[Title Slide] U of A University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service, Nevada County School Garden Project Wrap- Up. Melissa Beck, County Extension Agent]

[Picture of girl planning a garden]

[Slide – Project goals. To teach youth about where their food comes from; To teach youth how to plan and plant a garden; To teach youth about plants, soils, and water quality; To foster an appreciation for agriculture and its role in our society.]

The Nevada County 4-H pizza garden project was conducted this first year at Prescott Elementary School with the third and fourth grade science classes. The goals of the project are to teach children where their food comes from, how to plan and plant a garden of their own, as well as basic biology of seeds, plants, soils and water, and ultimately to foster an appreciation for agriculture and it's role in our society.

[Weekly classroom lessons and weekly hands-on projects - Various pictures of youth planting seeds, students in the classroom, students with the worm compost container (We’ve got worms)]

[Melissa Beck] There were around 150 students participating. We met on alternating Fridays and conducted both classroom lessons, experiments, and hands-on gardening activities. The youth helped to design and construct the pizza garden and were responsible for starting seed and transplanting them into the garden. The classroom lessons were primarily from the Junior Master Gardener's Curriculum and covered the topics of seeds, plants, worm composting, recycling, wildlife habitat, water quality and soil structure.

[Various pictures of youth planting seeds, and students outside learning about area and radius]

The construction of a pizza garden provided excellent opportunities to teach the mathematical principles of a circle and students learned how to find the area of a circle as well as the radius and circumference.

[Garden Construction - pictures of students moving soil with wheelbarrows and buckets, and constructing the pizza garden]

The Students loved getting dirty. They asked every week if we were going to "get dirty" and weather permitting that is exactly what we did. The students constructed the massive pizza garden. When working with kids and soil you can never have too many wheelbarrows.

[Planting - pictures of students planting the pizza garden]

The disadvantage of a pizza garden is that the produce is harvested in the summer, but we are counting on the harvest lasting until fall. Summer garden care, harvests and sales are being managed by local 4-H club members. They are selling at the newly formed Nevada County Farmers Market and the proceeds will be used to fund the garden again next year.

[Soils Lesson and Outdoor Classroom – pictures of the students outside learning about soils]

In addition to support from the local 4-H club members, the Nevada County Master Gardeners have conducted lessons with the youth, the Nevada County Quorum Court provided a dump-truck to transport our compost, and the Southwest Research and Extension Center provided a load of soil.

[Pictures of the completed garden and picture of 4-H member selling produce at the Farmers Market]

For more information about the Nevada County 4-H club or the gardening project, contact the Nevada County Extension Office at 870-887-2818.

[Title Slide] U of A University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service, For more information about 4-H contact your Nevada County Extension Office at 870-887-2818. Drawing of the state of Arkansas with Nevada County highlighted.