Guest Blogger Series: Independent Study Students: Perceptions from Cheeseland

Editor's Note: This blog is part of a series of guest contributors from the national school-based agricultural education family. Ms. Rachel Sauvola is a 17 year teaching veteran at New Richmond High School in Wisconsin.  She's active within her school and professional organizations, in addition to serving on the Executive Boards for the New Richmond Area Community Foundation and the Five Loaves Food Shelf.  Rachel and her husband, Dean have two daughters - a three year old named Iris and a fourth grader named Abby. In her free time she enjoys traveling and scrapbooking!

Greetings from Wisconsin!!

The Greenhouse Lab Manager
helps with plant maintenance

In agricultural education, we all have "those" students. Those students who want to essentially live with us in our rooms for most of their junior and senior year. Those students who are with us at least three hours a day because we are their second mom or dad. Those students we know we can trust as they have taken EVERY SINGLE course we offer and know the protocol in the ag room. Those students who we leave by name in our sub notes in case a problem arises while we are off on an adventure. Those students who we turn to when we need something because they love us as much as we love them.

"Those" students are often the root of my Independent Study Program here at New Richmond High School. This is a program designed for juniors and seniors in my school who want a little something more, a curriculum that they can tailor to a certain career they wish to explore, or a special project they want to do. Sometimes I seek out the Independent Study students because I have a special project in mind for them.

Now if you're anything like me, you have a five year plan and you're an extremely busy person. You have program goals you wish to accomplish. Why not get your little lovelies on board to help you achieve your plans and your goals? I call it my work smarter, not harder philosophy! You should also know that I am allergic to plants and animals, so some Independent Study happens out of necessity for my health!

There are "rules" to Independent Study in my world. The students who embark on one MUST leave a legacy for others to learn from. They must have a finished product that can be showcased to students, parents, community members and/or beyond. They must work diligently to make a difference!

So let me give you some examples. For Independent Study credit, I have two students who serve as managers for the Aquaculture Lab, one manager who oversees my Large Animal Science Learning Center, one manager for my Small Animal Science Learning Center and one for my greenhouse. When they are managers, they are in charge of complete operation of the facility. They order materials, pick up supplies, clean, sort, organize, process and complete health care binders for all living things and conference with me regularly. They keep a journal and are in constant communication through conversations and Google docs. Those students are leaving a legacy and providing live creatures for their classmates to study, obtaining more community partnerships as customers for products we produce, advocating for the program, seeking donations of new plants and animals for others to learn about and honing valuable recordkeeping and communication skills.

The Animal Learning Center Managers take care of these fabulous creatures and many more -

Roscoe, our bull calf, who will turn steer very shortly....

Anna, the Boer goat who often escapes for added daily adventure....
Notice how sweet she looks right now..

Peka, our chinchilla....

Geno, Snickers and Charlie, our rabbits...

These little buggers make my throat swell shut the worst, but they sure are cute!

Here is a model he built of the barn we will build on school grounds - A community partner made the figurines to scale for our presentation purposes.

I also have those students who embark on things within my plan - Side note: We have a growing enrollment in our Large Animal Science course. Therefore, we need an Outdoor Animal Science Learning Center - a.k.a. a barn! Sixty students can't learn all of the management practices for one baby bull calf because once you castrate it in third hour, you can't repeat that in fifth hour! We need more animals to be able to offer more opportunities to our students! I'm busy and can't plan it all myself, so it's a win-win situation!

I pitch these ideas to my Independent Study students and they take them on. An example for you - A senior student did all the legwork for us to be able to build a barn on campus last school year - contacting community partners to assist with all areas of the building process. He presented to the Admin team and the School Board, while I sat in the wings waiting to answer any questions. Our ultimate goal with our operation is to provide beef for school lunch. We're moving forward on this exciting endeavor because he did such a great job!

Pictured are the two students who are using the legacy 

left behind from last year to improve our systems for this year.

Another two students, studied some pictures of aquaponic operations, did some reading, obtained all the supplies, problem solved and built five systems so that we could provide lettuce to our school lunch salad bar and herbs to our Family and Consumer Science program or FFA members' homes.  

Two more students are currently working with a curriculum consultant community partner to develop an Advanced Animal Science course because they didn't think Large Animal Science was long enough as a semester. They want more!

I have a few dozen more examples of students who have taken this route. They are the definition of inquiry learners. They are charting their own course, learning valuable agricultural information and necessary life skills. They are advocates for the program. Most of all, their learning lightens my workload and leaves a legacy for others to learn from for many years to come.

How can you embrace this concept and make it work for you? How can you offer your students course credit for going above and beyond? How can your students help you work smarter, not harder?

Please let me know if I can help you in any way!

Rachel Sauvola
New Richmond High School
701 E. 11th Street
New Richmond, WI 54017
715-243-1761
rsauvola@newrichmond.k12.wi.us
@MrsSauvola