Guest Blogger: Agriculture Education From the Trenches

Editor's Note: Casi Foster is an Agriculture and Extension Education Science Teacher for  Leadership Development , Juvenile Detention and Treatment. She is a second year teacher with prior experience working for the Chambersburg Area Senior High School as fall term 2015 AG teacher.  Casi is a 2014 PSU Graduate having completed her student teaching at Biglerville (PA) with Michelle Miller. 

Where in life do we go wrong, for many of us it starts at a very young age. I don't know everything about what happens to my students, but what I know for sure is, that they end up here. Here, is alternative education for juvenile delinquents; and here in this private school is where I start my journey to help change the lives of my students through agriculture education.  I hope through agriculture education that I can make a difference, and create hope for a better future. This place is one that breeds contempt, that breeds hopelessness, but it is out of the children's own lives that this air is created. Let us start from the beginning; I am an agriculture education teacher from the Penn State. I recently finished 5 months of conventional high school agriculture education. It DID not prepare me for this next step.

I came here to change how many of these kids see school and just maybe the world. These students are very different than those in a typical High School. Have you ever wondered where those “bad” kids that got dumped in your department go when they stop showing up? They go to lock up, or placement. Many of these students have been in and out of what we call “placements” for a large majority of their lives. These students have committed crimes and have been victims of abuse. They do not know agriculture, and they really don't know much about the world in general.

Their world, typically consists of what they call the block. Every now and then we get a student from a rural setting, but they seem to be rather isolated and display the same type of behaviors. I think that the students come from a place that is almost like another world. What they know, what they place value in, is alien to most of us. To them, teasing or bullying comes with guns and violence; it is not some kid on the bus calling them names. Bullying to them is life-threatening. Basic teenager things are much more serious. Many of them have seen things that my typical agriculture student can't even fathom. This teaching environment will be a true test of will, an educational battlefield where college training alone won’t be enough to gain ground. While walking through these halls all I can think of is,

This is the other ag teacher being shy

“Welcome to tough agriculture.”

So how does one impact a child that has seen more life than you, but knows so little about it? I am about to find out.

Fast Forward!

What you have just read was from my personal blog several months prior to this. I was asked to blog about unique circumstances in agriculture education. So here it goes. I teach agriculture education in a juvenile detention facility, also known as a placement. My partner and I currently teach Ornamental Horticulture, Small Animal Care and Management, and Agriculture and Natural Resources. We have brand new text books, a beautiful greenhouse, support of our administration, and the some of the worst behaved students in the state. What a recipe! Recently, many schools have started dumping students into agriculture departments because they don’t know where else to put them. This can be a huge pain to the teachers, now imagine all of those “dumped” kids in one classroom. My kids come from every county in the state, with a few from Maryland and West Virginia for a little diversity. On that note, the mix gets even more dynamic when you take into account the backgrounds and the socioeconomic status of my kids. I teach agriculture to them because it is my passion, but also because these kids have had so much life happen to them but have no idea how it actually works. I follow the PIMS code descriptions for my classes as well as utilizing the “SAS” and “AFNR” standards to make sure that each lesson is up to par. The rest of it is up to me, and my partner to make sure that we not only impact our students academically but personally.

Our team also teaches about FFA and does an entire unit on it to make sure that our students have positive options when they reach the real world again. We likewise spend time on and conduct many surveys and learning style assessments with our students to ensure that we are teaching them in a way that they can learn easily. What we have discovered is that troubled students are such because they don’t know how to be students, and that the majority are tactile learners. Who knew right? Agriculture for tactile learners? There are many things to consider when teaching from the trenches so to speak. Here is the best advice for those hardened students that need you the most:

• Vigilance people! Do yourself a favor and see the bigger picture. Monitor everything to include but not limited to: behavior, verbal and non verbal clues, work levels, comprehension levels, family trouble, social dysfunction, anger control issues, coping skills, ownership of behavior, distorted reality, tool safety, and your own teaching methods.

• Get dirty! If you are not willing to get down and pull that weed, or dig that hole, neither are they. Many students need to know that hard work is important, obtainable, and rewarding. While of course you teach them everything from tools names, to plant anatomy.

• Be Flexible! Many difficult students have fallen through the cracks of “No Child Left Behind” and really truly don’t know much of anything. Do be afraid to change the level of your work. There comes a time where you must consider quality education of quantity.

• Become one with the special education department! Behavior and ability level are often linked, be sure to get the run down on your students. This really helps you in the long run to have smoother classes. 

• Make even the little, tiny, teeny-weeny things hands on. Be creative with your lessons. Make as much as you can hands on. It helps with retention and visualization.

• Front load everything! Giving clear instructions at a moderate pace is the goal. These should include not only the procedure but the expectations for behavior.

• Process behavior! Follow up with your students that are struggling as much as possible. They may be struggling with thinking errors and ownership for their behaviors. They won’t know it’s wrong till it’s clarified. Have them explain what happened, why they did it, why they thought that way, consider their actions, and then make a plan for better behavior.

• Take every opportunity to build relationships. This could be during a behavioral process, or pulling some weeds, or just listening to them after class.

• Take accountability! Please know what you have supply wise, tool wise, or really just everything . That missing sharp object could be the thing one of your kids uses to hurt themselves or others. Set yourself up for success not failure. 

• Take classes! Please consider classes or professional development opportunities on some of the following: Human Trafficking, suicide preventions, gangs and gang violence, abuse of any kind, CPR, first aid, wilderness training and first responder, HIPPA, etc. If you think these things don’t apply to you or your AG dept you are wrong! A recent study showed that Pennsylvania human trafficking cases and child abuse cases have shot up. If your school is near a major highway it is definitely in your area.

Through Agriculture we can reach those students that have been left behind, or labeled, or misunderstood. We have a rare opportunity thanks to the dynamics and diversity of our field to make a difference. 

Be that teacher.
Casandra Foster

http://toughagriculture.blogspot.com/

casi.foster13@gmail.com 

Guest Blogger Series: Success with 1:1 in an agriscience classroom

Editor's Note: This blog is part of a series of guest contributors from the National school-based agricultural education family. Ms. Nicole Terry is one of the Agriculture teachers at Delta High School in Muncie, IN. Prior to her current position she started an Agriculture Program at South Vermillion High School in Clinton, IN. She has presented technology at conferences, and professional development workshops. She is also the current technology trainer at Delta High School.'

When I started teaching, I started an ag program. I was handed a Macbook, and an iPad, and was told I would never get a book. Holy cow! I didn’t have even get to ditch the textbook that so many people are doing now.

I know it sounds crazy, because when you think of Ag education what do you think of? Greenhouse work, welding, working on engines, handling animals, and all sorts of hands on things, how do you put an iPad or Chromebook into a the curriculum? 

The beauty of agriculture in the classroom is that we constantly get questions (I once was asked “Miss Terry, how do you milk a coconut?”) and being able to teach so many classes, we can’t possibly be experts in every field. That’s where 1 to 1 comes in, we can fuel that moving mindset students have. I love seeing kids look up more on a topic that I simply do not have enough to cover in class. It may look like the students are off track, but they are learning more than I am teaching. When I taught animal science, I gave my students outlines of information I wanted them to learn. Then I set them loose, they had to look up information to fill in my outlines (I do teach a unit on "How to Google", and what a reliable source is first). During this searching part, some of my higher leveled students will move on past the outline and research more on their own, just from their natural curiosity. After everyone is done I "bring it in" and go over the outline and see if students are getting the same answers.

I recently moved back home, and am now teaching at the school I graduated from. We are getting into 1 to 1, and I am one of the Technology Trainers (teaching the teachers about technology in the classroom). When I look at my teachers, this is what I see from them:

If you stop at 45 secs on this Singing in the Rain clip, you will see it. Some people are confused, some are excited, and some look downright scared. That is what I see when I tell my teachers about 1 to 1 technology. That's okay, teachers can baby step into technology, here is how I did.

SAMR Model.

When it comes to integrating technology into the classroom, teachers use the SAMR model. SAMR stands for substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition. If you want a good way to understand the SAMR model watch SMAR vs a Latte 

The S part of SAMR or substitution, I do almost everyday teaching. Substitution is the easiest to integrate into the classroom. Typing something on google docs, or having students read PDFs instead of books, are ways of substitution. I upload PDFs for my students to read, instead of printing them off everyday. (Saves tons of time at the printer.)

The A part of SAMR is augmentation. Augmentation is still substituted, but the functional aspect of the task is enhanced.Online gradebooks, where my students and parents get automatic feedback of a student's work, and whenever a student asks an "off the wall" question, we can all just google it, those are examples of augmentation I do in my classroom.

Modification is the M part of SAMR. In modification, students can make an assignment their own, and work at their own level. I do this on projects. Last year, my natural resource class had to create a wildlife plan. They were to get on google maps, screenshot an area, and create a plan for that area to protect and attract wildlife. Those were the parameters, and everything else was up to them. It was a chance to get students to do an assignment their own way.

The last sections of SAMR is R, for redefinition. In redefinition, the teacher is no longer that source of knowledge, only the facilitator. In my example above from my animal science class, I was not "teaching" the students, I was guiding them to answers.

After I understood and mastered the SAMR model, I "played" with all kinds of tech tools for my classroom. Here is a list of some of my favorites:

• Kahoot
• Padlet
• EdPuzzle
• Formative
• Showme
• Quizlet
• Canva
• Google Docs
• Google Forms
• Classcraft
• iMovie
• Symbaloo

You can see how I use some of these tools on my personal blog Apples in the Ag Room.

If you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me on my blog, or tweet me @nicolelynn6

Guest Blogger Series: Systems-based Learning

Editor's Note: This blog is part of a series of guest contributors from the National school-based agricultural education family. Mr. Craig Kohn is an instructor at Waterford Union High School outside of Milwaukee, WI. He has is heavily involved with state and national ag ed initiatives, including the new AFNR standards, the National SAE Renewal Taskforce, and is on a focus advisory group for the National FFA. Prior to becoming an ag instructor, Mr. Kohn conducted research in fields of medicine, ecology, and education at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where he earned degrees and licenses in agriscience, education, agricultural education, and biology education. Mr. Kohn also has a license to teach environmental science. He will be starting a doctorate in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education at Michigan State University in 2016. Mr. Kohn was raised on a dairy farm in northeastern Wisconsin near Green Bay, where he raised dairy, beef, swine, horses, goats, and chickens and was actively involved in environmental and ecological experiences on his home farm.

Agriculture is comprised of complex systems.
Agricultural education should be
taught in a manner that reflects this reality
in order to enable students to appreciate
and comprehend the extent of this complexity

As I am writing this on our way home from the National FFA Convention in Louisville, I am regularly checking on the score for the Wisconsin Badgers football team. Football often makes a great analogy for many other aspects of life because it resembles the reality of much of our day to day existence. It is a complicated network of interconnected factors resulting in an ultimate outcome that is either failure or success. To anyone with a passion for this game, a traditional physical education unit on football can sometimes be frustrating because our understanding of this intricate system is often measured (at least in part) by something as mundane as whether or not we know the width of the field in which all of this occurs. I think it is fair to say that for many students with a passion for the game, units on football in physical education sometimes fail to compare to the excitement and challenges of actually playing the game.

Introductory Agriscience students checking
their results from the
Radish Races experiment
on the carbon cycle. 

Many of the subjects we teach at the secondary level are reflective of this phenomenon. All too often, instructors try to teach their subjects as a series of unconnected independent facts when, in reality, the true nature of the subject that they teach is more like a system of interconnected and often-changing factors that cannot be distilled into something that can be measured by a multiple-choice test. 

Nearly every aspect of adult life is part of a system. For example, when you get behind the wheel of a car, there are thousands of combinations of circumstances that govern how you can safely and effectively get that automobile from point A to point B, and this process can change from day to day. It's not enough to know that turning a key, shifting some gears, and pushing a gas pedal enable a car to move. This is precisely why classroom instruction in a driver's education course is always immediately followed by behind the wheel experiences that last for weeks. While learning to drive a car must begin with the fundamentals of the car itself, none of us would want to get on the highway with a generation of students who learned to drive solely from a textbook and a multiple choice exam. 

As agricultural instructors, our subject matter entails one of the most complicated networks of systems on the planet. Consider the multitude of factors that go into the seemingly-mundane process of turning a kernel of corn into the dinner that someone will consume. The conversion of this kernel into a stalk that will become food is governed by a multitude of factors including the billions of base pairs in its DNA, the interactions of widely and rapidly changing weather patterns, ecosystem services such as decomposition and pollination, the expertise of the producer, the functions of the machinery, the rise and fall of market prices, always-changing government policies, the presence or lack thereof of wildlife, consumer preferences and opinions, the economic productivity of the United States and its 300 trading partners, and many, many more factors. Agriculture is perhaps the most complex system on our globe and there is almost nothing in the existence of modern humans that has not affected how a corn kernel becomes the next meal. 

 We teach a complicated subject, a subject that is complicated because it is the result of the interplay of multiple systems. By definition, a system is a series of interconnected factors and influences that result in an identifiable outcome. A system can be a dynamic thing to teach, and a systems-based curriculum can engage students because it can turn what seems like an incredibly-complex and volatile series of events into something that is comprehensible and predictable.

Students measuring the cellular respiration rates of yeast cells
treated with protocols of their own design. 

The problem is that traditionally, teachers taught rules, definitions, and individual concepts rather than systems. Many of our experiences as students in agricultural education likely reflected this constrained educational philosophy - memorize these breeds, learn these statistics, label these parts, memorize these terms, etc. Had our education ended with just the classroom, we would have ended up with a terribly-constrained education. Hopefully, you as a teacher (or a future teacher) incorporate FFA and SAEs into your own instruction because these opportunities provide students with the chance to experience the complexity of the systems that comprise agriculture and much of life. 

However, there is absolutely no reason as to why systems cannot be taught in the classroom. While we as instructors should begin at an appropriate level for our students' learning needs, we need to advance to the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy by teaching in a manner that utilizes these systems. 

So how do we do this? I certainly don't have all the answers but what I can do is describe how I approach this complicated task of teaching systems. I don't always succeed, but I have experienced that uniquely-wonderful moment of seeing when my students have finally "gotten it" and have seen clear evidence of students understanding the big picture, which gives me reason to believe that maybe what I am doing is along the right track. 

When my freshmen students enter my introductory classes each fall, I begin by giving each group of 4 students two trays of soil and a petri dish of radish seeds. The task for each group is simple: change one of the trays so that those radish seedlings grow taller than the other untreated tray. Whether it be a treatment of diluted Gatorade, mixing in coffee grounds, extra lighting, a weak solution of adrenaline, or whatever hypothesis their young minds can generate, each student attempts a novel method of growing a taller group of radishes. Unsurprisingly, most fail in their quest to grow a bigger radish. 

However, it doesn't matter whether they succeed or not. What matters is that I've gotten my students into the game of agriculture. They don't care about definitions or concepts. They want to know if their treatment of diluted Red Bull somehow made their plants grow taller.

Students using Play-doh and toothpicks to show how carbon molecules change as they move through the carbon cycle during photosynthesis and respiration. 

The beauty of this approach is that questions naturally arise. After some obligatory laboratory safety, we begin considering the carbon cycle. We try to determine how it is that this tiny seed can become a much larger radish plant. We focus on how carbon dioxide in the air is combined with water in the soil to make mass of the leaves and stems and roots that we can physically touch. Students soon begin to understand that all of agriculture is really just finding ways to directly or indirectly convert water and carbon dioxide into food, fuel, and fiber. They begin to comprehend that a regulated carbon cycle is what enables all life on earth to exist because all life is carbon-based. To understand this, they must know the difference between an element, molecule, cell, tissue, organ, and more. While terms are taught, they are taught in a manner that represents a larger idea, and this context makes what would otherwise be mundane material feel relevant, necessary, and interesting. 

My students then are introduced to the nature of the chemical energy that powers all cells. They learn how the sugars produced by the plant during photosynthesis provide the hydrogen protons that turn ATP Synthase to make ATP in the mitochondria, and that oxygen removes this hydrogen so that the process can continue. They comprehend that the more ATP that is produced, the more that cells can function and the more that cells can divide. They connect increased ATP production to increased crop and animal production. They see that all living things are connected in their need to produce ATP, and their evolutionary strategies largely stem from this need. They learn that breathing lungs, beating hearts, digesting stomachs, and almost every bodily function in some way relates to sustaining the nonstop ATP production that in turn enables bodily growth and productivity.

Agriscience students extracting DNA
from strawberries after making predictions
about what it would look like
(and if it would even be visible). 

They then move on to photosynthesis and focus on how those plants cells produce sugar. They connect the necessity of water, sun, and carbon dioxide to the production of sugar. They grasp why aerated soil and plentiful supplies of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus are necessary for those plants to grow and their cells to function. 

 

Comprehension of these three systems (the carbon cycle, cellular respiration, and photosynthesis) then enable a student to understand practically any process in agriculture.  Once they know the "rules" of living organisms, there is nothing in agriscience or environmental science that they cannot grasp. From plowing a field in fall to installing ventilation fans in a barn to the application of fertilizers to the concerns related to climate change, all of the considerations that are a part of agriculture begin to make sense when viewed through these systems. These systems provide students with a framework to understand their observations and answer their questions that arose as they worked with living organisms and natural processes in inquiry-based labs. My students are playing the “game” of agriculture and because of this, they want to learn the "rules" that explain why what they are observing is happening.

When these introductory students return in the spring, they learn genetic systems and can understand and comprehend how we can use DNA and inheritance to change how cells function to improve the efficiency and productivity of plants and animals. For the rest of the year, we use the system of DNA to understand every level of biotechnology from Mendel to genomics to cloning.

Students in my other ag courses rely heavily on systems as well. Veterinary students learn how to check vital signs as a method for assessing how to address emergency responses. Students in Agribusiness begin by mastering economics and learn how opportunity costs and benefits affect decision making. Students in Natural Resources consider how biodiversity and extinction affect ecosystem function in order to grasp why specific management decisions are made. Students in Landscape Design learn all about how balance, emphasis, transition and other elements of design affect whether a presentation will be appealing or appalling to the eye. Systems govern every class I teach because they enable my students to learn and answer their own questions long after I have faded into the distant recesses of their memory. 

Students in Biotechnology & Bioenergy test the
efficiency of fossil fuels as compared to biodiesel and 

ethanol and test hypotheses formed using their 

understanding of the chemical nature of combustion. 

 

While I would never go back to a method of teaching that did not involve systems, it also true that there are disadvantages to this approach. First and foremost, it is harder to teach. Most of us did not experience this kind of instruction as students, and so it can be hard to know what it should look like when it's effective. It requires far more interaction and inquiry because students need to experience the systems to appreciate their complexity. Often this means writing your own curriculum from scratch. Having designed and written over a dozen classes myself, I can attest that it can be hard to find effective and appropriate examples of systems- and inquiry-based education that work in different classroom environments. 

Finally, it can be very hard to assess a student who has been taught in this way. While a multiple choice test can be a great formative assessment to check for progress, it is a terrible option as a final assessment for a unit. Just as we wouldn't want a student driver to get a license after only passing a written test, we want students in our subject to be assessed in a "behind the wheel" manner for whatever subject we're teaching. In my classes, this can involve authentic assessments such as diagnosing a veterinary disorder by performing a physical exam on a cow, creating and critiquing a landscape design project for the school, or producing and evaluating biodiesel in my laboratory. Over time I have found ways to lessen my dependence on written exams and have tried to reduce the excesses of rote learning in my program, but it remains an ongoing battle. 

 

Students working with a local veterinarian to perform a pregnancy check using their systemic understanding of reproductive anatomy and endocrinology.

Ultimately, if we are successful at teaching systems, we should be preparing our students to apply their knowledge and skills in order to understand and address legitimate problems. I have long since forgotten the mundane facts I memorized in high school and college, but I find myself constantly applying what I know about the systems to the experiences that I have each day. Agricultural education provides phenomenal opportunities to help students understand the function of the world at large due to its close relationship to systems in biology, ecology, economics, engineering, medicine, and much more. The key is for each instructor to know and grasp the endless opportunities at their disposal to teach using these systems. By going beyond rote facts and memorization to teach students to comprehend and use the systems embodied in agriculture to solve problems and create solutions, you will provide an education that will remain with your students long after they have left your classroom in a manner that embodies the greatest ideals of agricultural education.

People are often concerned about how excited I get about teaching techniques, and I can talk forever about curriculum and instruction as well as my own teaching experiences. 

If for some reason that sounds appealing to you and you want to discuss this further, or if you have any questions, feel free to email me at ckohn@waterforduhs.k12.wi.us . 

All of my curriculum can be found (and downloaded for free) at wuhsag.weebly.com . Changes and updates are made regularly to this website so feel free to check for new versions of the material. 

Guest Blogger: Standard wha? - a sojourn into Standards Based Grading

Editor's Note: This blog is part of a series of guest contributors from the national school-based agricultural education family. Mr. Matthew Eddy is a 17 year teacher at Southeast Polk High School in Iowa. He is a CASE Certified Master Teacher and holds certifications in AFNR, Animal Science, Plant Science and Biotechnology. He authored the Governor’s STEM Scale-Up grants -- securing funding of over $3 Million dollars for Iowa Agriculture programs to participate in adopting the CASE model. Matthew is involved in his professional organizations thru the “Teach Ag” campaign helping to recruit and retain agriculture teachers: blogging about “A Day in the Life of an Ag Teacher” on the NAAE Communities of Practice site and building awareness of his profession with his interactions on twitter - @AgEd4ME. His wife Carol is a principal with the Ankeny school district and his four children, Owen (9), Olivia (5) and Isaac (4) and Evelyn (6mo) seem to keep him busy at home in Pleasant Hill, Iowa.

SE Polk students are almost ready
to embark on the fetal pig dissection lab.  

First and foremost - let me capitulate by stating that I have, in no conceivable way, a handle on this thing.  But I'm trying.

While you (PSU Ag Ed student) have probably the greatest Ag Educator in the Nation at your helm and have probably discussed Standards Based Grading- and grading in general extensively - the rest of the educational world is likely to not have been so lucky.

My grading experiences started with a red standard gradebook and a No 2 yellow pencil.  Go forth and evaluate young man... and don't screw it up.

As I look back on my grading experiences, I can put them into two categories -- 1 - how I was graded in high school and #2 - how I graded during my student teaching experience.  Neither of which was anything to write home about and both were inherently flawed… at least when it comes to measuring learning.  

And isn't that what grades are for?  Measuring a student’s learning?

 I always believed that my gradebook was flawed... anyone who likes numbers can probably see some of the ways that it was... but I never really gave it much thought until about five years ago when I saw some youtube videos of Rick Wormeli.  

Mind. Blown.

“The grade is NOT the reward, nor can it ever be considered such. Once a grade becomes a bartering tool, its power to inform stake-holders and be used to make instructional decisions or document progress accurately is impugned.” (Wormeli)

IF we are truly assessing students for what they know - our traditional system has so many inherent flaws that keep our grades from being that true assessment and make them into more of a compliance report.  Points deducted for late work, zeros, no chances for re-assessment, extra credit (much of which doesn’t even relate to the learning goals- i.e. bring a box of Kleenex )… the list is endless.        

SE Polk Students extracting DNA from a piece of fruit.  

“The two essential questions that all educators should ask about their grades are, ‘How confident am I that the grades students get in my classroom/school/district are accurate, meaningful, and consistent, and that they support learning’ and ‘How confident am I that the grades I assign students accurately reflect my school’s/district’s published content standards and desired learning outcomes?’” (O’Conner, p2)

Grading has become a high stakes affair and in my opinion almost opposite of what it was intended to communicate. “Grading should be a by-product of learning – not the reason for it” (Eddy)

As you embark upon your journey into Agriculture Education – remember that those two words might not be listed in order of importance.  Be a good educator first, use agriculture as your canvas.  Create a world view that prizes learning over schooling. Grade your students to reflect their mastery of a subject, not their ability to complete worksheets on time. 

Give Standards Based Grading a try – read, think, implement, evaluate – rinse and repeat.

If you really want to consider this further - I recommend Rick Wormeli and Ken O'Connor -- who can speak much more eloquently and have done far more with this subject area.  THEY have a handle on it.  As for me, I just keep trying again tomorrow... 

Bibliography

Rick Wormeli, “Fair isn’t always Equal”

Ken O’Conner, “A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades”

Matthew Eddy, “My Kid got a What??”

http://communities.naae.org/blogs/dayinthelife/2013/10/10/my-kid-got-a-what

Submitted by:

Matthew Eddy

@AgEd4ME

Southeast Polk Agriculture Instructor 

Guest Blog Series: Utilizing CASE to Achieve Inquiry and Integrated Science Goals

Editor's Note: This blog is part of a series of guest contributors from the National school-based agricultural education family. Ms. Melanie Bloom  is the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) Plant Pathway Coordinator. She has been a Lead Teacher for CASE since 2011 and became a Master Teacher in 2013.  Prior to joining the CASE Writing Team, Melanie served for twelve years as the Sioux Central Agriculture Education Instructor in northwest Iowa.  She served as the Iowa Association of Agricultural Educators President in 2011-2012 and has been active in the National Association of Agricultural Educators. Melanie was raised on a diversified corn, soy, forage, beef and swine farm in northwest Iowa and remains active in her family farm in addition to many agriculture-related hobbies.

Last spring, I had the chance to "host" a pair of students for a May Term internship for school. I drove the two junior gals to Des Moines, Iowa and spent the week taxi-ing them around town to their internship sites (Southeast Polk's Ag Ed program, Iowa Public Television's Market to Market production, and Iowa Farm Bureau's Spokesman writing staff). All the windshield time provided opportunities to visit and catch up. The most poignant conversation for me, though, was when we talked about their academic success at school. Especially how their agricultural education courses had contributed to success in other courses such as chemistry and biology. One of the young ladies said, "Bloom, if it hadn't been for the CASE pH activities in 9th grade, I would never have understood chemistry."

As a teacher, I LOVE that light-bulb moment. You know, when a student has struggled with a concept and it finally clicks into place. That conversation, that morning, was a bit of a light bulb moment for me. For years, I watched students struggle and get frustrated with my inquiry lessons.

But I realized in that conversation that just because the light bulb doesn't go on in "my" class - in my room - during my lesson - it doesn't mean learning doesn't take place. My own narcissism - wanting instant gratification and feedback for a lesson or unit that I might have taken a lot of pain to plan, design, and set up - comes second to student light bulb moments.

I've always been late to the party....

Making The Light Bulbs Happen

I've been learning about and using backward design (aka Understanding by Design) for over 10 years now.

I was resistant to the idea, originally. I didn't have time in my schedule to dump all my carefully curated powerpoints, lectures, lessons, and activities and start over from scratch. Then it became part of our school district professional development (probably the best two years of PD we had at Sioux Central) and we had to implement lessons/units we wrote ourselves. I was also working on my masters, and had to have a creative component, so I chose to rewrite my horticulture curriculum following UbD principles.

And it worked.

Holy cow, talk about teacher light bulbs. Kids were having FUN in my class because of the curriculum organization, not because I was cracking jokes during lectures. I quickly swapped textbooks, PowerPoint, and lectures for focused readings, projects, and rubrics. The new lessons were not amazing by any stretch of the imagination - I did not have time to really plan six preps using UbD. It was very much a rotating system. Lesson by lesson, course by course. But every time I completed one, I got instant gratification from my students. They were learning.

(Side note: A lot of teachers do NOT enjoy designing and writing curriculum. I do. Being a Pathway Coordinator - being part of the CASE Writing Team - is a dream job for me.)

When a fisticuffs NEARLY broke out over who had the right method for figuring some type of formula on some statement among my Farm Business Management course, I knew we must on to something. That year our FBM CDE team placed in the top 20 at state. WITHOUT practice. WITHOUT intense prep sessions. JUST curriculum in class done well. Then one of those students transferred his knowledge of Excel formulas gained in FBM to his Calc class. Blew both of us teachers away... more on that later.

At about that time (2009) Mr. Matthew Eddy (a powerful force in Ag Ed) introduced Iowa Ag Ed to Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education, a purposeful, intentional collection of courses written using the UbD methods (shameless promotion, here). Every course spirals and scaffolds relevant experiences within the course - and upon previous courses within the pathway (see pathways and courses below). I was hooked. The work was all done for me!

Another CASE hero, Aaron Geiman, described it this way (paraphrased): "Teachers have finite time and energy to prep for class. We can either pour energy into writing our own great curriculum, or we can pour that energy into DELIVERING good curriculum."

I chose to deliver good curriculum in a great way. I had become a 7:30-4:30 ag teacher (plus evening, summer, and weekend SAE and FFA events) due to the need for a better work-life balance, so CASE provided a great curriculum that I could focus time and energy on delivering. I had so much fun teaching the next few years. I am really anxious to see research on how curriculum and PD (such as what CASE offers) is impacting teacher efficacy and retention.

How do Inquiry and Transfer work Hand-in-Hand?

One educational obstacle that we keep talking about is the lack of transfer from course-to-course in the typical Carnegie unit high school. Students may learn how to calculate area of a rectangle in their math class, but a half hour later in ag class, they cannot TRANSFER that skill to calculate the area of a garden or field. Using inquiry learning, such as that promoted in What is Inquiry? - by galileo.com, I have seen first-hand how using inquiry makes a concept or skill more relevant for students. I believe that relevance strongly influences transfer.

Remember the student who transferred knowledge and skills related to Excel formulas to his advanced math class? He created his own calculator, getting the correct answers in seconds compared to his classmates who took much longer. He wasn't cheating. He was completely competent in his knowledge - in order to build the calculator, he had to have a firm grasp of the content. His math teacher and I just sat back and had fun watching the transfer.

Imagine if our high school students had started inquiry learning like this in elementary:

In elementary. When almost all kids still love school and learning. Before they get bored.

Inquiry and Integrated Science

So, the College Board set forth this document in 2009: College Board Standards for College Success. Similar to the Next Generation Science Standards. I'm not here to promote the Common Core State Standards - or to detract from the initiative, either. I do like how, in our increasingly transient society, students have fewer seams in their educational experiences when we're all working together, teaching from the same pages every year.

When students attain information in such a way that transfer occurs, then inquiry deepens. Students can apply concepts from multiple disciplines to solve the problem at hand. Need to calculate planting dates for a retail plant sale? Develop, transfer, and use math, meteorology, and communication knowledge and skills to make that happen. Utilize information previously learned in the course about germination rates, timing, scarification, and seedling care to put all of this into real-life use. Customer service, marketing, and teamwork will come as the project unfolds.

How many things have we all learned from our successes? How many things have we learned from mistakes, errors, lapses in judgement, or failures? Allowing students to make mistakes - and learn from those mistakes - is critical in a safe high school education environment.

Observe, predict, gather resources, attempt, and evaluate. Implement adjustments. Repeat. Learn from others and adjust again. Repeat. Repeat until the problem is solved. THAT is integrated science. Not getting a high score on a test.

How does CTE Improve Relevance?

I'm also a fan of providing the opportunities for every student to be career and/or college ready upon graduation. I see Career and Tech Education as absolutely imperative to help accomplish this - especially because students have less rocky adjustments to trade school or college when they have completed a CTE program in high school. CTE focuses less on always having the right answers and more on the importance of thinking clearly and utilizing skills to solve problems.

Teachers have to follow the same framework, or run the risk of becoming irrelevant themselves. As a teacher friend of mine keeps saying, "If I'm going to fall, I'm at least going to fall forward and learn something."

We cannot be afraid of failure. We have to learn from each experience and be able to apply that knowledge in the next set of circumstances. Our students will see us grow professionally when we take risks and feel safe to do the same thing.

That right there, is what inquiry and transfer are all about.

Submitted by:

Melanie Bloom, Iowa
melanie.bloom@case4learning.org
@Ag_In_Bloom
Plant Pathways Coordinator
Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education

Guest Blogger Series: Organizing your instruction...Literally

Editor's Note: This blog is part of a series of guest contributors from the national school-based agricultural education family. Parker Bane has taught at Pontiac Township High School since 2003. Parker has been active in the Illinois Association of Vocational Agriculture Teachers, serving as President in 2011-2012, and the National Association of Agriculture Educators, serving as Region IV Secretary since 2012. Parker is a CASE Master Teacher and currently serves on the National FFA Foundation Board of Trustees. Parker's fiancée, Angie, teaches agriculture in Tremont, Illinois, and the couple currently resides in Towanda, IL with their daughter, Ella.

Crazy...absolutely crazy is what you are probably going to call me when I finish this story. I’m the ag teacher that couldn’t figure out how to spend $50,000. Shocked? Well...I can explain. No, really. In July, 2003, I stepped into a situation that most ag teachers can only dream about. I was hired right out of college to start a brand new ag program for Pontiac High School, a school of about 1000 students. The Superintendent that hired me, a man named Butch Cotter, was famous for his support of ag teachers, having built the powerhouse ag program at Seneca High School. Butch’s father, Howard taught agriculture for many years at neighboring Flanagan. His support for me was true to the legend. He came to me and said “I think it’ll take about $50,000 to get this off the ground.” And so it began.

Agriculture Labs are truly multi-purpose spaces. We do a lot of different things in our lab. You can see our workstations in the background of one of our Chapter FFA Meetings. Think of all the different things you'll do in your space... 

“I’m going to get so much cool stuff!” was my thinking. However, like most other experiences of my first year, it wasn’t quite so easy. In retrospect, I learned that I was my own biggest stumbling block with this. Long story short, when the fiscal year ended, I had a lot of stuff, but I’d only been able to leverage about 1/5th of the support my school threw my way. Although I’ve survived, I could have gotten off to a lot better start if there were some things I’d known. Here is what I learned along the way. To be fair, I’m still learning.

1. Purchasing and ordering takes time...a LOT of time. One of my biggest hangups was that I had more ag students my first year than anticipated. This was great for the program, but bad for me, because I had to sacrifice my only prep period (during my first year teaching, building a brand new program) to accommodate an extra section of an ag course (and a two-period block of non-ag welding). Simply put, I ran out of time and energy to research catalogs, fill out purchase orders, order, pick up, inventory, and store stuff. If you have any control over your time, budget a lot of time for getting the things you need. If you have the things you need, your lessons go smoother, and your planning is easier. I’ll put in a CASE plug here...one reason I like the CASE project so much is that they build “purchase manuals” with lists of everything you need to teach the CASE courses. They give you the list, the vendors, and throw in discounts that are competitive. It’s been a game-changer for me.

2. Especially when your “building” or “re-building” a program, dedicate $0.50 of every dollar you spend on your “stuff” to purchasing storage and organization for that stuff. If you buy $1000 in equipment, you should plan on spending at least $500 in cabinets to store that equipment, because…See point number 3...

This was our lab circa 2011. Notice the forklift. That was a nice thought...BUT didn't work out. 

3.  Organizing your stuff is so much easier when you have a place to put the things you need. When you start teaching in a school, plan ahead as much as you can by creating places for all the things you’ll need to store. If you can’t afford cabinets, get used lumber and cinder blocks and build makeshift shelves. It’ll still look better than the tubs on the floor or crap laying around.

4. Although people tell you to make friends with your custodians, sometimes, it just doesn’t work out that way.... Try as I might, I have had two directors of maintenance that just didn’t like the way we did business. Do we have some ownership in that? I’m sure we did. However, a large part of our problems stemmed from our directors of maintenance feeling threatened by us. We shared space with them. We wanted the space for instructional purposes. They wanted to store old boxes of dairy queen salad trays. They couldn’t imagine why that annoyed us. Many of you will come into situation where you’re sharing space. Maybe a coach will carry mats into your lab. Perhaps you’ll find the arches for prom stored above your classroom. I don’t have good advice for you...just do your best to survive and be a good neighbor, but don’t be a doormat either. We persisted here, and the salad tray boxes are now gone.

5. Use your resources. We have a local hospital. We put the “vibe” out that we’d be interested in their old furniture if they ever remodeled. When they renovated their lab (getting rid of 10 year old furniture), we were ready to take it. We stored it on a semi trailer and installed it the following summer. We positioned ourselves to take hundreds of cubic feet of cabinet space...and we got it for free. Maybe there’s a business in your community that will do the same? Build your network and be ready to pounce when the opportunity comes.

Grace Weber and Grace Spires at OSF St. James John W. Albrecht Medical Center helping load out lab furniture. 

6. Organize how you see fit. Some people populate their shelves alphabetically. We organize our stuff by course/topic. You’ll be using it. Do what works for you!

Here you can see some of our cabinets and workstation spaces. A labelmaker can help organize your stuff! 

I could probably write for days about this topic, but I’ll open myself up for questions from you. Please contact me with your questions! 

Submitted by:

Parker Bane
@parkerbane
 pbane@pontiac90.org

Agriscience Teacher

Pontiac Township

The Inquiry Process Graphic

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