What Students are up to in Intro to Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Course

Year 1 Intro to Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources

I thought I would put together a blog entry to demonstrate what students are learning in the first year course (Intro to FANR). Below you you will find photos of activities and captions explaining along with a general outline of the topics covered.

Students enrolled in this course are laying a foundation for studying deeper subjects. The course they are learning from is Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) and are working toward earning a certification indicating successful course completion.

In addition, we follow a three circle model ensuring students have access to career building opportunities through Classroom Instruction (CASE), Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE), and FFA (leadership skills).

Here is a general outline of the topics covered.

So far this year the Intro to FANR students have completed Units 1.1 through 4.2.

In Unit 1.1 students are given perspective on the history, need, and breadth of agriculture. Unit 1.2 introduces students to career opportunities in agriculture and they begin a project including their first SAE which will be used to earn their first FFA Degree, the Greenhand Degree. Unit 2 establishes the knowledge and skill for communication and team work.

Once we begin Unit 3 the focus of foundation knowledge and skill switches to preparing students for lab experimentation. Students first learn about safety, equipment ID, and equipment use. Students learn about basic classification (to be applied later in plant and animal units), the process of science, begin a series of lessons on writing a well developed lab report (useful for the Agriscience Fair), identifying pH and using equipment to measure pH, and the importance of pH for living organisms. They conclude this unit by planning a skit to perform a mock experiment demonstrating science processes and safety.

Unit 4.1 includes lessons on soil texture and how texture impacts soil performance, how organic materials impact porosity, soil performance, and how to correct poor performing soil. In Unit 4.2 students apply soil texture knowledge to determine texture class, perform a permeability test and apply understanding or how texture and particle size impact performance, as well as measure pH buffering and determine which soil type buffers pH change the most. For the later activity students are required to write a lab report learning more about data collection and data transformation in the effort for communicating results and identifying patterns, trends, and/ or relationships.
Students are currently in the middle of unit 4.3 covering topics of the water cycle and parameters that impact water quality. They will conclude this unit by designing and conducting a water quality test using lab equipment to collect data and again writing lab report communicating their findings and adding on the layer of writing the Analysis of Data section.

Here students are introduced to FFA Career Development Events (CDE's) by doing a two day activity and getting experience in ten different CDE's including Dairy Products, Floriculture, Horse Evaluation, Landscape, Agronomy. Part of Unit 2.

Owners of Sunset Farmstead Nursery (above) are working with students to force perennial plants into growth and flowering for trade show season. All plants are in our greenhouse and students have been learning about and performing vernalization (chilling treatment to initiate flowering), soil moisture data collection, seasonal cut backs, water programs, fertilizer application, and pest control. This would be an extension project for unit 5.3 and a potential SAE project for students interested in pursuing a plant science career.

Four of our FANR students attended the NJ FFA LEAD conference to learn about leadership skills, team building, and communication. Great experience for students with great energy. Above is one of several hand on team building activities Greenhand track participants completed. This extends student exposure to FFA.

Can you guess who these hands belong to? Hint only two pairs of hands belong to FANR students, the other two are Seniors who completed this event for their final time. Above are the hands of the four students competing in the NJ FFA Landjuding CDE. Part of the event is judging the soil for agricultural suitability and a second part for establishing a home (Homestite). One of the senior ladies took 2nd place for Homesite this year! An amazing way to complete attending this event for four years. Congratulations Maria!

Thank you for reading and visiting!