Investigations, Communication, and Open House

Investigations, Communication, and Open House

Open House

Both morning and afternoon students have been busy transplanting roughly 350 lettuce plants in preparation for Open House.  Once the lettuce is ready for harvest, we will cut it and share with Culinary Arts here at SCVTHS. A good rule that the Culinary Arts Instructor shared with us is that each one gallon sized zip top bag contains enough lettuce for ten small salads.  We will record how much lettuce we harvest and share and hope to meet, or go beyond, prior years in harvesting.  

Investigations - FANR, Plant Science, Research & Development

Intro to Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources students performed an investigation to determine how wind impacts plant cell hydration and the plant's ability to maintain upright structure.  Students set up the experiment on a Friday, collected plant height data (measured height with a ruler) for the first 20 minutes, and then one last collection 72 hours later.  Students then wrote a lab report and used the lab report info to produce what we call a mini-poster.  The Mini-poster is a tool I am using to get students familiar with the process of presenting and communicating their findings with others. I hope to have all student posters displayed for Open House.  

Plant Science students recently performed an experiment to test impacts environment has on a plants use of water to maintain itself.  They used a more powerful tool to measure the water use: a gas pressure sensor.  When water exits the leaf, it creates a vacuum pressure which students could measure with this sensor and data was recorded on a data logging device.  After the experiment was complete, students used the data logger to process the data (math operation) and determine an equation for a linear regression and line slope.  The line slope value was then used to compare the rate of water loss with a control.

Communication

In the photo below, a student is creating a mini-poster using info created in the lab report.

Animal & Plant Biotech

Animal and Plant Biotech students are currently learning the processes for introducing novel DNA into a plant using genetic transformation.  One the of the processes they are also working on sterile plant tissue culture.  In the photo below students have cultured a fern.  Biotech students are establishing sterile carrot cultures in class this week.  The hope will be for students to turn a small carrot piece into a whole plant again. 

Agriculture Research and Development

Students in the R&D class have chosen to explore methods of controlling oil spills in water using microbes to clean the water by converting the oil to less harmful hydrocarbons, such as methane.  In the photo below, a student in is preparing to culture the oil eating microbes.  After culturing students will then count the number of microbe colonies and determine which condition the microbes thrive and reproduce in.  This is a pilot study that they will use to amplify the experiment.

The Micro World

The Micro World

FANR

Our Year One, Intro to Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources (FANR) students learned proper wet mount slide creation procedures and microscope operation.  Materials they used were thread and onion skin.  Their goal was to illustrate and identify an onion cell nucleus.  In the photo to the lower right, I was able to snap a photo of one student slide pointing at a nucleus.

In another activity, FANR student learned how to extract DNA from strawberry fruit.  They also learned what the physical and chemical methods  are for separating DNA from other cellular contents.  All students were able successfully extract DNA from their fruit.  You may have noticed they brought a tube home containing the DNA.

Animal & Plant Biotechnology

Biotech students learned how to use their previously learned sterile culture skills and added new skills to this set to include sterile culture of plant tissues: Plant Tissue Culture.  This is a valuable and powerful way to grow and rapidly multiply plant tissues to create whole plants.  Its also a technique that is essential for improving plant genetics involving the introduction of novel traits.  Pictured to the left is a fern plant the was divided/cut with a scalpel and cultured on new growth media to include fresh nutrients.  This fern tissue has been in culture for approximately 4 years.

 Research & Development 

Our students in this class have been working hard learning how to effectively locate published information and write a literature review for their project.  They plan to investigate natural breakdown of oils and dispersal agents to help answer questions about controlling oil spills.

FFA Career Development Event Prep

Students are seen here learning external animal anatomy in preparation for the NJ FFA Veterinary Science competition.  Students visited several posters to learn common features and concluded the lesson with a game / quiz testing their new skills.

Open House 2018

Please come visit the Agricultural Science program on February 3rd during our school wide Open House event.  This event is sued to recruit new students from 8th grade for our upcoming fall classes. Follow this link to learn more and register online.

Scientific Wreaths

Scientific Wreaths?  Well almost.

Students decorated wreaths as a fundraiser this past December and we even made a couple from scratch.  And yes, some of use have a hard time taking off our lab coat after our in class lab is complete.  We thank all those that supported our Somerset FFA Chapter in making a purchase.

Agriculture teachers are becoming harder to find.  There is a shortage of trained agriculture teachers in the U.S. and across the globe.  in 2016 there were roughly 57 ag teacher positions to fill in the northeast region according to NAAE's Teach Ag Campaign.

Two Students from Somerset Ag Science attended the NJ FFA Teach Ag Event held at Rutgers on a snowy Saturday in December. Students learned about the shortage of ag teachers, what the job requirements are, where to get the training, and some expert advice from current and past ag teachers.  Students attending also brought home some "Teach Ag Swag" a kit with t-shirt, portfolio, and other items to inspire students to pursue a degree in Agriculture Education. 

Our Biotech students recently completed a gene insertion project.  Students inserted a gene for bioluminescence taken from jellyfish and they inserted into a bacteria.  They then cultured the bacteria to produce the bioluminescent protein, extracted the protein from the bacteria, and purified the protein as is shown below.

We also used some sidewalk chalk to review the steps and procedures of this long process.

Recruiting new students is an important part of maintaining a program.  Bottom line is, the best way to recruit is to have great support and have students do the talking for you.  Very simple, but very, very true!  Thank you everyone!

Our first year students in our Intro to Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources (FANR) class, completed a unit where they learned about water quality and maintaining the quality.  Seen below here the students are performing an activity exploring point source and non-point source pollution and how topography impacts pollutant movement.

One the goals of our ambitious FFA chapter this year is to reach a goal of logging 200 hours of community service through planned events.  So far about five students have participated and logged about 70 hours.  Once the goal of 200 hours is met, by March 30th, our chapter can apply for and earn recognition for dedicating our time, service, and talents to others that need support.  Please watch for announcements of future community service activities and help us reach our goal! Below are several students participating in an Operation Shoebox event in December.