4H Update from TDS President

Dr. Kurt Thurmaier had a great Tuesday visiting some of our 4H Career Pathways projects at the Nyegina primary and secondary schools. These kids are amazing gardeners. These are “entrepreneurial gardens” where students share in the fruits and vegetables to eat, then sell surplus. so they need to maximize productivity. Mango, banana, papaya and other fruit trees, watermelon, egg plants, beans, cabbages, and other vegetables.

They talked about what they were learning in 4H, including self-reliance, soil types, how to amend soil, composting, and more. Hopefully the teachers (club advisors) will find ways to more explicitly include biology and chemistry and math into their lessons, even using the microscopes TDS donated a few years ago to look at the soil and root samples under the scopes, and incorporate experimental designs into their plots to learn what techniques work best.

Kudos to our 4HCP coordinator John Kuboja, for his great work helping the clubs get the gardens launched with so many trees planted to counter rampant deforestation. And thanks to our strategic partner, Global Resources Alliance, for helping manage the project.