News - North America
Student Field Days at Earth Heart Farms - Fall 2024!
Another successful Fall 2024 Student Field Days at Earth Heart Farms has just concluded! Between 3 October and 17 October, over 350 students from Northwest Ohio K-12 schools visited, experienced nature firsthand, and enjoyed perfect weather for their explorations. GLOBE Mission EARTH staff instructed students on collecting GLOBE data using Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere and Pedosphere protocols. Local conservation professionals served as volunteers in helping students investigate the flora and fauna on the property.
Students toured the property in small groups, each with a GLOBE leader and a conservation professional. They looked for local plants and wildlife and collected scientific data along the way.
Students were introduced to the importance of wetlands as a way to help reduce excess nutrient runoff that can lead to harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie. Students performed water tests, soil tests, cloud observations, and collected air and surface temperature observations. They also visited our new Soil Tent and investigated soil texture, composition and pH. As an added bonus, local artists were on site creating watercolor paintings of the landscape and interacted with students, showing them their artistic techniques.
Local news stations even visited to document the event!
- Cultivating conservationists at Earth Heart Farms
- Ohio farm teaches students about land conservation | Growing STEM
Earth Heart Farms comprises 80 acres in Ottawa County Ohio on the Little Portage River in the Lake Erie Basin. The land was taken out of production 32 years ago and restored to a native grassland through the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The current phase of restoration utilizes the Lake Erie Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and H2Ohio to protect environmentally sensitive lands.
Check out some photos below from the activities, and see our Photo Album for more!
GLOBE Mission EARTH and Earth Heart Farms would like to say a very special THANK YOU to our funders: NASA and the NOAA B-WET Program!
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GLOBE Mission Earth News: Student Research & Activities
News origin: University of Toledo - Partnership