5th Graders Crazy for Conservation

Curtis – Nearly 100 5th graders Hayes Center, Maywood, Medicine Valley, Southwest and Wauneta Palisade Elementary Schools will converge on the Curtis, NE City Park on September 19 for the 11th Annual 5th Grade Conservation Craze.

The Middle Republican Natural Resources District (NRD) hosts this free outdoor education day for 5th grade students. The event, formerly known as the Frontier County Area 5th Grade Outdoor Education Day, is celebrating it’s 11th year. Schools in the NRD's portions of Frontier, Red Willow, Hayes, and Hitchcock counties are eligible to attend.

The students will spend the day at six stations learning all aspects of conservation: playing Wildlife CSI and Dripial Pursuit, learning about the Oak Tree as our national tree, and getting down and dirty with hands-on mud activities to learn about land treatment and soils.

Students will also compete in various conservation games to win natural resources materials and curriculum to be used in their classrooms.

More than 1,000 students have attended the event since its inception in 1996. Presenters are drawn from a variety of local, state and federal agencies.

The event is sponsored and presented by the Middle Republican Natural Resources District, in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Common Scents Greenhouse and Nursery, Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture, and the Nebraska Well Drillers Association.

For more information, contact Kara Gall (308) 367-4281.

September 12, 2006