Education
The Moore Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) coordinates a comprehensive educational program. Contact Penny Priest for a classroom presentation on any environmental education topic. We also provide environmental education for adults.
The Moore County Soil and Water Conservation District Board provides a scholarship to a graduating senior who wishes to further his or her education in natural resource conservation or any closely related field (environmental or agricultural studies). The $1500 scholarship will be awarded to any student graduating from a public or private school in Moore County and who plans to attend college in North Carolina. A good scholastic record is considered. The one-year non-renewable scholarship will be paid directly to the college upon the student's enrollment. Data required for scholarship eligibility is the application, the student's high school transcript, two letters of recommendation, and a letter from the applicant stating his/her plans and career goals.
Any interested student may speak with their high school counselor or contact Penny Priest at 910-722-3166.
"EnviroScape " is a groundwater demonstration designed to communicate the basic facts about groundwater and the connection between land activities and groundwater. This "hands on" model can be adapted to teach kindergarteners as well as adults. Students are asked to think about where our water comes from, point and non-point sources of pollution are explained and better ways to protect our environment are presented. The EnviroScape takes approximately 30 minutes to demonstrate. Contact Penny Priest at 910-722-3166 to schedule a demonstration.
Overview
The Envirothon program is a competitive event for three to five-member middle school teams to compete in a natural resources knowledge and ecology field day against other middle school teams. It stimulates, reinforces, and enhances students' interest in the environment and our state's natural resources. Resource subject areas are Soils, Forestry, Wildlife, Aquatics, and Current Environmental Issues.
An entire school class or group may participate in studying the resources, however, only 5 members may be on a team taking the test. Each team must have an advisor and can have alternates. Each class or school may have a maximum of three teams from each school. However, each team will have to be registered.
A resource station is set up for each of the subject areas (Soils, Forestry, Wildlife, Aquatics, and Current Environmental Issues), usually in an outside setting, where the teams will be given an exam on each of the resource subjects. The team with the highest score will be declared the Area 3 winner. Only the top seven highest-scoring teams will be eligible to compete at the state competition.
The written test will last for 10 to 15 minutes and will have approximately 20 questions. These questions are answered as a team and not as individual students. After finishing one station and at a set time, the teams will rotate to the next station. The test papers are graded and the scores are totaled to select the winner.
Test Stations
The five test stations will likely cover the following topics, but are not limited to these:
- Wildlife: Wildlife covers habitat, identification, foods, diseases, and management.
- Aquatics: Aquatics covers the ecology of water, stream improvement, water quality, plants and animals living in or around water, pollution, wetlands, and conservation.
- Forestry: Forestry covers tree identification, forest ecology, insects, diseases, parts of plants, and forest measurements.
- Soils: Soils cover classification, erosion, soil surveys, site suitability, current issues, profiles, soil characteristics, and conservation practices.
- Current Environmental Issues: Current Environmental Issues cover any current or newsworthy environmental issue.
The station competition will be conducted by professionals from cooperating agencies and/or independent environmental organizations.
Who
Competition is open to Ecology clubs, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, soil judging teams, 4H clubs, home study groups, environmental groups, or any group interested in competing. Team members must be middle school students (grades 5 through 8) and from the same school. An exception is made for home study groups, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, 4-H Clubs team members being from the same school. An advisor is required.
Overview
The Envirothon program is a competitive event for three to five-member high school teams to compete in a natural resources knowledge and ecology field day against other high school teams. It stimulates, reinforces, and enhances students' interest in the environment and our state's natural resources. Resource subject areas are Soils, Forestry, Wildlife, Aquatics, and Current Environmental Issues.
An entire school class or group may participate in studying the resources, however, only 5 members may be on a team taking the test. Each team must have an advisor and can have alternates. Each class or school may enter up to three teams in the Area competition. However, each team will have to be registered.
There will be a resource station set up for each of the subject areas (Soils, Forestry, Wildlife, Aquatics, and Current Environmental Issues), usually in an outside setting, where the teams will be given an exam on each of the resource subjects. The team with the highest score will be declared the Area 3 winner. Only the top seven highest-scoring teams will be eligible to compete at the state competition.
The written test will last for 10 to 15 minutes and will have approximately 20 questions. These questions are answered as a team and not as individual students. After finishing one station and at a set time, the teams will rotate to the next station. The test papers are graded and the scores are totaled to select the winner.
Test Stations
The five test stations will likely cover the following topics, but are not limited to these:
- Wildlife: Wildlife covers habitat, identification, foods, diseases, and management.
- Aquatics: Aquatics covers the ecology of water, stream improvement, water quality, plants and animals living in or around water, pollution, wetlands, and conservation.
- Forestry: Forestry covers tree identification, forest ecology, insects, diseases, parts of plants, and forest measurements.
- Soils: Soils cover classification, erosion, soil surveys, site suitability, current issues, profiles, soil characteristics, and conservation practices.
- Current Environmental Issues: Current Environmental Issues cover any current or newsworthy environmental issue.
The station competition will be conducted by professionals from cooperating agencies and/or independent environmental organizations.
Who
Competition is open to Ecology clubs, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, soil judging teams, 4-H clubs, home study groups, environmental groups, or any group interested in competing. Team members must be high school students (grades 9 through 12) and from the same school. An exception is made for home study groups, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and 4-H Clubs team members being from the same school. An advisor is required.
Creation of Project Food, Land, and People began in 1988 through a coalition of educators, agriculturalists, environmentalists, and resource conservationists who recognized that the United States and the world lacked information about the relationships between agriculture, the environment, and human populations.
Initiated by the Colorado Ag in the Classroom Task Force, FLP emerged to:
- Stimulate students to understand the interdependence of food, land and people;
- Create opportunities for awareness, critical thinking and skills
- Development;
- Develop responsible behavior
The Committee on Agricultural Education in Secondary Schools recommended that: "All students should receive at least some systematic instruction about agriculture beginning in kindergarten or first grade and continuing through 12th grade."
View a list of the Lessons Available (PDF).
Should you be interested in a presentation of a lesson, please call Penny Priest at the Moore County Soil and Water Conservation Office at 910-722-3166.
Beginning each January, the Moore Soil and Water Conservation District sponsors an Area Poster, Essay, and Speech Contest. The poster contest is held for third-fifth graders. The essay contest is held for sixth graders and the speech contest is held for sixth to eighth graders. The contests work toward educating our youth on the importance of conserving our natural resources. Each year a new theme is selected. Awards are given to each winner and first place winners move forward to compete in the Area contest.
Please contact Penny Priest, 910-722-3166, for rules, theme, and deadline.
Each year the Moore Soil and Water Conservation District sponsors a student to attend the Resource Conservation Workshop. This workshop is also sponsored by Carolina Farm Credit, the NC Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society, the Soil Science Department of NC State University, the NC Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and the NC Soil and Water Conservation Commission.
Any rising Sophomore, Junior, or Senior is eligible to attend. The workshop focuses on ways to conserve our natural resources. Topics to be covered are soil characteristics and soil conservation, wildlife, and fisheries management, nonagricultural uses for soils and water quality, and watershed management. There is also some recreational time for the students.
For more information, contact Penny Priest at 910-722-3166 or come by the office in the Agricultural Building on Pinehurst Avenue in Carthage.