Today we went on a backstage four hour walking tour at Animal Kingdom. First we got to hand feed birds in the Aviary. Then we got to watch Mac get a bath. Mac is the oldest African Elephant at the age of thirty. It was very rare to see this on these tours, so we were very lucky. Then we moved on to visit the White Rhinos and Cheetahs. After that we visited the thirteen year old Komodo Dragon with arthritis. We got to go inside the insect building and see tarantulas being feed, scorpions, grasshoppers, praying mantises, and walking sticks. That’s only a few of the 150. We listened to a presentation about Gorillas and how one of the four species are endangered. There’s a program in Congo, Africa called GRACE. Which is a reserve to help protect them and it’s also a place for the orphans gorillas to go when they get saved from being poached. The tour was full of various animals, many behind the scene exhibits, and walks through the veterinarian hospitals and research facilities.
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Today we headed out to Deseret Ranch to visit their 290,000 acres of land with 1,200 acres being used for orange production and the rest is used as a commercial cow-calf operation. We started off by visiting the orange trees which consists of mainly juice oranges, and a few trees used for navels, tangelos, and tangerines. We learned the life-cycle of these citrus trees, how they are produced and harvested, and the pests and diseases they fight against. With over 1,200 acres of these trees, they can produce up to 20,000,000 eight ounce glasses of orange juice.
We then made our way around the rest of the ranch to see their cattle. The way their ranch works is they are split up into units where each unit is managed by two cowboys and a foreman. They are in charge of herding the cattle and every two weeks they herd the cattle and transfer them into a different unit. The cowboys only do this by horseback. They have about 44,000 cows, 1,300 bulls, and they wean about 35,000 calves each year. In each unit, they have approximately 3,100 cows. It takes them 3 years to get land suitable for cattle grazing. In this process they plow, let sit for one year, plow again, let sit for another year, and then the last year they plant grass and fertilize it where the cattle then can be transferred to the land. On this tour we learned more about citrus production, see the different landscaping of their cattle operation, and saw various types of wildlife including birds and alligators. After riding a few rides, we embarked onto our first tour – Behind the Seeds. We were lucky to be directed by one of the head horticulturists and an aquaponic and fishery director. We first went through their biological control room which we saw how they use a parasitic wasp fight leaf miner in their greenhouses. After learning how they fight pests we were able to observe their bio technology labs, where they are currently working on developing a type of plum that is resistant to a disease. After that we ventured into the greenhouses. There we saw various methods and interesting ideas we could transfer into our greenhouses at the school. For example, their tomato plants are tied to a bar and rests across. Once it reaches the end of the vine the plant is tied to a bar higher up. This helps prevent the plants from growing out of control. After that they had a similar method for the cucumber, where they tied them straight up so they don’t lie on the ground. We visited many different aquaponic and hydroponic systems as well as Epcot’s small fish farm. All of their produce from these systems are transported to many hotels and restaurants in the area.
Back in the July of 2016, two students Ben Zaleski and Faith Yageman attend the challenge 24 program at MSU. There they explored the facilities MSU operates and also learned how to present lesson plans in front of groups. One of the main highlights of their trip was seeing a greenhouse that was split up by continent. There they were growing plants you would not normally see in Michigan. With all of the excitement they asked Mr.Ankley if they could clean the greenhouse attached to the school. In the last week of July a few members (Ben Zaleski, Mollie Zaleski, Liz Trudeau, Nick Craig, Lucy Wiley, and Faith Yageman) cleaned out the greenhouse, so it could start having new projects in there.
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The UpdatesEach week there will be a new post to the blog, that will highlight our students and there projects. It will also give weekly announcements. Archives
May 2019
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