What student doesn’t want to get out of the classroom and into the great outdoors, and still get class credit?

That’s exactly what some students were doing Wednesday afternoon at the Hays K-State Ag Research Center.   Hays High School F-F-A students and those in the Soils course taught by Dr.  Jean Gleichsner in the Fort Hays State University Agriculture Department created rain barrels and recycle barrels.  They converted empty 55 gallon plastic drums  donated by Coca-Cola that once were filled with soda pop syrup.

The public is able to purchase a re-purposed barrel to collect rain water from a home’s  gutter system for use later in the garden and landscape.  The water collected from the roof of a house is soft water (water without any chemicals and  minerals).   By collecting and using rain water, households reduce dependency upon local city utilities for water, thus reducing treated tap water and stormwater runoff into local streams.

The Service-Learning project is in conjunction with the Smoky Hill River-Kanopolis Lake Watershed.