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Excerpt from Soil to Seed curriculum. Protecting water quality through soil erosion, sediment, and turbidity control. By NC 4-H and NC State Extension. From the food we eat, to the water we drink, to the places where we live and play, soil erosion and sedimentation profoundly affects our everyday lives. The loss of soil from our landscapes and its deposition into our waterways, reduce the ability of the land to be productive in supporting plant growth and the capacity of the water to nurture aquatic habitats, host recreation and have municipal usefulness. Erosion is a natural occurrence, shaping sand dunes, creating river deltas, or carving out enormous rock features like the Grand Canyon. This curriculum focuses on the accelerated processes of erosion and sedimentation that transpire as a direct result of agricultural and construction development activities. It is through abuse that our waters and soils are becoming increasingly compromised. With careful management of the soil, however, we can preserve water quality and keep our soil in place for future generations.
Excerpt - From Natural Selection to Classification: Building on Concepts. Beginner + Grades 9-12, Facilitator's Guide. By NC 4-H and NC State Extension. How could we communicate information, much less build knowledge, without agreement on what to call things?! The world would be chaos! In large part due to necessity, humans have been classifying organisms in one way or another for thousands of years. Not surprisingly, how we classify, and consequently our resulting classification systems, have changed considerably over time. In this series of activities, youth will have the opportunity, to engage in the study of natural selection and the taxonomic process, leading ultimately to the development of their own classification trees, classifications, and taxonomic guides. Rather than employing abstract or artificial creatures to reinforce key concepts, the activities are based on species native to the Southeast, contributing to building local knowledge and a sense of “place” in youth.
This curriculum was developed through funds from a USDA-NIFA Grant (Award # 2012-68003-19621) titled “Development of Novel Salmonella Control Practices and Integrated Education Program to Reduce Salmonellosis.” Research Principal Investigators include Dr. Hosni Hassan, Dr. Matthew Koci at North Carolina State University, and Dr. Andrea Azcarate-Peril at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Extension and education components for this grant were provided by North Carolina 4-H and the North Carolina Kenan Fellows Program, both at North Carolina State University.
