by
Ron Wright
| Dec 28, 2018
This past August, GCSAA added
The First Green to the association. The program involves bringing grade school students out to a local golf course to get a glimpse of what we do every day. The field trips concentrate on STEM education, that is Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. There are usually 4 or 5 stations set up at the course where the students rotate from station to station to learn about what superintendents do everyday focusing in on the 4 STEM subjects. Examples of the stations are: measuring the area of a tee (Math), learning about soil texture and structure (Science), using stimpmeters, soil samplers, moisture meters and height prisms (Technology), looking at golf course equipment and watching a few passes with a walk mower (Engineering) and, usually, there is a putting area set up on the putting green to expose the students to the game of golf. The possibilities are almost endless at the course since most of what we do every day is STEM related.
The goal here is to expose the children to the world of golf, highlight our commitment to environmental stewardship, and maybe convince one or two of the students to look at a career on the golf course. The students love being out of the classroom, the teachers are thrilled that their students are engaged in real world activities and in many cases some of the subjects the students have been learning about in the class are witnessed in real life. I've been to many field trips and everybody has a good time including the local superintendents that teach the labs.
We have not had an official First Green field trip in the Southeast region as of yet. We need to change that in 2019 and get the ball rolling. I encourage everyone to reach out to me or look for more information on the GCSAA website about the First Green program. Click on the First Green logo below to learn more. Let's make 2019 the year that The First Green takes off in the Southeast!
