05/01/15 dgo

Students under the direction of Dr. Jean Gleichsner, associate professor of agriculture, have been busy this spring performing community service and teaching youngsters about clean water.

• Nine students from Gleichsner's Home Horticulture class performed maintenance at the Humane Society of the High Plains.
Tools were provided by the FHSU Grounds Department for the students. The site had been re-landscaped nine years ago as a project for this particular class. Since then, Gleichsner every year has taken her students to visit and tidy up the site.
Their jobs included cutting back ornamental grasses, fertilizing, weeding, pruning shrubs and mulching the entire site. Funding for the project was provided by the FHSU Office of the Provost and Walmart.

• Students in her Soil Fertility and Fertilizers are promoting clean water to children in after-school programs at Washington, Wilson, O'Loughlin and Lincoln Elementary Schools in Hays. FHSU students are using the EnviroScape, a molded plastic landscape, to demonstrate point and non-point pollution from industrial, agricultural, recreation, construction and residential areas.
They also are using posters and class activities to teach children about ways to prevent pollution and protect water sources.