Educational Efforts
The Alachua County Soil and Water Conservation District promotes and/or sponsors the following educational programs:
Themed Poster Contest
The poster contest is held annually in associated effort with the Association of Florida Conservation Districts. This contest features elementary, middle, and high school students. The contest is conducted with winners chosen locally, and then those winners move on to compete at the state level.
The AFCD chooses the poster topic each year. The following can be found on the AFCD website concerning this year’s topic:
This year’s theme is “Forests for People: More than you can imagine!” We want to connect people to the forest whether they have one in their back yard, in their state or no forests at all. We all have a connection to the trees in the forest that provide wood for our homes, furniture or cork for the center of our baseballs. We can thank trees that help clean the air we breathe. Stay tuned for lots of exciting education materials and other resources to help you celebrate the 2011 International Year of Forests.
Forests for People
More than you can imagine!
AFCD 2011 Poster Contest Theme
http://www.afcd.us/postercontest.shtml
High School Speech Contest
The speech contest is held annually in associated effort with the Association of Florida Conservation Districts. This contest features students in grades 6-12. The contest is conducted with winners chosen locally, and then those winners move on to compete at the state level. Check out this year’s winners.
The AFCD chooses the speech topic each year. The following can be found on the AFCD website concerning this year’s topic:
2011 Speech Contest
What Is the Economic Impact of Florida Forests?
This Contest is designed to develop leadership through participation in public speaking activities and stimulate interest in conserving our natural resources, especially as it relates to Agriculture.
This Contest is open to any Florida school student, grades 6 – 12, including home school students and virtual school students.
Each Soil and Water Conservation District will select one Contestant to compete in their Area Contest.
Each Area 1st place contestant will advance to the State Competition
http://www.afcd.us/speech.shtml
Envirothon
The Alachua County Soil and Water Conservation District supports the Florida Envirothon. The following information can be found on the Florida Envirothon’s website:
The Florida Envirothon is a problem-solving, natural resource education program for high school students. It is a field-oriented program in which students, working in teams of five, learn to use critical thinking skills, work as a team, and develop problem-solving and communications skills to answer written questions or conduct hands-on investigations about environmental issues. The program focuses on the following five areas of study: Aquatic Ecology, Forestry, Soils/Land Use, Wildlife, and Current Environmental Issue. The current environmental issue is different each year. These interrelated and broad study areas teach a holistic approach to natural resource conservation and can easily be incorporated into a teaching curriculum.
http://flenvirothon.com/index.htm
Land Judging Competition
Land Judging is a contest in which local 4H students order and describe strata of soil. Here are some pictures from Alachua’s land judging contest 2011:
