Author: West Edge

Hat Six Travel Plaza has generously offered to sponsor the 2019 Barn Burner 5k races in Casper and Cheyenne.  Here are few of the reasons why!

What attracted the Hat Six Travel Plaza to sponsor the Barn Burner 5k?

• At Hat Six, we love that we are a locally owned company and are able to help out our local communities and organizations. What attracted us to the Barn Burner, is that the proceeds benefit the Wyoming Stewardship Project – and how much it can benefit ALL students in the state of Wyoming. We recognize that teaching these critical lessons on Wyoming’s history and major resources benefits everyone – including local businesses. We are part of the #2 industry in the State of Wyoming; Tourism. We hope that teaching about its history and how beneficial is it to our state’s success will drive students to learn more about the industry and want to pursue a career in the field someday. It’s long-term thinking – but you have to start somewhere. Ag in the Classroom has taken on the challenge of teaching students early and we are happy to be a part of it.

What are Hat Six’s activities and what do they involve?

• Hat Six is a full-service Travel Center – including fuel, convenience store, food court restaurants, and a full-service bar. We even have a dog park for the 4-legged friends and a kids’ play area for the young ones!

In your opinion, what is the most important impact that the Wyoming Stewardship Project provides to Wyoming students and teachers?

• It really gives teachers the tools to easily succeed at teaching the curriculum. You can talk all day long about how important it is to teach about Wyoming’s resources – but it needs to be easily accessible by teachers to make it happen. This is what Ag in the Classroom has done.

Do you have a message to share?

• The owners of Hat Six Travel Center have been heavily involved in the top 3 industries in Wyoming – Oil & Gas, Tourism and Agriculture. Each area brings a different perspective and need to the State of Wyoming. We are excited that future generations will get the opportunity to learn about these industries and be stewards for generations to come.

Interested in how you can get involved?  Donate here or contact Rindy West to learn more about sponsorship opportunities!

Thanks to the hospitality of the Lerwick family, fourth and fifth grade students from Pine Bluffs were able to visit a working ranch, and experience calving season first hand.  

Students found real-world applications for math as they learned about feed rations; exploring exactly what it is that cattle eat.  They then took a trip through the calving barn where they were given a chance to pet a calf and milk a first-calf-heifer. As they waited their turn to milk, students learned about colostrum, and its importance to young calves.  

Timing worked out, and before heading into the house for lunch, students were able to witness the birth of a set of twin calves!  This was a prime opportunity to see stewardship in action– as the calves were both trying to come at once and had to be pulled. Both heifer calves arrived safely, and students left with a new understanding and appreciation for the work that goes into producing their food.

Interested in sharing your ranch stewardship story through the Wyoming Stewardship Project?  Contact Rindy West to learn more about becoming a local ranching contact.

Fifth Grade students are learning the potential for collecting and sharing
information through maps as a part of the 2019 Bookmark & Beyond program. To complete this class project, we’ve asked students to explore their communities and state at a deeper level, while introducing technical skills used in real-world careers.

Students learn to use the MapItFast app, generously donated by AgTerra, to map points, lines, and polygons from smart devices or desktop computers. These
features are used to add information to maps and can include photos and notes about a location or site, along with the geographic coordinates and measurements of length and area. After working together as a class to develop their map, students share the story and goal of their project in a written report, before presenting their project as a class.

During the first year of this project, 5th Grade teachers have shown how they can use this project to enrich content they’re already covering in class. One project, developed by the 5th Grade class at Gilchrist Elementary in Cheyenne, illustrates Wyoming’s Role in Westward Expansion. Students researched important historic sites and added that information to the points in their map. They also mapped the route of Oregon Trail through the state and can share how many miles this route covered.

The project possibilities are only limited by imagination, and we’re excited to see this program grow in years to come.