Vol. 54—2000 - NorthEastern Weed Science Society

WEED SCIENCE FOR THiRDGRADERS- "WEEDS AND How NOT TO BE ONE"
Nancy Gift l
ABSTRACT
Weed science, and agriculture in general, usedto be a topic which children leamed on
theirparents'farmsor gardens. Today,however,few childrenhave so close a connection
to their food sources, and most know little, besides what they might hear in the popular
press or see in the grocerystore, about agricultural production. At the 1999 W.S.S.A.
conference in San Diego, W. Slijk presented a program for high school students learning
aboutinvasive weeds on urbaninterfaces,suggestingthatfarmorecould be done to
educateyouthaboutweed science. In springof 1999, a CornellUniversityPublic
ServiceCenter-sponsoredshortcoursetitled"WeedsandHowNot to Be One"was
taught to third-graders in Mr. Paul Tatar's class at South Hill Elementary School in
Ithaca, NY. The Graduate Student School Outreach Program, which sponsored the
course, is designedto give graduatestudentsa chanceto presenttopics from theirfields
of interest to elementary, middle, and high school students from local schools. This
program serves both to enhance the curriculum for the local students, and to give
graduate students the opportunity to learn teaching teclmiques and skills from
experienced, professional classroom teachers. Teachers also benefit from this
collaborationbyenhancingtheirknowledgeof currentdirectionsin various fields of
studyandexposureto newactivitiesanduniversityresources.
Students participated in eight lessons, each between 30 minutes and one hour in length,
on weedscience andplant biology. In the firstlesson, studentswere given weed andcrop
seeds. andthe differencebetweena weedanda cropwas discussed. Inthe second lesson,
studentswere takenoutto the schoolyard, andintroducedto weedidentificationwith
several edible and medicinal weeds, including dandelion, spring rocket, wild onion, curly
dock. andthe odiferous,invasiveweedgarlicmustard. On anotherday, students
participated in weed control of com by pulling and cultivating (using hand-held garden
tools) weeds in flats of com interseeded with foxtail and lambsquarters, and observed the
difficulty in controlling weeds in com interseeded with a cover crop (alfalfa). Other
hands-on lessons included:rainfallerosionon flatswith andwithoutgroundcover, a
walk to a nearbywildflowerpreserveto observeinvasive weeds andlocal wildflowers,
pollinating and dissecting flowers, and observing phototropism in classroom plants.
More advaneed topics such as photosynthesis and plant cell anatomy were introduced
with handouts. On the final day, the children's regular teacher brought in a well-seasoned
salad of dandelion greens, and the students were, as they requested, given their flats of
weeded com to takehome.
Studentresponsesandenthusiasmforthetopic variedwidely. but one constantwasthat
studentsall seemed eagerto volunteerforparticipationin hands-on activities. The
materialpresentedwasfarbeyondtheirnormalcurriculum,andthoughthey may not
rememberthe details,the hope is thatthesedetails,when presentedagainlater,will seem
morefamiliarandinterestingto them. And, as theirteachernotedto them, ••You now
know moreaboutplantsthanmanyof yourparents."
, Ph.D. StudentlExtension Associate, Department of Soil, Crop, and Atmospheric
Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-1901
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