations were experienced organic systems operators. The two conventional operations toured were a large row crop farming operation that included a confinement hog enterprise. This particular farm was especially interesting because of its location near a major river in the area. It was exceedingly beneficial for the tour participants to see how this farmer has over the years used management practices to mitigate potential erosion problems and yet farm in a very exemplary stewardship fashion. The second conventional operation consisted of both a confinement hog enterprise and an intensive beef herd grazing operation. It too was a great example of high regard for sustainable agriculture practices.
More information: http://swroc.cfans.umn.edu/ResearchandOutreach/K-12EducationProfessionalDevelopment/SustainableInquiryResearchEducationNetwork/index.htm

• 11.2.2011 Workshop Agenda
• Soil pH Slides
• 9>13.2011 Workshop Agenda
• 3.5.2012 Workshop Agenda

Objectives/Performance Targets

Because the teachers would ultimately be required to go beyond talking to the students about soil pH by asking them to measures it, they needed to familiarize themselves with the instrumentation necessary to make these actual measurements and then transfer this knowledge and information on to the students. Much of the intent and many of the objectives of the entire SIREN project have centered around actual hands on learning by the teachers and then transferring this same protocol to the students. Incorporating the pH study was no exception. Teachers actually had a significant part of the November workshop totally devoted hands on to using the pH meters at the SWROC.

• Investigating pH of Common Household Products
• Question of the Day
• Question of the Day 11-28-12
• Question of the Day
• pH Experiment Protocol
• Soil pH Worksheet
• Household Acids

Accomplishments/Milestones

Going back to some of the original goals outlined in the proposal we can see even clearer how we have been able to move in the direction of :
a. teaching more sustainable agriculture science content because both the teachers and the students better understand sustainable concepts,
b. acquiring new classroom tools as well as new classroom resources,
c. being able to embed the science of sustainable agriculture as part of the broader grade level science curriculum.
As a result we have now been able to acquire the pH measurement tools for the participating schools. This will allow them to carry on the teaching and learning scenarios into the future. In addition we have acquainted the teachers with lab instrument protocol and will be taking this to another level during the 2012-2013 school year when we will be looking at crop and soil nutrient measurements through hydroponic manipulation. The intent is to demonstrate the direct connection between plant husbandry and sustainable soil fertility management.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

As facilitators for such a project as SIREN, it is many times less than an exact science in attempting to determine the impacts one is having on those participating in the endeavor. One reliable indicator many times is direct feedback from those participating in the project. So we have again included personal testimonials from the teachers from the past year who have been part of the pH study .

• Participant Testimonials

Collaborators: