EVANS CITY — Students at the Evans City Elementary School last month got the chance to learn about agriculture in a very hands-on way as a mobile science lab visited the school.

Called the Mobile Agriculture Education Science Lab, the event was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

Eric Fogle, a fourth grade science teacher at the school, said this was the second year the mobile science lab has visited the school.

It was perfect timing when the lab showed up, he said, because students were in the process of learning about soil and how water can affect erosion.

Fogle said each student was given a cup of soil and was then prompted to introduce additives in an effort to see which one retained water the best.

The crux of the event was that students got the chance to immerse themselves in the scientific method, if only for a short time.

“It’s always beneficial to have students engage in hands-on learning,” he said. “They were able to create their own hypotheses and, through a series of investigations, were able to test them and see if they were correct or not.”

The lab also included equipment that allowed students to germinate seeds and to create crayons from soybeans.

“It was really interesting to watch the kids create something they didn’t know they could create,” Fogle said.

As far as Fogle is concerned, the mobile lab will always be welcome at the school, and he anticipates it returning next year.

“It really does tie in well to our fourth grade science curriculum,” he said.