ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, MLPS 5th- and 6th-graders attended the Southwest Minnesota Association of Conservation Districts Environmental Fair at the Murray County Fairgrounds in Slayton. This event is put on by the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Cottonwood, Nobles, Jackson, Pipestone, Murray and Rock Counties. classes attended included a prairie burn, rivers, trees, glaciers, soil conservation, whales, watersheds, wetlands and recycling – as well as the one pictured above – a session featuring the Minnesota Connection by the Minnesota Zoo, showing different critters, including a bull snake, opossum, hissing cockroach, peregrine falcon, and pictured, a skink. Skinks are intriguing small lizards. The presenter shared the variety of live animals, some native to Minnesota and others not, and stressed the importance of species diversity and the interrelationships between animals, the earth and humans. Mountain Lake Public Elementary School students attending came from Cheri Strom’s 5th-grade class and Annette Kunkel and Kyle Blomgren’s 6th-grade classes.
