On Thursday, April 25 and Friday, April 26, North Harfords will be hosting “Food for America Day.” Around 11,000 second graders from eight different schools, including North Harford Elementary, will be in attendance.
Ag teacher Mrs. Ammie Densmore says that “Food for America” is “a field trip that we [NHHS] provide for the second graders of Harford County.” She added that students will move through stations and “learn about agriculture, beekeeping the green house, plants and everything natural resources and ag related.” These stations will be student run and include topics such as piglet raising, showing of animal and annual fairs and showings, and different aspects of North Harford’s magnet program.
North Harford students will be touring around groups of ten to the 22-23 sations. Sophomore, Sophie Reinert will be running the piglet station and teaching about the needs of piglets such as their diets and how to raise them. Reinert shares that “the piglets are on a special show feed formula to help promote weight gain to be shown for the Harford County Farm Fair.”
The pond water quality booth will be run by junior Clayton McGraw. Mcgraw is educating participants about the water quality observed at the school over the past seven years. This information is provided by Mrs Laura O’Leary’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed classes over the years. McGraw will “tell the kids about why the testing is important and what data shows.”
Stations will also include the different animals who are a part of the NH campus. . Students will also visit the aquaculture lab in O’Leary’s room and see the numerous aquatic animals there and learn information about types of animal, filter types and instructions for each. Beekeeping, which is “a widely unknown practice at North Harford,” says Reinert will be taught by O’Leary’s students who raised the bees.
Densmore explains how at the end of the day, the elementary students “will be able to plant something to take home and grow.” She also talks about how she has had “students that come up to me and say ‘oh I came here in 2nd grade, I had so much fun!’ so hosting this event helps spark interest for students as well”
