Photo courtesy of Cottonwood County 4-H. Samuel Lutheran student Ella Heard holds a snake during the Zoo Man presentation at the Elementary Fall Field Days last week near Lamberton. Over 700 students across 17 schools attended the field trip throughout the week.

LAMBERTON — Hundreds of area elementary students got the recent opportunity to indulge in a day’s worth of hands-on activities to learn more about environmental and natural sciences, farm safety and beyond at Cottonwood County 4-H’s annual Fall Elementary Field Days last week.

Taking place last Monday through Thursday, 17 different schools got the chance to take a field trip to the University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center near Lamberton, where a collective of over 700 third and fourth grade students visited during the week.

Of the local schools that participated was Samuel Lutheran in Marshall, and third to fifth grade teacher Amy MacArthur had the opportunity to bring her students.

“The field trip was awesome. Learning was combined with fun,” MacArthur said. “The field trip provided opportunities to learn about safety beyond farm life. The students learned about farm safety, electrical safety and ATV safety. They also learned how food comes from plants in our lives.”

According to a release from the 4-H Cottonwood County Youth Development, the field days included a plethora of hand-on activities such as making foam pizzas in a food supply lesson, getting a chance to handle snakes and working with soybeans.

The field days each day had stations set up as students, teachers and chaperones rotated throughout the time.

“Many of the presentations provided hands-on activities which encouraged learning,” MacArthur said. “The farm safety presentation gave students an opportunity to discuss ways to stay safe on a working farm.”

There were a handful of other area schools that made the trip out like Lakeview, Tracy, Westbrook-Walnut Grove, Wabasso, Red Rock Central and more.

Out of the numerous lessons and activities, some of the specific stations that seemed to be the most popular were learning about electricity and the chance to work with live snakes.

“Students liked to ‘feel’ and ‘see’ the shock during the static electricity presentation,” MacArthur said. “The hit of the day was Zoo Man, who brought snakes for the students. Students were allowed to touch and hold the snakes which brought many, many smiles.”

All of the field days experiences were put on with the help of multiple local businesses and organizations that also had representatives or professionals come by to present some of the lessons, in addition to Cottonwood County 4-H.

Some participating organizations included Cottonwood County Soil & Water Conservation District, Cottonwood County USDA-Farm Service Agency, South Central Electric, East River Coop, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Farm Bureau.

Local Future Farmers of America (FFA) members from WWG, Redwood Valley, Wabasso and RRC high schools also led some farm safety lessons.

Fall Elementary Field Days is an annual field trip Cottonwood County 4-H puts on, a few weeks after school begins to continue the early excitement to the year.

Other participating schools were Windom, Mountain Lake Public, Mountain Lake Christian, St. John’s Lutheran, Wabasso’s St. Anne’s, Westbrook’s Homeschool Connect and a handful out of the New Ulm area.

“The entire field day brought so much learning and so much fun,” MacArthur said.