Tuesday, January 06, 2009

By Ashley Moravec, Amy Wimer, Faith Wonder
The Mead High School Human Leadership class has been conducting a service learning project which includes several community senior citizens.

The seniors have been invited to the classroom one day each month during the semester of the class and do various activities with students in the class.

At the first meeting on September 5th, the students asked the seniors to come in and take pieces of toilet paper. The papers represented parts of their lives and they were asked to tell the students about them. They also played the “Skittle Game,” where each candy color represents different questions they had to answer. 
“I enjoyed learning about their past and they were fun to talk to and be with” said Mead High School senior, Faith Wonder.

At the second meeting on October 3rd, the students and seniors propagated plants, potting new plants from cuttings of house plants.

They propagated several different kinds of house plants including aloe vera, wandering jew and jade plant. One of the most popular plants that the seniors were curious about is called “The Pregnant Lady.”

On November 15th, students and adults were asked to bring food from their heritage.  If they have multiple cultures they brought  something that they really liked to eat.  Recipes were shared so anyone who really liked the food could try to make it themselves.

The final session will be held on December 17th.  Plans for the theme of that activity are still being planned by the class.

Mead FFA at the Ag Awareness Festival
By Cassie Parsons, Mead FFA Parliamentarian

Every year Mead FFA gets to help the University of Nebraska ARDC (Agriculture Research and Development Center) for the Ag Awareness festival in October. Fourth graders from surrounding schools come out to the ARDC and learn things they never knew about agriculture. For some kids it’s really exciting because some have never seen a cow or a tractor up close and in person. Most of the schools are from the Omaha metro area and the students are amazed at what they learn.

They were taken to the load line where bombs were made in WWII. There they learned about crop production, crop products, swine, and tractors. They also got to see the dairy; where they learned about dairy cows, nutrition, and dairy products. Tractors seemed to be their favorite out of all of the lessons. They got to climb on the tractors and sit inside of them. They really enjoyed it, and as the day came to an end, the kids didn’t want to leave. It was a new experience for most and hopefully one they will never forget.

The Mead FFA members that signed up to help show the kids around and take them to their next lessons acted as tour guides and assisted with instructions.