January 2024
NJ DEP Trout in the Classroom in Agricultural Science!
We participate in the NJ DEP Trout in the Classroom program. We raise rainbow trout from eggs giving students an opportunity to learn about cold water species, learn and practice maintenance, and use learned skills and apply record keeping to earn honorary degrees and awards. NJ Trout Unlimited volunteers deliver about 300 eggs to us in October. About half of these hatch. After hatching many do not survive the first four weeks. By the end of December we are usually caring for a little over ten trout. We released the trout from their basket last week (late January ). They were in this small basket since hatching from eggs. They now have freedom to roam our tank and get stronger before we release them in spring. We have a NJ DEP license to release these fish in local stream water. Students participating in this project can learn animal science skills and possibly win awards for their associated record keeping.
Farm Bot
With the assistance of a Perkins grant, we were able to purchase an automated system that plants, waters, and weeds a 24 square foot plot. Agricultural Science students are constructing this system. So far we have designed and assembled a planting box according to specifications. We are currently assembling the gantry components. This step is quickly showing us how well machined the parts are and showing us how detail oriented we must be to properly assemble for best performance. Exciting to see this system go together even at this early stage.
4-H and SCVTHS Career Day
With the help of Somerset County 4-H and Rutgers staff, we organized and hosted a career day event which was held last week for Agricultural Science students. We invited and had speakers representing animal science, plant science, and environmental science and art. The below speakers shared with students their career path, made suggestions on how to get started, provided s short activity. and answered questions.
We would like to again thank the presenters for their time and sharing experiences with us. Presenters we would like to thank are:
Alex Friedman -Rutgers PhD candidate
Dr. Andrea Freeman - Veterinarian operating Kind Veterinary care in Martinsville
Daryl and Julie Kobesky- Landscape Architects and Sunset Farmstead Nursery owners.
Bruce Crawford - Horticulture Manager Morris County Park Commission and Agricultural Science program Advisory Committee Member since "beginning of time"
Melissa Woerner- NJ DEP Senior Biologist and Regional Habitat Planner.
Dr. Jon Higgins - Veterinarian operating Acorn Embryo.
