Community Based Unit- CV Pesticide Meeting

The horticulture class at Cowanesque Valley High School had a unique hands-on learning opportunity. Granted permission by the school district, these students, along with other agriculture students at Cowanesque Valley had access to coordinate and attend the first ever Cowanesque Valley Pesticide Course. This content will connect with the Integrated Pest Management Unit. Students that become an active coordinator for the pesticide course after learning the material in the IPM Unit will get the chance to work along side community partners.

The Cowanesque Valley agricultural students complete the Pesticide Educational Manual every year in horticulture. They have only had a few opportunities to utilize what they learned outside of the classroom. This year the horticulture class was excited when they were presented the opportunity to help be the coordinators for the pesticide course. I feel this opportunity made the students try harder during the IPM Unit. The coordination committee for the pesticide course consisted of six students. Austen, Savannah, Brea, Dustin, AJ, and Johnathan. These student expressed enthusiasm towards the community based project. Each student was eager to create community partnerships.

Our goals for this pesticide course was the same as our goals in the horticulture class for the IPM Unit. Those goals were the following:

1.     Identify common pest in Pennsylvania crops (disease, insects, and weeds)

2.     Identify the respective associative signs with pest (sick crops, crop yield, etc.)

3.     Describe pesticide laws and its importance in overall environmental ecology, especially with relation to natural history.

4.     Recongnize and explain the role of integrated pest management through legislation, public perception, and enforcement to create discuss cuturla persepective of such.

5.     Identify ways to receive pesticide education and pesticide certification.

6.     Explain pesticide identification, pest management, and pesticide application.

The content we learned in this unit was focused around relating it to common day pest management. This was done because a majority of the students in this class were freshman and did not have the agricultural base knowledge that others would have at an older age. Making connections to common pest management like a mouse trap or terro to kill ants helped students understand the conent. After making a connection with the students we would then focus on the bigger picture like agriculture. Doing this we successfully met all our goals in the IPM Unit and for our community based project.

The students quickly jumped the gun on making contacts. They first asked Mr. Heyler if he could bring in a sprayer that way people could physically get to work with the equipment. Then they contacted Tioga County Extension because they normally have involvement in most pesticide courses. After that they made flyers and posted them in businesses around the school district. Also, they contacted the local paper to post about the pesticide course. I assisted in getting material for folders we were going to pass out at the meeting. I used my resources at Penn State to complete this. Overall, it was a joint effect to get ready for the pesticide course. 

Fast forward to March 28^th, 2018. The students are preparing for the pesticide course. They did an amzing job keeping contacts with the community and sponsors. That night we had fifteen people present to get credit at the pesticide course! We were hoping for at least ten people, but we were satisfied with more. Other than the Cowanesque Valley students helping coordinate the pesticide course we also had Tioga and Potter County Extension agents.

Craig Williams joined us from Tioga County Extension. He presented on Sprayer Callibration and common applicator mistakes. Nicole Santangelo Carutis joined us from Potter/ McKean County Exension. She presented on the 10 top ten common weeds in Pennsylvania. Each presentation was worth two credits to each persons pesticide license. Therefore, each person who attended received four points on their license! To wrap- up the two hour long evening course we gave a brief instruction on how to check your points, and left the floor open for discussion.

The pesticide course was a success! The students took ownership in the IPM and our community based project. We hope that Cowanesque Valley continues to offer this course each year. It was a great way to connect to community members and community partners.