Students get into nature with help of Arwin Provonsha and others

The Paper of Montgomery County Online
August 28, 2008

Montgomery County fourth graders got down and dirty for a lesson Wednesday.

The lessons that the students learned Wednesday - and even more will be learning today - were not presented in a classroom. They were part of a series of presentations at the annual Field Days sponsored by the Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District at Cain's Homelike Family Farm on Indiana 47 near Darlington.

"It was really neat the way they had it all set up," Derek Mace, a fourth-grader at St. Bernard's Catholic School, said.

"I really liked the part about lumber because I was interested in learning how trees grow," said Benjamin Dugard, a fourth-grader at Sommer Elementary School.

The Cain and Lough families serve as hosts for the event, said Connie Cleek, administrative assistant with the Soil and Water Conservation District.

"We have speakers ready to share their knowledge about water quality, forestry, entomology, wildlife, wetlands, prairie grasses, worms and composting," she said.

On Wednesday, home-schooled students and their peers from Ladoga, New Market, Sommer, St. Bernard's, Sugar Creek, Walnut and Waveland elementary schools attended the sessions. Students from Hoover and Pleasant Hill elementary schools are scheduled to do the same today.

There were eight learning stations set up on the 80-acre Cain farm. The Incredible Journey - which chronicled the natural water cycle of a raindrop - was hosted by Southmont's FFA Wednesday and North Montgomery FFA today.

Other presenters were: Don Emmert, water quality education; Adam Dumond, district forester, Prophetstown State Park; Don Bickel and Jim Spence, Pheasants Forever; Mary Cutler, naturalist, Tippecanoe State Parks, discussing wildlife; Tim Haltom talking about worms and composting, Jim Luzar of Purdue Extension of Montgomery County, teaching about wetlands, and Arwin Provonsha, entomology department, Purdue University - the self-described "bug guy."

Students enjoyed touching things like cockroaches, furs of wild animals and red worms used for recycling. They walked thru prairie grasses, learned about wetlands and their benefits to the land and how to identify a tree by its characteristics. They even used magnifying glasses to identify macro-invertebrates.

Kenny Cain, who farms the property with his brother Terry and family, said the Soil and Water Conservation District started the Field Days 10 years ago. The Cain Farm has served as the location for the project throughout that time, said Cain, who's also a supervisor with the Soil and Water Conservation District.

"One of the primary missions of the Soil and Water Conservation District is supposed to be education, that's sort of how this all came about," he said.