Local School Visits Playa Classroom, Takes on Water Shortages
Sixty high school freshman students and their teachers from New Deal, TX
took a Field Trip to OC’s Playa Classroom in Nazareth, Texas on May 15th,
to learn more about playa ecosystems and water conservation. Many students are interested in playa
conservation and restoration, and well as learning how to conserve limited
groundwater in an arid land. The opportunity to walk through the playa basin
and view different plants and insects was a priceless opportunity.
On May 18th, to complete their Save Our Farms Project, New Deal
High School teacher Kara Craig and freshman students presented potential
solutions that may conserve water, while maintaining agricultural productivity
in West Texas. These ideas, along with three-dimensional models representing
their concepts and thematic maps outlining their research, were demonstrated to
the High Plains Underground Water District, Ogallala Commons, Texas Tech
faculty, South Plains College faculty, Prairie Workshop LLC., and local
farmers. The specific area that
these students studied is a 7.5 million acre area over the Ogallala Aquifer
found in West Texas. This area mimics the area within the High Plains
Underground Water Conservation District #1.
Throughout the development of the project, students maintained an
interactive blog to document their discoveries and they met with local experts
to ask questions about this pressing issue. "It's amazing the ingenuity that comes from these
students once we, the teachers, loosen the reigns and let them discover on
their own" Ms Craig remarked.
The project won the GREEN Award, a program sponsored by Texas Tech
University's International Center for Arid and Semiarid Land Studies (ICASALS),
with the purpose of encouraging K-12 teachers to create projects that will
heighten student awareness of environmental issues.
Community Intern Conducts Wellness Fair for Alternative High School in Lubbock
On May 4, 2012 OC Community Intern Sriutha Reddy - a senior (now graduated) student at Texas Tech University conducted a wellness fair for students at Frenship ISD's Reese Alternative High School. The program included presentation by:
Fitwell
Body
Mind Intiative
Local
Llano Cooking Demo
Impact
Tech
Sprouts
Healthy Snacks
TTU
Student Dietician Association Sugar Presentation
TTU
Athlete Discussion
Overall, the event was very successful and over 60 High School students, their teachers and the administration learned a few things about living healthier.
Sriutha Reddy will be attending medical school this fall at Texas Tech University and would like to continue planning and conducting wellness fairs for area students. We look forward to working with her again!
