David MacKenzie rolls a ball down a narrow aluminum ramp. A dozen or so students watch as it hits the end of the ramp and begins rolling across the putting green. MacKenzie then measures how far the ball travels.
He repeats this two more times, totals the three distances and then asks the Grade 6 students from Pineview Public School, "OK, what’s the average?"
MacKenzie is demonstrating the tools he and other members of the turf crew at the Club at North Halton use on a daily basis. They range from the simplicity of the ramp, a Stimpmeter, that determines how fast the ball is rolling on the green, to the high tech time-domain reflectometer, which passes a current between two probes in the ground to determine the amount of moisture in the soil.
It's all part of the First Green program, which uses the STEAM principles (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) and how they apply to golf course maintenance.
“In high school I had no idea there were jobs like this,” said MacKenzie, the club’s second assistant superintendent. “I work outside, I use math, science, critical thinking, but it’s also a lot of fun.”
The First Green program originated in the United States, giving students an early introduction to the side of the golf world that few get to see. It has five stations, at which students learn elements of the industry that apply to different areas of study.
Each station is based on a STEAM principle: science, which looked at different types of soils; technology, showing the tools the turf crew uses; engineering, demonstrating the spraying and irrigation systems; arts, designing and drawing their own golf holes; and math, determining the area of space to apply the correct amount of seed or fertilizer.
“This program takes what kids learn in school, and then they can see it in real life,” said Ken Tilt, the course superintendent at The Club at North Halton. “It shows what they are learning in school actually applies in the real world.”
Tilt, who was introduced to the program while working at another course, thought local students could benefit from it, so he inquired about bringing it to North Halton.
“I would have loved this if I was a kid. So I thought, let’s give back and see if we can spark interest in a kid who might be interested.”
Tilt said the tools station is always popular with the students. They each got the opportunity to take a soil reading to see who could find the driest spot on the green.
At the arts station, turf crew member Pullan Hanson taught students about the elements of a golf hole, including the length of the hole, different types of hazards and how par is determined. Students were then given the opportunity to draw their own golf hole.
The irrigation station was also hit, even if just to give the students a chance to run through the sprinklers.
“With some of these kids, they said they’ve driven by the course, but they’ve never been on the property to see what is beyond what they see from Maple (Avenue) and Trafalgar (Road),” Tilt said. “Some of them were very interested to get out on the short grass. It looks like carpet when you drive past and then you realize it’s grass.”
“Young folks don’t have the intuition about (how) this might be a career, so introduction programs like First Green are extremely important,” said club manager Hendrick van der Geld. “Programs like this show (students) that this may be a place for me to spend time and learn and grow.”
