ECHO

Our third field trip we went to ECHO, Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, where they create and teach people of different techniques of farming for impoverished areas.  Some of their ideas consisted of having goats eat the excess leaves around the area instead of having them decompose in a pile.  Also, they have a seed bank, in the bank they have a collection of different types of seeds that are hard to find and can be used in harsh environments.  They make little packets containing a variety of those seeds and send them with agricultural enthusiasts around the world to teach poor people how to grow their own food. The tour guide for ECHO was a knowledgeable agriculturalist but his teaching skills were a bit lacking, when we made it back into the classroom the following week Dr. Morris had to apologize for the amount of crucial information that the guide unfortunately forgot to explain.

The thing that caught my interest the most during the trip was their internship program.  In their program they have the students come and live on campus in a little house.  The students then work to maintain the plants and learn the different types of farming methods while also having to give tours.  By getting completely submerged within the culture the student will learn a tremendous amount while enjoying it at the same time.