Remember
when you were a kid and you went to a summer camp? Either your parents forced
you leave or you wanted to actually go? Well, these 27 academically talented
students from all across Pennsylvania were selected to go away for four weeks
to Penn State’s University Park campus for Governor’s School for the
Agricultural Sciences! This is the first time that this program has been opened
since 2008!
Students
from all around Pennsylvania have traveled to Penn State to learn about what
the College of Ag has to offer. The students have four weeks to see if Penn
State is right for them as well as if they truly do want to major in agriculture.
One class was taught by the AEE program about Global Agriculture! Directed and facilitated
by Dr. Daniel Foster and Dr. Melanie Foster, they took 8 volunteers to help create
and then teach their own individual lesson plans that related to global
agriculture! With four undergrads and four graduate students, two of which were
international students, was the perfect blend for this week long class!
Outlined below is the classes that were taught and by who!
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| Students touring the greenhouse |
Monday:
Taught by Amanda Forstater (@CityAggie)
“Chocolate
from Cacao to Bar”
This was the
first class where Amanda challenged the students to think about the entire
process of how chocolate. They used the
scientific process to hypothesize and then were rewarded with two different
chocolate bars from different countries!
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| Trying Indian Cuisine! YUM! |
Tuesday:
Taught by Roshan Nayak (Ph.D candidate)
“Importance
of Food in Your Life”
The students
were able to study food systems and nutritional values! They played games to
see what foods go in a balanced diet and what farm life was in India! Since
Roshan is from India, he was able to give an insight of what life is actually
like! The students were also able to dine on some local Indian food!
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| Students dressing in traditional Korean attire |
Wednesday: Taught by Janae Bickhart (@JanaeBickhart)
“Global
Competency”
The students
really focused on what the definition of “global competency” was and as well as
learn about Korea! Since Janae was one of the students on the trip she brought
a “study abroad” experience to the classroom! The students were able to try
sample native foods such as a kimichi,
paint fans, and even dress in traditional Korean clothes!
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| Learning definitions! |
|
Thursday:
Taught by Stacia Creed (@stacia_creed)
“Food
Security”
The students
learned a lot with this lesson because they had to do an experiment to feed
everyone in their group on a tight budget with a typical American price tag.
The students said that they were surprised about how much food actually costs
to feed a group of people!
During the
week long instruction, the students were also able to do two labs!
Lab One:
Taught by Nur Husna Abd Wahid (Ph. D candidate)
“Malaysian
Dancing”
For this lab
the students were able to strut their stuff to see if they can dance the
traditional dances of the Malaysian culture! There are videos if you click on
this link!
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| Students completing the Amazing Race! |
Lab Two:
Taught by Olivia Murphy-Sweet (@OSweetMurph)
“Smart Goals
and the Amazing Race!”
For this
lab, the students learned about SMART goals (how to make them and what they
wanted to do). They were also able to go on an Amazing Race tour around campus
to learn about what global programs that
Penn State has to offer.
Overall, the
facilitators and the students had a great time! We hope that they learned a lot
and that they come back to be Penn Staters! If you also want to check out a blog that the students wrote about their time with the class you can check out what they had to say here!
WE ARE……!
To learn more about starting on the path to having a career that makes a
positive impact on the lives of students across the globe by becoming
an agricultural educator, please contact the agricultural teacher
education program at teachag@psu.edu. Follow us on Twitter at TeachAgPSU, on Facebook, or on our blog!
Olivia Murphy-Sweet
Student Blogger
Teach Ag! Avenger
Twitter Handle- @OSweetMurph
2016 Agricultural Education Student Teacher
As a graduate student, Stacia has had a long college
career pursuing what she loves and that is of course agriculture. She started
her educational career at Delaware Valley College (now known as Delaware Valley University) majoring in Livestock
Science and Management due to her love for animal production. After she
graduated with her bachelors, she knew that something was missing which led her
to the Penn State Agricultural and Extension Education Department. After discussing options
for her to get her degree and to become a teacher, she started Penn State
University in the spring of 2014. 
