Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL HomeOahu 5th graders celebrate environmental awareness day

Oahu 5th graders celebrate environmental awareness day

By Tracy Gladden - bio | email

PEARL CITY (KHNL) - Thursday hundreds of keiki visited a living learning center to celebrate Agriculture and Environmental Awareness Day. Keiki take a trip out of the classroom and get face to face with plants and animals.

"I like to walk around and see animals because I like animals and plants," student Christine Ramos said.

These fifth graders learn about agriculture and the environment from dedicated volunteers. "I like my job I've been doing this for over 20 years because everyday I do something different," one volunteer said.

The goal of the annual event is to spark an interest in an agricultural or environmental career. "There's so much more stimulus out here and getting it from a lot of the professionals they are getting the hard core information first hand," teacher Dyna Pavlicek said. She says she can incorporate what they learn here into classroom lessons in reading and math.

"I wanted to come here to see if I could learn about anything else if we could put something else in the compost pile anything that would help make it better," student Valdan Meheula-Solomon said.

"We shouldn't really pollute the water because it will ruin the ocean," Ramos said.

Event coordinators hope that by educating kids early they can make future changes. "I might grow a little garden inside my house," Meheula-Solomon said.

Uh's college of tropical agriculture and human resources runs the Urban Garden Center.