Triple Trip!

Triple Trip 2019

(actually four stops)

Stop #1 We left campus at 7:55 am and went to Puskas dairy farm in Somerset on South Middlebush and Bennetts lane. Only dairy farm in Somerset county at this point.  Hard to believe this. Fun visit and learned a ton. We learned about Dairy cow judging. Some anatomical terms were: Hock, utter, pelvis area, pin bone, hook bone, thurl, pastern, hoof, short ribs, and the desired position or relationship for several. Also explained by Mr. Puskas, a 4-H Fair judge, were the importance of each aspect. Both and Mr. and Mrs. Puskas were both very knowledgeable and generous with their time.

Stop #2 From there went to Rutgers Food and Nutritional Science. Eye opening experience there. Not expecting a formal presentation, an experiment, and such great student hosts representing the Rutgers Food Science. For the experiment Our students did a fun activity/experiment learning about hydrophilicity, and hydrophobicity in foods.  The experiment materials were milk, food coloring, and detergent.  Some students had done the experiment in the past and already knew what to expect but still excited to see it again and show others. We were lead on a tour of the building including a renowned PhD's research lab and several experimental apparati. 

Stop #3 From Food Science we took a short walk then to Lipman Hall to learn from my Biochemistry professor at Rutgers, Dr. Peter C. Kahn. He always had a great knack for explaining the complex, abstract, can't see what you're talking about, on a common everyday level so all relate and "get it".  Dr, Kahn still has this skill. That was an exciting visit, students used a computer 3D model to see how a cancer drug (Methotrexate) / chemotherapy works with Dihydrofolate reductase, a molecule responsible for producing thymine, a DNA base. When Methotraxate and combine with Dihydrofolate reductase, DNA synthesis stops, and cancer is controlled. Dr. Kahn then took us to his research lab to show how he tested the drug. He designed and built the testing chamber himself. Really neat! 

Stop #4 (we were in a hurry! no time for pictures) And since it was only 12:10 we traveled 37 miles up to County College of Morris to see their Landscape and Horticultural Tech program where we have an articulation agreement with. Good to see and what beautiful facility. We just made it back at 2:17 only 2 minutes after students were released from classes to buses! YIKES!

Just in case anyone was wondering where the misnomer Triple trip came from, two years ago we did a similar route with different stops, that time was three stops. And since Triple trip is more memorable than Quadruple trip (actually a clunky word combo) Triple trip labeling wins.

Pansies

PTO Pansy crop

With the help of Mr. Malanga, students and Mr. Fargo grew 750 pansy plants that are planted in 150 containers. One student from the morning session, Abby, and one from the afternoon, Tiffany, each lead the project. Great work! SCVTHS faculty and staff will take one home for the PTO sponsored luncheon. Thank you SCVTHS PTO. It was a great learning experience.

Success!

Success!

Several Somerset FFA Chapter / Agricultural Science students submitted entries for the NJ FFA Horticulture Exposition that was held on March 15th. The Hort Expo is a New Jersey competition for all FFA Chapters to participate. Of the four Somerset entries submitted, three students won awards for their work. As seen below, Sara Benaglio won Second place in the Terrarium Class for her creation featuring a croton and Psuedobombax (pictured below, top in sequence). 

Also Placing well, was Abigail Podejko for her loose leaf romaine lettuce in the Sustainable Agriculture Class. She placed First in this class and was awarded both a First place ribbon and Plaque (see two photos in middle of sequence below). Abby's award winning lettuce was recently featured in the SCVTHS Tradewins restaurant.

And for the first time ever a Somerset student has won a Division! Maria Scarpantonio won First place for her Succulent and Cacti dish garden. There are three divisions in the Hort Expo: Live plants with roots, Fresh cut flower arrangements, and Permanent, or Silk arrangements. Of all the Live plants Classes, 22 of them, Maria's creation was deemed best of all.

Congratulations all you!

Sara's Terrarium, Second place ribbon not pictured.

 Abby's Lettuce with ribbon, plaque not pictured.

 Abby's Lettuce crop grown in a hydroponic Stacker System contributed by Norz Hill Farm of Hillsborough, NJ.

Maria's Succulent and Cacti dish garden with First place ribbon. Live Plant Divisional Winner Plaque not pictured.

As part of our effort to earn community service hours this year, we chose to once again clean up our SCVTHS campus. We opened the collection up other CTSO's (clubs) in the school. We were able to collect 159 pounds of debris from roughly 3 acres of land and roughly 45 hours total between Operation Shoebox events and cleaning the campus.

Our Research and Development students have been experimenting and collecting data over the past four weeks. They are almost finished with this phase. Below is some resistant bacteria created in the classroom which they tested against plant compounds impregnated onto filter discs. The filter discs on the left side of each petri plate show strong control over these resistant bacteria. Stay tuned for their results to be revealed.

Finally, we hosted a Science fair in February with great success. SCVTHS Agricultural Science students completed science fair projects in agricultural areas of animal science, plant science, food / nutritional science, environmental science, and power, structure, and technical systems. Students also helped plan, organize, and run the science fair utilizing leadership skills learned through our FFA chapter.  Students welcomed their parents, SCVTHS administration, faculty, board members, Agricultural Science program advisory committee members, and supporters, and Somerset County Freeholder Mr. Gallagher. Those in attendance were given a few minutes to explore the location and topic of each science fair project. Attendee groups cycled through each project after a welcome and introduction. Student presenters explained their experiment in four minutes and had two minutes to answer questions. The hope is to use this event as a recruiting tool in the future and bring awareness that there is a four-year agricultural science high school program offered in Somerset County. We have video footage we will be sharing before the school year closes.  Thank you all for all you contributed.

Open House Prep, Biochem, Seeding, Anatomy, Carrot Culture, and Taxonomy

Open House, Biochemistry, Seeding, Anatomy, Carrot Culture, and Taxonomy

Open House!

Please be sure to come visit the Agricultural Science program on February 2nd from 9 to 12 pm for the annual SCVTHS Open House. We will have our Ag Science Building open with activities (some you may have seen through my teacher blog), and we will have a table in the main building by the Media Center with an activity to lead families to our building. There will be a shuttle bus to transport people if the walk is intimidating. Please share this info with those that may be interested. Looking forward to seeing you here. You can register to attend by clicking on this link to our SCVTHS home page.

Biochemistry

Our Research and Development students are closing in on running their experiment. They have been analyzing and planning their procedures. While reviewing their procedures and selecting materials, they noticed that there may be an opportunity to block antibiotic resistant bacteria from protecting themselves. One of our students has taken the lead on examining the organic chemistry behind bacteria protecting themselves from host organisms. Below they are starting a pilot test using mostly materials expected to used in the experiment. They had to go "old school" with their sterile culture and utilize a clear plastic tote. This tote was actually what students used in the first year of Biotech since we did not have a biosafety cabinet / laminar flow hood then. We now use the tote for classroom FFA jacket storage.

Seeding

Our PTO pansy crop has been started! We sowed seed into 288 cell trays provided by the PTO while veteran grower Nick Malanga assisted in set up. The seeds were sown on Monday 1-14 and Tuesday 1-15 as seen above. Then below, about a dozen of the day one pansies have germinated with our two students in charge of the project. Very exciting to see these come up so early.  A bit high maintenance at this point since we are still figuring out how to grow a pansy crop the right way. The students seen below will use this project as a Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) project and earn hours toward honorary FFA degrees, proficiency awards, scholarships, and marketing themselves. Project planning, Formal record keeping, and recording what standards students learned makes a complete SAE project.

Also an additional thank you to Ginder Greenhouses for donating the seed and finishing pots. We greatly appreciate contributions that help students learn and earn credit toward SAE projects.  Thank you!

Anatomy

Intro to Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources (FANR) students are currently in a plant science unit and will soon move to a plant growing requirements unit. Below is picture of flower models FANR students created and labeled for a flower anatomy lesson. 

Carrot Culture

The Animal and Plant Biotech students last week wrote a protocol for introducing a supplemental gene into a carrot in part utilizing tissue culture. After creating this protocol from lessons previously learned, they then perform the part of the experiment that includes the tissue culturing. The major steps are: 1) creating the carrot growth medium, 2) sterilizing the carrot tissue and all the materials needed, 3) cutting the carrot with a cork borer to obtain inner tissue that will be more likely sterile, and 4) culturing the carrot on callus initiation media.  They will transfer the carrot callus to shoot induction media in roughly eight weeks.

Taxonomy and Nutrients!

Plant Science students are moving through units quickly at this point. They have recently, and quickly, covered units in Plant Taxonomy, Plant bionomial naming and associated rules, and currently investigating nutrients. The last lab they completed was testing two soil types for nutrient content.  Both samples came from our greenhouse tomato crop and we found need to add some nutrients to them. Good thing we tested these!

Starting January of with Productivity

Starting 2019 Off with Productivity
January 9th

 Agricultural Research & Development - Antibiotic Resistance Testing

Students have made plans for ordering their antibiotic research project materials, made a plan for experimentation, begun a data collection plan, and above are seen in the beginning of a lesson about data.  Here they are learning about accuracy and precision.

 Intro to Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources

Students in this class are learning about cellular contents and DNA. They have completed activities in identifying organelle functions, DNA structure and replication, identifying trait categories and their variances, and shown above they have learned how to use both physical and chemical separation techniques for harvesting DNA from a strawberry.

 Animal and Plant Biotechnology

Students have done several lessons on the controversy associated with genetically modified organisms, and have learned sterile technique.  In the above photo, students are preparing growth media for ferns in sterile tissue culture. They will autoclave the media, then when cooled enough will pour the media into culture vessels, and then culture ferns onto the fresh media. 

Plant Science

Students in this course recently completed a unit covering flower anatomy and function. Today they began a unit to understand classification and taxonomy.  In the photo above students have been assigned to develop their own dichotomous key using identification features they chose.

Science Fair Preparation

We will be hosting a science fair on February 25th.  Students are busy preparing by running experiments, writing their analysis, and preparing for presentations. In the two photos below, one student is trying to answer the question of which of the three turfgrass species harvest the most carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? She enlisted some help from classmates and is using a data logging device with a CO2 chamber to measure the gas level removed by each of the three turfgrasses. She will present her findings at our science fair.

PTO plants

Our students will be growing pansies for the SCVTHS PTO to give away to staff in May.  Below we are setting up our new thermostat to control a heat mat needed to create optimal conditions for pansy seed germination.

Why didn't I think of this?

The Ag Science Farm Stand

This was fun and exciting project. We launched our Farm Stand yesterday with some success.  The idea was generated from our FFA Officers during our FFA LEAD trip in October. Students suggested we raise money using cheese pumpkins we had growing. That turned into utilizing our new electric workman as a portable farm stand using some pallets that were donated to us. We made pumpkin puree by roasting a cheese pumpkin, then made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with the roasted pumpkin. We pressure washed the pallets and wood for the farm stand and assembled. We decorated the workman bed with pallets and pumpkins and sold out of cookies the first day. 

Hoping to use this as a tool to not only earn some funding for FFA related activities, but also to help educate those on SCVTHS campus that we have a thriving Agricultural Science program and some top notch students. Perhaps a little word of mouth marketing will happen in our favor.

Thank you all for supporting this program, it belongs to all of us!  Great Job FFA Officers! :)

October Part 2

October Part 2

Agricultural Research & Development

Our students in this course have done some heavy planning and thinking. They have narrowed their research topic to Antibiotic Resistance as applied to livestock. Their research question will investigate how antibiotic plant based compounds can assist in controlling bacterial infections and reducing the need for traditional antibiotics. We will be searching for advisers to guide their research this coming week.

Animal & Plant Biotech

DNA replication
Hosted Law and Public Safety (LPS) and taught them to perform a CSI like DNA analysis. The lesson had students learn from mock scenario where DNA was harvested from a chewed shoe which "puppy chewed the shoe".  Our Animal and Plant Biotechnology Students were team leaders for the LPS students and essentially the teachers for the LPS students. This allowed the Animal and Plant Biotech students to raise their learning bar and strongly reinforced all the knowledge and skills that were learned in previous lessons. And the best part: all the students loved this three day project.

Biotech students not long before the above CSI investigation prepared and presented the process of DNA replication. This lesson helps develop a foundation for understanding how other molecular processes work which student will investigate such as: transcription and translation, and protein production.

Plant Science

Plant Science students completed a portion of an anatomy unit in order to capture fresh leaves on trees and plants before the weather removes them from important and helpful trees.  Below is a picture of students running a plant pigment investigation. They are doing this by crushing fresh leaf tissue on a filter paper and subjecting the filter paper to an alcohol source so that the pigments can be separated based on size over night.  Great lesson in revealing any cloaked pigments and pigment size. 

Intro to FANR

After several weeks of topics on Agricultural facets, communication, team building, and safety, Introduction to Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources students have started science units. We are now completing a soil science unit learning both physical and chemical properties of soil and applying how to communicate lab results in a professional lab report. This will help with writing for their Plant Science, Animal & Plant Biotech, Research & Development Courses while here in Ag Science.

FFA Career Development Event Prep

NJ FFA organizes four competitions classified as Career Development Events (CDE's). This November students will travel to a state level CDE for one of four events: Fruit and Vegetable Identification (students seen below preparing for this as a chapter level CDE), Dairy Products and Processing, Land Judging, and Turfgrass Management.

Lettuce Crop

Students worked together to plant a small crop of lettuce which we have growing in our greenhouse. The lettuce is harvested about four weeks after planting. The lettuce grows new leaves and can be harvested one or two more times afterwards about two to three weeks apart. Here you can see our LED grow light lighting almost the entire greenhouse at night. Very cool to see!