Colorado Adventures: Reflecting back on the 2nd Annual Teach Ag! Society Domestic Study Away (#teachagDSA14)

At the beginning of our adventure!

What is service learning? That’s the question Penn State Teach Ag! Society set to answer on an eight day, 1000 mile trip around the great state of Colorado. Teaming up with Boulder Valley Career and Technical Center Agriscience Teacher Heather Riffel and her program, we were able to learning about the process Boulder Valley went through to gain a USDA Farm to School Grant, the grant that made much of their work in the community possible. After months of coordination on Heather’s part, raised-bed school gardens were installed in nearly all of the elementary schools in the district. In order for each elementary school to earn the privilege of having the garden, teachers within the school were required to commit to integrating concepts in class and invest sweat equity in developing a sustainability plan.

We found our answer to what service learning should look like, but what we came home with was so much more than that. I could go on forever about the things we learned and the places we saw, but I tried my best to narrow it down to four primary lessons!

Boulder TEC Students, PSU Students and
Rock Star Ag Teacher Heathr Riffle!

1. The agricultural education community is truly a family.

Through our travels, we met with over half a dozen current or past ag teachers all of whom who truly excited to have us visiting and eager to share their knowledge and expertise. Every teacher had an awesome piece of advice for our arsenals and insisted that each of us contact them should we ever need anything. Agricultural education truly is one big, helpful, crazy family; one that our group is excited to be a part of. I can safely say that each of us added some awesome resources to our professional network, and I am excited to see where they someday lead!

2. The national teacher shortage is a REAL problem.
Every place we went, we were reminded of the teacher shortage that not only Colorado, but most of the country is facing. In Pennsylvania, we are blessed to not current have an immediate teacher shortage, but the forecast of pending retirements does not bode well for that to continue. Luckily, Penn State Students are prepared to teach where ever students are in need of a philosophical sound agriscience program. This was the first time many of our students have seen a state suffering from this first hand. Personally, I hope that my fellow classmates in Ag Ed are inspired to travel to many of these states after graduation as positive agents of change and help relieve the crisis of our national teacher shortage.

2014 Graduate Mike Petrun and
2016 Student Teacher Olivia Murphy-Sweet
droppiing some garden knowledge on 5th graders!

3. Agricultural Education has the potential to impact ALL students. Period. Regardless!

We saw small programs and large programs; rural programs, suburban & urban programs; programs that had students since middle school and some that would only see students for one semester. Regardless of the situation the agriscience teacher was dealing with, their first priority was to create a program that was as effective as possible in meeting the needs of THEIR students for total student success. Programs focused on developing the knowledge, skills and dispositions each of their students. Each program we saw was much different from the rest, but every student that left the program left as a better person, what more can you ask for?

4.The world is a beautiful place that is meant to be explored.
This past year I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel quite a few places, and I can safely say I have yet to spend time in a place as beautiful as Colorado. From the open plains to the scenic Rocky Mountains, each corner we visited was absolutely beautiful. The beauty was not limited to the landsacpe; the people of Colorado are beautiful as well. Everyone we met was friendly and open. Yes, those from Colorado have a different culture, but it just made for a learning experience in a whole new way! This experience has helped me realize how important travel is for both future educators and for my future students. Travel prompts open-mindedness, curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. I hope to be able to take my future students one day when I have the blessing of teaching!

All of this would not have been possible without the generous support of Penn State College of Ag Sciences and the CHS Foundation! We are beyond lucky to have such great partnerships to assist Teach Ag! Society in preparing the best future educators we possibly can!


Written by:
Ms. Jillian Gordon
@jillianpsu
2014 Teach Ag! Society President
2014 Teach Ag! DSA Chair
2015 Ridgemont (Ohio) Student Teacher

2nd Annual Domestic Study Away - #TeachAgDSA 14 - Day 7 (Last one!): Wrapping up!

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day!

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things” –Henry Miller 

Colorado is a beautiful destination. With many diverse landscapes and significant landmarks, Colorado boasts many popular attractions. On day 7 of the Teach Ag! Society’s Domestic Study Away adventure, we experienced a few of those popular attractions, including the Garden of the Gods National Landmark in Colorado Springs, as well as the downtown Denver area.

Exploring the Garden of the Gods proved to be a truly remarkable adventure. The vast landscapes and the huge rock formations provided great hiking and even better views. Wildlife, including birds and deer, in their natural habitats made the trip even more enjoyable. The Garden of the Gods Visitor’s Center provided lots of information about the landscape and its history. It also featured a gift shop and a café.

Around noon, we traveled to Denver. Dr. Foster had to depart for the American Association for Agricultural Education National Research Conference.  Upon his departure, we voyaged to downtown Denver with our other chaperone, who we fondly have referred to as Dr. Mom (Dr. Foster’s mother, Dr. Billye Foster). In downtown Denver, we explored the city and devoured some outstanding food from The Cheesecake Factory (a first-time experience for many on the trip). Most importantly, we spent a great deal of time bonding with one another. The city was eye-opening, and allowed many of us to reflect upon and appreciate where we come from and what we have at home.

Tomorrow, we will be waking up in Colorado one last time. We will make the long trek back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Upon our arrival, our small Colorado family will return home, but we will leave one another with much more than fantastic memories. Thanks again to CHS Foundation and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences for supporting this effort.

    

Writers:

Morgan Campbell

2015 Student Teacher, Mifflinburg, PA

@mcamp400

Jill Gordon

2015 Student Teacher, Ridgemont, OH

@jillianpsu

2nd Annual Domestic Study Away - #TeachAgDSA14 - Day 6: The Wild Wonderful West

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day! 

 

The Penn State Teach Ag! Society team woke up in beautiful Estes Park Colorado excited for an adventure. We started off the morning reflecting on the past week at the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Under the direction of Meagan Slates, 2014 PSU AEE Graduate and Laura Metrick, 2015 Student Teacher, we discussed the four schools that we visited, and compared the school facilities, scholastic goals, and FFA programs of all four of the schools. Upon reflecting on these four incredibly unique programs, we proceeded to enter the park.

Rocky Mountain National Park is hard to capture in words. The beautiful landscape is undeniably different that our much smaller “mountains” at home in State College PA. The drive up the mountain provided many beautiful spots to stop and admire nature’s splendor. We were also able to get some great pictures with the Nittany Lion. The mountains, wildlife, and trees were a truly relaxing morning after a week of traveling.

After eating a delicious lunch at a Barbeque Restaurant in Estes Park, the team continued to travel to Colorado Springs. In order to avoid some construction on other roads, we took a picturesque detour throughout more mountains. One of the Park Rangers at the Rockies had described it as “beautiful from Peak to Peak.” This windy, but beautiful road led us to an unexpected stop at the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave near Golden Colorado. This last minute stop was not only beautiful, because the gravesite is at Peaks Mountain, but also very informational. Buffalo Bill, being an important part of developing the west, is a very interesting person. From his service in the US army to his famous Wild West Show, Buffalo Bill led a dynamic life. The Museum was fun and enlightening.

We then continued the rest of the drive to Colorado Springs, and finished out our day eating at Rasta Pasta, where when the waitress says, “yeah, that is a little spicy,” what she really means is “you might want to drink milk with that because you will be sweating your pasta is THAT HOT.” Our Saturday deviated from our original itinerary quite a bit, but this only added to our adventure here in Colorado. We cannot wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

We really appreciate the CHS Foundation and Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences for their support of our learning adventure!

 

Written by:

Sarabeth Royer

2016 Student Teacher Candidate

@sb_royer

Nathan Repetz

2017 Student Teacher Candidate

@N8_Repetz 

2nd Annual Teach Ag! Society Domestic Study Away - #TeachAgDSA14: Day 5 - The Learning Can't Stop!

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day!

The vast differences in agricultural education programs across the state and nation is fascinating.

Today, we visited a career and technical center run under the direction of Lauren Hort. There are ten schools in the district that can send students to the technical center. The agriculture department consists of a fully functional floral design shop and greenhouse. Students in these classes have the opportunity to engage in real life situations as the floral shop and greenhouse run as a business and sell their products to the local community. Touring the facility, we could see the hard work and dedication the students had for their classes. The greenhouse was open the public, and it was awesome to see students in action. Next, we toured the animal facility. We were greeted by a goat named Eugene who roams the facility. Everything in the facility is used as part of a class. Chickens, hogs, and cows are all part of the program found on school property. A unique aspect of this program was that a few students are on the school district payroll and in charge of different chores to manage the facility all year long.

 

Ms. Holt's organization shined in her classroom when she shared with us her system for notebook checks, classroom procedures and the layout of the classroom. Also impressively, one hundred percent of her students have a Supervised Agriculture Experience using the online record keeping system. It was cool to hear that all her students are getting involved in different ways.

After checking out the program, we departed to Golden, Colorado for an agriculture industry tour with  the Coors-Miller brewery for a tour. This turned out to be more of an educational experience then expected as we learned that more of the processes benefit agriculture then we were aware! The barley mash not used in the final product is sent to a farm used to feed cattle as brewers grain. It was interesting to see agriculture in yet another part of life! 

After the brewery tour, we headed to Estes Park for the night. On the way, we got a chance to view damage from the September 2013 floods. It was surprising to see the amount of damage that still exists today even after the hard work and amount of time put into recovery.

Throughout our travels today and this week, we have been able to see the diversity and importance of agriculture in many ways! We are looking forward to our last few days on our great Colorado adventure.

A huge thank you to the CHS Foundation and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences for supporting our adventure!

 

Written by:

Laura Metrick

2015 Student Teacher, Conneout Area Schools
@its_LauraBeth

Meagan Slates

2014 PSU Graduate, New Penn Manor Agriscience Teacher
@Meagan_PSU

2nd Annual Teach Ag! Society Domestic Study Away - #TeachAgDSA14 - Day 4: Thrill of Accomplishment

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day!

Throughout the week, the group has been involved in numerous amazing tours and meetings with Ag Educators across Colorado. Today was a completely different type of experience that generated much excitement in the group! Our group of Penn State Teach Ag! students would be helping with a service learning project to build community gardens for the Monarch K-8 school. We were given directions prior to the start of the day to have background on the building and situation of the school. These community gardens were being put in because of a grant from the USDA Farm to School Program that was obtained by the teacher at Boulder Valley Tech School, Heather Riffel. We would be helping put in the gardens, and then plant different flowers and vegetables for the students to maintain throughout the summer.

When we got to the school, everyone was excited and ready to take on this task. Everyone knew what needed to be done, and the last addition to the exciting education mix was the  7th & 8th grade students from Monarch. They busted out of the door and excitedly ran to us. We broke into groups with the first task of determining garden bed placement.  There were a few students who jumped up right away and came up with an awesome idea of putting all of the gardens into an "M" shape that would represent the Monarch school. Witnessing this display of student ownership and student voice happening in real time was eye opening, because the students wanted to invest their own time and effort into this project. They wanted to own it, and that's what made it so important for them to make their own decisions. Once the idea was accepted, we laid the raised beds into the M shape which looked great.

Working through the day, we cycled in different classes and grades of students. Our Penn State Teach Ag! group worked with 4th, 7th, and 8th grade students from Monarch. All of the students were motivated to work and it was very easy to complete the gardens. Along side of us were the high school agriscience students from Boulder Valley Tec. They were the experts who knew the ins and outs of the raised beds. They also calculated and created the drip line irrigation system. It was a simple, practical, and efficient system which impressed the Penn State students the most.

We started the morning with no raised beds in the small area we had, but by the end of the day there were six raised beds planted with numerous plants and flowers, with a working irrigation system. The transformation was indescribable to someone who was not there. The whole day was a total success and so many students were impacted by taking ownership of the gardens and getting their hands dirty.

From a future educator's perspective, we couldn't believe how amazing the day turned out. We had so much fun and the benefits that service learning could provide to any class, not just an Agriculture based one. The day was the very end of the long process that the teachers had to go through to get everything in place and complete all the behind the scene work that was crucial to everything else running smoothly. Our Penn State Teach Ag! students enjoyed the day and the impact that we made on the school and community. This day was by far the best one experienced so far. Everyone left that school with a better outlook on agriculture and creating a sense of community.

We are so thankful to have the support of great partners like the CHS Foundation and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences that helped make this co-curricular learning opportunity a reality.

                                                      

Written by:
Mike Petrun
@PetrunMichealG
2014 Penn State Teach Ag Graduate


Tyler Cremeans
@TCMeansAgEd14
2014 Penn State Teach Ag Graduate

2nd Annual Domestic Study Away - #TeachAgDSA14 - Day 2 - Winning with Cam the Ram!

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day!

Cam the Ram & Nittany!

After an evening of enjoyable food, good Ag Ed company and inspiring big dreams for the future, the group was ready to start another day full of adventures. Our morning began at Colorado State University, as we met with faculty and staff of the Agriculture Education program there, they shared with us the various options within the teacher preparation program and the areas in which the education team predicts growth and faces challenges in the program. 

After a brief orientation, an Agriculture Education student and Colorado State University Agriculture Ambassador, Emily, gave us a tour of the beautiful campus. The campus holds a lot of unique stories and history from the layout of the sidewalks to the direction “Cam the Ram” is facing. (Cam faces his head towards University of Wyoming while his rear faces University of Colorado; Colorado State University’s two biggest rivals.) We grabbed a bite to eat at the Emily’s favorite; Beau Jo’s and hit the road for Windsor High School.

Windsor HS overview!

Windsor High School is a two teacher program with approximately 175 students enrolled in their secondary Agriculture Education program. Teaching a variety of classes within four different pathways including animal science, veterinary science, plant science, and mechanics, their fairly new facility brings lots of incredible opportunities to students in the more urban area of Colorado the school calls home. The group is privileged to expand our network with teachers like those at Windsor High School and enjoyed quality fellowship, advice and tips and tricks from those well-seasoned in the occupation. Both educators shared some creative fundraising ideas that the FFA Chapter puts to use – a topic that all Agriculture teachers, to-be or current, are always interested in discussing! The students there were wrapping up some stellar Agriscience fair projects that we enjoyed viewing before beginning the beautifully scenic drive towards our home for the next few days, Boulder.

We checked into our hotel and ended our evening with dinner with Mr. Mike Womochil, the director of Agriculture Education in the state of Colorado and Mr. Scott Stump the director of Career and Technical Education in Colorado. Both of these men play a key role in the future of Agriculture Education in Colorado and have unique visions for the programs across the state. They shared with us the Colorado Cluster of Career and Technical Education and discussed with us challenges and successes they find within the field. To end our day, the floor was opened for some inspiring discussion and question and answer time across the group. Penn State Teach Ag! Society members and Domestic Study Away attendees value partnerships like those we’ve established with these two incredible gentlemen who are passionate about the future of Agriculture Education not only in Colorado but across the nation.



Thank you again to the CHS Foundation and the Penn State College of Agriculture Sciences for helping make this wonderful learning opportunity happen!

Written by:

Janae Herr
2016 Student Teacher
@KJHerr17

Bryanna Kenno
2015 Student Teacher
@bkenno4

2nd Annual Domestic Study Away! #TeachAgDSA14 - Day 1 - Small School Success & Big Picture Vision

Editor's Note: During our 8 day adventure with 14 teacher candidates and 2 chaperones, we will have two guest bloggers share their observations every day!

Sunny and 75 degrees to snowy and 35 degrees has been a blast of fresh air for Teach Ag! Society's Domestic Study Away! This week, thanks to help from the CHS foundation and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences,  14 Penn Stater's headed out west to Colorado to tour it's awesome schools, beautiful sites, agribusiness's and so much more to learn about how much of a need we have for agriculture educators and what different states can offer!

PSU Major Selfie #TeachAgDSA14

The adventure started with an early morning, leaving from Pittsburg International Airport and then landing in Denver, Colorado. As we drove through Colorado, we traveled to Prairie High School in New Raymer, to learn about their new state of the art school as well as their awesome agriculture education program! This school had geothermal heating, a new agriculture mechanics laboratory, natural lighting in all rooms with the regular lights, brand new touch screen computers, a room where students can take college classes through a camera with an professor on TV monitors, and plenty more awesome gadgets that made this school a gem in this Colorado area.

PSU AEE Major Janae Herr
jumping in to participate

As we toured the agriculture shop, we were able to see a class that is not typically in most schools. Mrs. Lure, the agriscience teacher at the school taught a class where students can sign up to learn how to artificially inseminate cows. With a class of 7, 6 being freshman and 1 sophomore, these students were in the cattle chute actually getting their hands dirty! Ms. Lure even has the class final to be able to properly demonstrate an AI procedure on 2 cows and if you wanted extra credit you could do up to 3 more! These students were able to get-hands on learning that will help them with their futures in a heartbeat. As we kept going through the school, the superintendent gave us awesome pointers about what he looks for in future teacher candidates as well as what we can do to be successful.

Prairie Superintendent (and former Ag Teacher) Joe Kimmel sharing wisdom

After we said our goodbyes, we departed to Colorado State University where we dined at their annual ATA banquet. They were very welcoming and had great food! After we ate, they proceeded with a presentation that literally blew all of us out of the water. The agriculture education program has designed, and will implement in December, a new building that will be a hub for agriculture educators: a Center for Agricultural Education in Colorado. See the inserted video below for a virtual tour. The building will consist of teaching rooms, a study lounge, a media commons, a work shop to learn hands on teaching strategies, and so much more all for future and current agriculture educators. As the plan is implemented, we hope to check back in to see what Colorado State has done, and potentially if we can bring that idea to Penn State!

This week is going to be a blast! Check back in everyday to see what Teach Ag! Society is up to!
The Teach Ag! Society Crew would also like to send a shout out to CHS and the College of Agriculture Sciences for helping us get to Colorado for our Domestic Study Away!

Written by:
Olivia Murphy-Sweet
2016 Student Teacher
@OSweetMurph

Jeanne Case
2014 PSU Graduate
@J__Rose