Research is something that I have come to love ever since I
did it this past summer. I like looking at situations and finding solutions or
looking at a problem from a different perspective. Penn State Ag Ed challenged
me to look at something that Walter Biddle Saul does, observe it, and make it
better.
Side Note: I am
not doing this project because I am a “master teacher,” quite honestly I am far
from it. However, coming to this school and looking at a class from a different
perspective of what they currently do is nice to offer suggestions to make it
even better!
Teaching alongside my cooperating teacher, Ms. Turrentine,
we decided that we wanted to look at areas of improvement of the Animal Science
department when teaching of handling and restraining animals. This directly
worked with the SLO that Ms. Turrentine submitted for the beginning of the year
which was nice to work with what directly she wanted to improve. Let’s break
down what the SLO/Action based research looked like:
1.
Who: The SLO worked with the 10th
graders enrolled in Small Animal Science. The class is a 110-minute class that
met every day! (Lots of time to work on this project)
2.
How: The students will be compared from last
semester to this semester in the handling and restraining of small animals. We
will analyze a project that was completed by the spring students and not the
fall students and see how they compare.
3.
Expectations: The students that took the spring
class will be more comfortable handling and restraining animals than the fall
students.
RESULTS: As the project completed, the data was in and I was
actually shocked. The students were driven by finding out the answers on their
own and figuring out their own problems. 100% of the students in the spring
semester that I taught were 100% comfortable handling and restraining animals
compared to the fall semester. Super cool research and super cool data that
showed me that the SLO was working.
Overall, this project changed my perspective about SLO’s and
Action Based Research. I didn’t believe that this project would be beneficial,
but seeing it work and actually helping out my students see things from a
different perspective was great watching the light bulb go off! I look forward
to more SLO’s and Action Based Research in the future!
Thanks for reading Ag
Ed Fam!
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