By ALIN HETT
Hays Post
Hays High School FFA students helped pack boxes of soil science activities that will make their way from Hays to classrooms across the country.
Rows of boxes labeled “Fertilizer Fun Boxes” and stacks of soil kits filled the packing area as students assembled materials for Nutrients for Life, an educational nonprofit that teaches students about soil science, plant nutrients and fertilizer’s role in food production.
Nutrients for Life identified Hays High School FFA as the group helping with this year’s packing. facebook.com
Melissa Bigge, the organization’s curriculum director, said the program sent 200 boxes this year. That’s a big jump from the roughly 40 boxes it sent in its early years.
The program began in 2020, and teachers submitted more than 1,600 requests for boxes this year.
“We fill as many as we possibly can,” Bigge said.
Fertilizer companies sponsor the boxes, and some choose which classrooms receive them. Others let Nutrients for Life select recipients from the teacher requests.
Bigge said, One Ohio company sponsors 50 boxes each year, allowing its employees to send boxes to schools in their communities.
The boxes are designed to help teachers bring soil science to life with materials students can handle and test. Each includes a soil test kit, soil probes and shovels, samples from 10 states, and an empty tube for students to collect soil from their own state.
The contents also include a kit demonstrating soil permeability and porosity, along with Nutrients for Life lessons that connect the activities.
The kits help students explore how soil and plant nutrients relate to growing food. Nutrients for Life describes the boxes as hands-on STEM materials for middle and high school classrooms.
“We look at the science of healthy soil and the use of fertilizer and the importance of fertilizer in order to grow enough food to feed the world," Bigge said. "It's to promote the curriculum and the resources that we have to offer, as well as to give back to the teachers across the country."
There’s also a more unexpected item in the box: a pair of underwear, included with instructions for an “undies challenge.”
“That’s the most fun thing,” Bigge said.
Bigge said the underwear will let someone know if their soil is healthy or unhealthy.
"Put the underwear in the soil and after 60-90 days, you dig up the underwear," Bigge said. "If the soil is healthy, only the waistband will be left. The microbes in the soil will destroy the rest of the underwear."
If after digging up the underwear and the entire piece of clothing is still in one piece, the soil is unhealthy.
Nutrients for Life sent this year’s boxes in connection with Global Fertilizer Day, observed Oct. 13. The date marks Fritz Haber’s 1908 patent filing for synthesizing ammonia, work that led to the Haber-Bosch process used to produce ammonia for fertilizer. cfindustries.com
Bigge has worked with Nutrients for Life for about 11 years. She began as the organization’s Kansas representative, promoting its educational resources across the state, before moving into curriculum work for a national audience.
Nikole Winter, Hays High FFA adviser, gave her two cents on what the Fertilizer Fun boxes mean.
“I think it's great to give back to our community, and knowing that these soil boxes are going to be sent out across the country to educate students on soil health is really important,” Nikole said. “We're happy that we can partner with them today and help with this effort.”