Getting to the root of science outreach with sugar beets
Print
EmailLinda Hanson, Jaime Willbur and graduate students Fayann Iobst and Kirsten Pollok recently participated in Youth Field Day, a hands-on agriculture experience for students in grades 3-12 held annually by Michigan Sugar.
Sugarbeet companies look to the future of agriculture with youth programs
Youth sugarbeet programs at Amalgamated Sugar and Michigan Sugar are designed to teach kids not only about the sugarbeet industry but agriculture in general.
The aim of the youth program is to help sustain the agriculture industry through teaching youth about a variety of topics, including production, crop research and the large number of job opportunities.
Linda Hanson, Jaime Willbur and graduate students Fayann Iobst and Kirsten Pollok recently participated in Youth Field Day, a hands-on agriculture experience for students in grades 3-12 held annually by Michigan Sugar.
Below, Jaime Willbur and Linda Hanson work with school children to learn about sugarbeet pathogens, and how they might appear differently "depending on what it's grown on," Linda said. "We use a modified fertilizer spreader to conduct small-scale field plot inoculation for research." Behind Linda and Jaime is the inoculum spreader.
Here, PSM graduate student Fayann Iobst helps students use the eraser on a #2 pencil to catergorize the size of leaf spot -- one of the features typically used in a diagnostic key.
Graduate student Fayeann Iobst assists a student with diagnosing a leaf disease using a key.
Photos courtesy of graduate student Kirsten Pollok
