Swtiching it Up- Athens Program Visit
On Tuesday, I attended Athens Area High School to observe their agriculture program. I was super interested to see an agriculture program with two teachers. The dynamics of this team was awesome to see because Mrs. A is still a decently knew teacher and Mr. S has been teaching for awhile. These two both have strong points that they each get to bring to the program and students.
During my day there, I spent time in each of their classrooms seeing how they manage and each teach different classes. I spent much of the day with Mrs. A who teaches intro, 3 sections of biology, and animal science. The highlight of this was seeing how she handles 3 sections of the same class. I thought this could be boring teaching the same thing 3 times in one day but she did change it up some and the classes and atmosphere of each varies greatly. This was the main reason she said it never got boring. I then headed down stairs to observe Mr. S while he taught his shop II and horticulture class. In this class, they took me outside to see their new aquaponics system. This was super cool! The kids demonstrated and explained to me how this system works. In the tanks, the students are growing numerous different herbs such as mint and basil along with a lettuce crop. These are all being grown in rocks that are flushed with water. The nutrients for the plants is coming from coy fish that are also connected to the tank by a pipe system. For this experiment, two times a week the students test the water and clean the system. This is the class's sae project. They just recently received this system and purchased the initial seeds to grow from the local ag store. Everything about this project is super cool for the students. They not only are doing a wide variety of hands on activities but it also gives them an opportunity to work in their community as well as school as they will be donating their herb crops to the culinary department.
I was really glad I had the opportunity to see the Athens agriculture department. This agriculture program is ran much differently than I have experienced and I was glad for the opportunity to talk to both Mrs. A and Mr. S about their teaching strategies, classroom management techniques and FFA opportunities.
During my day there, I spent time in each of their classrooms seeing how they manage and each teach different classes. I spent much of the day with Mrs. A who teaches intro, 3 sections of biology, and animal science. The highlight of this was seeing how she handles 3 sections of the same class. I thought this could be boring teaching the same thing 3 times in one day but she did change it up some and the classes and atmosphere of each varies greatly. This was the main reason she said it never got boring. I then headed down stairs to observe Mr. S while he taught his shop II and horticulture class. In this class, they took me outside to see their new aquaponics system. This was super cool! The kids demonstrated and explained to me how this system works. In the tanks, the students are growing numerous different herbs such as mint and basil along with a lettuce crop. These are all being grown in rocks that are flushed with water. The nutrients for the plants is coming from coy fish that are also connected to the tank by a pipe system. For this experiment, two times a week the students test the water and clean the system. This is the class's sae project. They just recently received this system and purchased the initial seeds to grow from the local ag store. Everything about this project is super cool for the students. They not only are doing a wide variety of hands on activities but it also gives them an opportunity to work in their community as well as school as they will be donating their herb crops to the culinary department.
I was really glad I had the opportunity to see the Athens agriculture department. This agriculture program is ran much differently than I have experienced and I was glad for the opportunity to talk to both Mrs. A and Mr. S about their teaching strategies, classroom management techniques and FFA opportunities.
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