I believe that a good agriculture teacher should embrace
science in every lesson that they decide to teach no matter where they are.
Regardless if they believe it or not, science and agriculture go hand in hand. Integrating
your classroom instruction with an SAE project that blends science and
agriculture is even better! A student that is doing that is an 11th
grade Food Science major by the name of Earl Gocking. Earl has initiated a research
SAE project after he completed his internship at the USDA last summer and his
project is MOO-tastic!
Although Earl is not one for many words, it was nice getting
to know him more and walking around with him at the dairy barn to hear about
his project. The research that he is doing is to determine if the feed that we
feed out dairy cattle affects the production of casein in milk in different
breeds.... PAUSE! This student is an 11th grade student who is
working hand and hand with professors from Temple and workers from the USDA to
do this project (insert Teach Ag Awesomeness!)
Before I met with Earl to go over this project, I made sure
that I got the full story from the teachers first about how they were helping
him with it. The teachers make each student accountable if they are doing
research to be fully aware and schedule their interactions to record data for
their project. Basically like a real research job. After talking with the
teachers about how they worked with Earl, I then went to get his perspective on
his project. He mentioned to me that some interesting things he has learned was
how to do self-research and making educational hypotheses along with procedures
to complete this project. Earl is also not alone in this research. Alongside
Earl is Dr. Diane VanHekken from the USDA, Ms. Tiffany Turrentine, Mr. Greg
Smith, and the farmers at the high school to help in milking the cows! A great
supportive team for a great student!
After Earl’s research concludes, he wants to present his
research at a science fair and hopefully attend Cornell University to major in
Food Science (trust me, I did the Penn State speech and he didn’t budge!)
Earl is off to great things in the future. By him recording
his data in his AET, working with the teachers at Saul and workers at the USDA,
and a future in agriculture, Earl will be set for any life challenge that comes
his way!
If you would like to reach out to Earl, please contact jmnaugle@philasd.org for more
information or advice that you can give for his project!
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