By MAGGIE SULLIVAN, guest columnist
For over 20 years, fourth-graders in Brown County have participated in Fourth Grade Field Day. This program is a joint effort among the Brown County Soil & Water Conservation District, Brown County State Park and Purdue Extension of Brown County.
Every year, the content is a little bit different, but the concept remains the same: get kids excited about the outdoors and the world around us.
Nature provides a great opportunity for practicing science skills as well as the classic R’s of reading, writing and arithmetic. Students rotate between stations that cover subjects like forestry, water quality, fossils, food science, local wildlife, geology and more. Presenters are professionals from a variety of fields who enjoy the chance to share their passion with kids.
“I love how this event exposes students to learning across a lot of different subject areas,” says Purdue Extension Educator Kara Hammes. “Kids can’t know about what they’re interested in or passionate about if they haven’t ever been exposed to learning about it.”
It’s also a lot of fun. Her favorite memory as a presenter? Teaching students about septic systems using a human-sized version of “Hungry Hungry Hippos” with students on scooter boards.
DNR naturalist Patrick Haulter remembers a group that had participated in a creek stomp before coming to his station. “To say they were messy is an understatement.”
Alas, 2020 is a year of adaptation, and Fourth Grade Field Day is no exception. This fall, presentations will be held virtually over Zoom with presenters from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Purdue Extension, Brown County Soil & Water District, and Friends of Lake Monroe.
“Fourth Grade Field Day is a memorable day for the students every year,” says Brown County Soil & Water Educator Courtney McGuckin. “I am grateful that we are still able to offer it this year in the best way possible.”
Do you have any memories of Fourth Grade Field Day? It has changed locations over the years, switching from Brown County State Park to Waycross Camp and back again. The event was initially held in the spring but switched to a fall date in 2017 to avoid schedule conflicts with ISTEP testing. Fall is also arguably the best time of year to get outside — beautiful leaf color, cool weather, and a minimum of biting insects.
If you know any fourth-graders, be sure to ask them what they learned this year. Are strawberries berries and are tomatoes fruit? Who are the wild animals that live in our backyards? What is a watershed and do you live in one?
Ask them what your family can do to protect Indiana wildlife, keep our waterways clean, and support our local pollinators.
If you can, take your fourth grader outside this fall and see what you can discover together. There’s a wonderful natural world out there and you can make any day a field day.
Maggie Sullivan is the watershed coordinator for Friends of Lake Monroe. She can be reached at 812-558-0217 or [email protected].
