SportsTurf

August 2013

SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.

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Every participant received a special Sports and Science T-Shirt that sported the Sports and Science logo and the Auburn Athletics Department's sponsorship. The day was a success. The students were interested and active, and they asked a ton of great questions. Since the participating sixth-graders were all selected from our local middle school, we got excellent feedback in the days after the event, and many teachers at the school said their students talked about the fun they had and how they learned about new careers in sports science. THE HOW-TOS So how do you put together an event like this at your school? • Get everyone on board. This event never would have been a success without the combined and creative efforts of faculty, the staff of the Auburn Athletics Department and a great number of both student-athletes and graduate students in the respective disciplines. • Have small numbers and lots of things to do. Sixth-graders do not want a lecture; they want to run and pound big things into small things. When we told them to compact the potato chips (our field soil), those potato chips were compacted. We recommend one college student to every two to three sixth-graders. This keeps it personal, fun and the students engaged. Use your students. Our student-athletes helped us move the groups from place to place, and they organized and ran all the games at the end of the education sessions. The graduate students helped to teach each education session, and they made sure each student was actively involved and not wandering around. • If in doubt, run. Any time things got slow, we just told the students to run to the other side of the field and then come back. The chance to run on a pristine, immaculate and green athletic field (or the indoor practice facility) is such an event for a kid. It's just really fun! • Pizza and a T-shirt seal the deal—especially when that T-shirt is clearly special, was made specifically for this event and advertises that the student attended an event at a major university athletic facility. www.stma.org THE NITTY GRITTY Based on our experience, following are some important details to consider when planning such an event: • Have the legal experts craft the safety forms that parents must sign for liability issues. • Work with your schools to get the right kids. We focused on students who were interested in athletics but perhaps didn't show that 'science spark' in the classroom. Teachers helped to identify the right kids, and three teachers came along for the afternoon. • Get everything organized, and have a detailed timeline. Use a boat safety horn to signal when it is time to change groups. Always keep things moving along. • Make sure the parents have all the correct information, including drop-off and pickup locations and times. Be sure, too, that parents leave emergency contact information Thanks to the generosity of the Auburn Athletics Department, the entire event cost $2,200. This included pizza, water bottles and sports drinks and T-shirts for all. n For more information contact Elizabeth Guertal, guertea@auburn.edu. Dr. Guertal is a professor in the College of Agriculture at Auburn University. SportsTurf 25

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