{"id":16820,"date":"2025-10-27T18:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/16820\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T18:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:14:09","slug":"reading-elementary-students-take-school-to-the-golf-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/16820\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading elementary students take school to the golf course"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Denis Jacobo needed was a few tips and a little bit of practice.<\/p>\n

The 9-year-old fourth grader stood on the dewy grass at Berkshire Country Club on Monday morning with a plastic golf club in his hands and a purple tennis ball at his feet.<\/p>\n

After some advice from Kara Zubaty, a Reading School District teacher who helped him position his feet and reminded him to make sure no one was standing in the way of his backswing, Jacobo reeled back and took a rip.<\/p>\n

His first effort was a swing and a miss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s OK, that\u2019s why we\u2019re here \u2014 to practice,\u201d Zubaty said supportively.<\/p>\n

Jacobo tried again, this time kicking the ball and sending it rolling sideways. Another swing produced similar results.<\/p>\n

And then, on his fourth attempt, success.<\/p>\n

Jacobo made solid contact, smacking the ball into the air. He watched as it flew, a smile on his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cWoah,\u201d he bellowed excitedly.<\/p>\n

For Jacobo, who had only tried the mini version of golf previously, the experience was much more enjoyable than sitting in a classroom doing math problems. And that was the whole idea.<\/p>\n

Jacobo was one of a few dozen students from Reading\u2019s Tyson-Schoener Elementary School who spent the morning learning outdoors. Through a partnership with the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America\u2019s First Green program<\/a> and the generosity of the host Berkshire Country Club, the kids got a chance to learn about science, technology and engineering while also learning about the world of golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to learn,\u201d Jacobo said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we came here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FourthFourth graders from Tyson-Schoener Elementary School are shown how irrigation systems work during a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics First Green event at the Berkshire Country Club on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n

Zubaty, an innovation and gifted program teacher who helped organize the session, said students were getting a chance to spend about five hours at the course learning about how to solve real-world problems.<\/p>\n

They got to learn about why the golf course installs bat boxes and employs a course dog. They got to learn about how water is reused to help keep the grass green and healthy.<\/p>\n

At one station they learned about the physics of a golf ball, with an expert explaining how its dimple impact things like spin and loft.<\/p>\n

They also got to check out some of the machinery used on the course \u2014 from mowers to blowers to rollers \u2014 find out about careers in the industry and get some exposure to the sport of golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of these students don\u2019t really know anything about golf,\u201d Zubaty said.<\/p>\n

That was certainly true for Jacobo, who appeared instantly hooked. It was also true for 10-year-old Jah\u2019Lonnah Baxter.<\/p>\n

Baxter took a turn trying to cut a hole into a putting green, realizing quickly it was no easy task. And, she added, it wasn\u2019t as fun as checking out how club employees water the grass.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked the sprinklers,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen he turned them on they shot up in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RaymondRaymond Vargas, an assistant mechanic at Berkshire Country Club, shows fourth graders from Tyson-Schoener Elementary School how various mowers work during a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics First Green event at the club on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n

Baxter said she also found other parts of the morning pretty interesting, like hearing about the different types of grass that are used to construct a course and about that dog that chases away birds and other critters.<\/p>\n

All in all, she said, it was a great day at school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re technically still learning, but we\u2019re having fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Denis Jacobo needed was a few tips and a little bit of practice. The 9-year-old fourth grader…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,227,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":{"0":"post-16820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-reading-city","14":"tag-reading-city-headlines","15":"tag-reading-city-news","16":"tag-top-stories-reg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}