Classroom Happenings

Written By Amy Grantz.

Middle School: 8th grade middle school students have been such a joy this semester! They have been learning about the history of agriculture, FFA basics, livestock and poultry production, companion animals and are just wrapping up their dairy unit by making ice cream this week. They have completed many hands-on activities in the classroom!

Animal Science: High school students in animal science have completed their beef unit and are just starting to wrap up their swine unit. They have learned about swine breeds, external anatomy, wholesale/retail cuts, phases of pork production and learned how to properly ear notch through a hands on notching activity. The classes will then transition into sheep and goats.

Ag Leadership: Students in ag leadership have been very busy preparing for all of our FFA events that have happened and are forthcoming since the beginning of the semester. Students have planned 4th grade farm safety day, chapter picture, chapter meetings, feed the farmers event and much more. Every other Friday, groups of 2 students present a leadership or team work activity to the class to increase their skills in these areas.

Plant Science: We have dug deep into the parts of the plant and are currently learning about all of the parts, their functions and completing labs to increase their knowledge. Students completed a celery stem lab to showcase how water moves up and down the stalk. Students have also propagated succulents in August and have been watering every other day since. They are finally starting to develop roots as they will transplant those in a few months. Each student also has a cactus they are caring throughout the duration of the class.

Principles of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources: These students have developed their SAE projects and have been learning about all of the opportunities in FFA that are available to them. We recently started a new unit about how to properly run a meeting using parliamentary procedure. It has been challenging, yet fun to see the kids' abilities to work a gaval and complete tasks in a timely manner.