Several Pulaski County Agriculture students recently accompanied their teacher to a major conference to present information on the Sensory Trail, located on the campus of Pulaski County High School.
The event was the Virginia Land Conservation and Greenways Conference, held at the Madison Hotel in Harrisonburg. It was hosted by the Virginia Outdoor Foundation and the Virginia’s United Land Trusts.
This annual conference welcomes conservation organizations and businesses in the Commonwealth, allowing them to come together to showcase new idea, form partnerships, and get updates concerning the Virginia’s Conservation Easement Act and the Open-Space Land Act.
The event also brings together Directors and employees from Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, National Park Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Virginia Outdoors Foundation, Virginia State Parks, National Parks Conservation Association, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management, Virginia Soil and Water Conservation, Virginia Department of Forestry, and many more.
Mrs. Carley Pavan-Ballard, along with PCHS students December Ward, Sawyer Judy, and Morgan Lindsey made the trip.
“My three students and myself presented information about the Sensory Trail to all attending the conference,” Mrs. Pavan-Ballard said. “We spoke about what the Sensory Trail is and how we created it.”
So, what is the Sensory Trail?
“The Sensory Trail is an outdoor educational space designed with everyone in mind,” she said. “It follows ADA guidelines closely and is handicap accessible. There are educational exhibits throughout the trail and each exhibit has several ways to interact with it. There are educational signs, then QR codes that pull up a video of someone reading over the sign and going into further detail about the information. There is then a hands-on option such as the touch garden bed where there are plants of different textures or the soil exhibit where there are examples of different soil types.”
“The trail is designed for all abilities so the path is wheelchair accessible, there is a guide rope throughout the entire trail to serve as support for someone with visual or mobility impairments,” she continued. “There is also braille on the wooden posts to help guide someone through the trail and to inform them of what is there such as a garden bed, a bench or an exhibit.”
The three Pulaski County students had the chance to share how they created their individual projects on the trail and why those projects were important. They also spoke about career options with the many different businesses within agriculture and natural resources conservation, and they participated in a roundtable discussion and one-on-one interviews with the professionals in attendance.
"As an educator, watching these students grow over the course of the day was amazing,” Pavan-Ballard said. “They started out nervous and timid, but they soon became confident in their message and in their skills. The conference was a perfect way to connect the students to new career options and give them networking opportunities with the different businesses and organizations."
“"I met a lot of new people, made new connections, and found more jobs pertaining to my interest,” Morgan Lindsey said. "I had an amazing time presenting, it definitely helped with my public speaking."
“I had basically the time of my life,” Sawyer Judy said. “Everybody was so nice and wonderful to talk to. If we hadn't had our prom this week, I would've loved to stay the entire time."
"This was the first time that we shared about the Sensory Trail outside of our community and the support we got from everyone there was overwhelming,” Mrs. Pavan-Ballard said. “I know how special and unique this project is, but to see so many people whose careers are focused on creating environments for others to enjoy for years to come actually tell us that they have never thought of making a trail this adaptable before and that they wanted us to share more about what the trail is and how we made it … that was special."
Not only did the agriculture professionals find the PCHS Sensory Trail interesting, several wanted to know if they could get in on the act.
"Several businesses and organizations have already invited us to share our project with their communities and with other business professionals in hopes that they can build something like our Sensory Trail," she said. “Ursula Lemanski from the National Park Services said that she had never seen a project like this and she wants our help to educate others about it and build trails like ours around the state and at other schools."
Pavan also learned that Mrs. Lemanski plans to share the PCHS project with other National Parks, giving Pulaski County and the PCHS CTE program national exposure.
