Page 11 - Sanger Herald 3-29-18 E-edition

Lifestyles
SANGER HERALD • 3B • THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2018
Fairmont embraces its agricultural roots with program
Sanger
Ag-STEM
integration
taught
By Kyle Cardoza
Sanger Herald
The San Joaquin Valley is the largest agriculture- producing region in the nation. Vineyards, orchards and farms are scattered throughout the area, providing a multitude of different crops.
Fairmont Elementary School in Sanger is aware of this. And teachers and administrators at the school have made it their mission to prepare students interested in agriculture for a career in the industry through various cross- curricular programs.
That was the idea when the school constructed an agriculture lab about two years ago. And that was the idea when principal Jared Savage and company decided to build a farm next to the school in the near future.
“How much more relevant does it get when we’re trying to get our kids
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Christine Klistoff, ag science coordinator, is building curriculum and classwork for Fairmont Elementary School’s program that will help prepare students interested in agriculture as a career. Here she is with a couple of students in front of the newly painted building and graphic.
exposed to the agriculture- STEM concepts?” Savage asked. “We want to let them know that what they learn can have an impact the world economy.”
The agriculture lab, headed by ag science coordinator Christine Klistoff, has been running for more than an entire academic year. The room contains all of the scientific tools to observe and analyze aspects of farming hands- on.
Klistoff traveled to northern California prior to her teaching position at the elementary school to study what other schools have done. She spent months crafting a class curriculum that would be comprehensive to all students at the schools, from kindergarteners to eighth graders.
Last year was an experiment, testing which lessons would fit into the agriculture criteria and state standards. Klistoff said it took a lot of “weeding out,” as she came across a mixture of good and bad lessons at the schools she visited.
In year two, it’s been much easier for the
experienced teacher.
“I know exactly where to guide my lessons and now I know exactly what I’m teaching,” Klistoff said. “We can get so much further in each grade, build on what we’ve learned and there’s always something
new.”
The farm is still in the
preliminary phases. Savage and his
committee — curriculum support provider Lisa Johnson, STEM coordinator Charlene Griesner and Klistoff — have big plans for the area and were still working with architects on blueprints over the summer.
Some general ideas thus far include splitting parcel into three parts: plant science, animal science and water and innovation area, primarily focusing on water and energy conservation.
When the plans came about, the vision appeared set in stone. But following visits to Reedley College and Fresno State’s agriculture facilities, that plan changed.
“The other sites changed our vision — teaching students for the future and not the present,” Johnson
said. “We’re preparing for a world that isn’t here yet.” This isn’t the first cross-curricular project the school has created in regards to agriculture. In the past year, students engaged in a marketing task to suggest whether or not drones could be useful
to local farmers.
But a new horizon is
set for the future. One centered on career ideas, one relevant to the world today.
That’s been the goal the past few years, and it will continue to be as Fairmont continues to separate itself from other elementary schools across the Valley in terms of innovation and unique learning opportunities, officials said.
“This agriculture piece gives us an opportunity for the kids to see the world through ag. and STEM integration,” Savage said. “They can actually see the worlds come together seamlessly and how these are not separate entities anymore.”
The reporter can be contacted by email at kylecardoza8@gmail.com.
McGann finds her calling in the high Sierra
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Cassee McGann learned of the position from a friend.
“It sounded like my dream job,” she said.
The work involved spending months in the wilderness against a backdrop of sweeping vistas peppered with towering trees and jagged mountain peaks. She would be part of a trail crew funded by the National Park Foundation and Sequoia Parks Conservancy, working with other young women, building stairs of well-placed stone and clearing fallen trees and overgrowth so others could enjoy hiking through the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
McGann, 26, signed up for a two-month back-country assignment last summer and loved it so much she said she’s heading out for a five-month assignment this season and is thinking about pursuing a career as a park ranger.
“It’s like I had a sense of community in that trail family,” she said.
McGann, who attended high school in Sanger, said she hadn’t met anybody
I Want It Now!
John Wooden, the legendary coach of UCLA, led the team to an unequaled string of national basketball championships.
He coached some of the greatest collegiate basketball players of the 1960s and 1970s, and along with his national championships, had a series of 38 straight wins in the NCAA tournament. He has been one of my favorite coaching mentors to glean insight in both the sport and life.
He once declared, “We are so accustomed to
National Park Foundation photo
Casee McGann and fellow workers rebuilt trails last summer in the parks.
their lives,” he said. “So if there’s one takeaway I want all corps members to leave this place with, it would be it opens a whole new world of possibilities that was not there before.
“Just knowing they were able to do something so different from what they were used to and come out strong.”
McGann said she feels like not that much time has passed since her experience in the Sierra. She said she and fellow crew members all have the same support system and she believes she formed “just like lifelong friendships.”
Her next job will be with the Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps, which has applications available at easternsierracc.org.
McGann said she learned how to read topographic maps, picked up basic survival skills and gained experience in all sorts of trail maintenance. Plus she got to know a lot more about wildlife and what goes on when nobody’s around in the high country.
“Everything,” she said. “At the end of most days, there would be a different National Park Service employee talking to us about job opportunities.”
had to get your mind off of SELF to be a complete team player. You also must get your mind off instant results. Just as so many heroes of the faith did not receive their “prize” in their lifetime, they were still faithful.
God calls us to be faithful servants. Wooden’s example and leadership in both life and on the basketball court hold out hope that if we persevere, we CAN achieve victories, even if they aren’t immediately apparent.
1 Corinthians 15:58 declares, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.
One that intrigued her was law enforcement rangers.
She said she hoped that by talking about her experiences, more people would apply and get the chance to do a job they might really enjoy. “In the Valley, we’re really close to the national parks,” she said. “But many don’t know much about them.
“People should apply if they want to learn. You can come into it with no experience at all. It’s a good retreat.”
More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for the nation’s 412 national parks and work with communities across the country to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities, according to a parks press release. And more than 30,000 young men and women work in youth corps across 45 states doing what McGann and her crew did, much of it funded by the National Parks Foundation.
The reporter can be contacted by email at nemethfeatures@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Be faithful. Be confident. Be prepared. Be about your father’s business.
Pastor Sam Estes is city advance director and facilitates the Sanger Community Task Force that meets the first and third Tuesdays every month. He can be reached at pastorsam51@gmail.com.
who shared her fascination with the Sierra and the higher elevations just east of her hometown, which has been dubbed the Christmas Tree City because of its connection to the nearby towering sequoias. “I liked to go backpacking,” she said.
On the trail crew, she met like-minded individuals.
Her exuberance and that of her fellow trail crew
getting things quickly, that we tend to forget that the simple rule of things is that almost anything worth achieving takes time.”
Bill Walton, one of his great players, pointed out that Coach Wooden, “never talks about winning and losing, but rather the effort to win.”
Coach Wooden believed that all of life is accomplished by laying the right foundation and then building carefully and deliberately on it. To be able to win, you must have poise. To have poise, you must be confident. To be confident, you must
can be seen on a 2-minute video produced by the National Park Foundation. As of last week, it had been viewed about 400,000 times. The video is part of the #FindYourPark movement, which is meant to inspire people from all backgrounds to discover and share their unique connections to the national parks.
David Karplus, facilities
manager of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, said on the video that the program is one in which people have unexpected experiences they never thought possible.
“National parks are some of the last places in the world where everybody can come out and get in touch with the natural realities that are missing from so much of the rest of
PASTOR’S CORNER
be prepared. To be adequately prepared takes a great deal of work and not JUST work, but the RIGHT work.
Wooden believed
that to win, you
must have faith,
and to do that you have to be the right kind of person.
While Coach Wooden’s talks were mainly oriented toward basketball, they were also always on helping his players become good people. Part of what it takes to win is teamwork, and today most of us see too many people trying to be
Lone Rangers. Coach Wooden
coached some of the greatest stars, including Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who went on to be the all-time individual scorer in the history of
the NBA. But when Jabbar was a member of one of Wooden’s championship teams, the Bruins had a game in the playoffs in which UCLA scored more than 100 points. And not one member of the team scored 20 points.
It was all TEAM effort. Wooden believed that you
Pastor Sam Estes