Area students learn from agricultural sciences camp
From left, Josh Conkle,15, and Angie Miller,15, try their homemade ice cream Friday at the agricultural sciences camp at Trinity High School.
Agricultural sciences camp instructor Robin Durila shows Julian Burchett, 13, and the rest of the students how to make ice cream with half-and-half and ice Friday. After the students finished making their ice cream, they got to eat the finished product.
This little chick was hatched Monday during the agricultural sciences camp. The camp is used as vocational training for any youth interested in agricultural sciences. It ran from Monday through Friday.
During camp, the students participated in several hands-on experiments, like making their own butter with just heavy cream and an empty water bottle. After the buttermilk separated from the butter, the students spread some of the butter on bread and enjoyed their finished product.
Helping students to explore vocational opportunities is a goal of Southwest Training Services Inc. of Washington. They even pay students to learn.
STSI hosts industry-related camps as part of their annual summer work experience program for middle school students. The camps pay students $10 each day, instead of charging students to attend.
“It is a learning opportunity for youth to be able to explore an industry that maybe they’ve never thought about or have seen before” said Lisa Neil, president of STSI. “We pay them a stipend basically for attendance purposes. We want them to be able to come every day.”
This week, Southwestern Training Services held its Agricultural Sciences camp, which was led by instructor Robin Durila, who teaches vocational agriculture at Trinity High School. The camp was held daily from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Seven students attended.
Durila created the curriculum for the camp, which included vocational training activities such as hatching baby chicks, creating boutonnieres and flower arrangements through floral design and virtual tours of a dairy farm. Students also worked in the Trinity High School greenhouse, where campers planted herb seeds and learned to transplant plants.
The curriculum gave insight into the sheep industry, including a lesson on how shear a lamb, along with the bee industry and the process in which honey is made.
Students also made trips to local farms where they explored a “pizza garden” where Durila’s high school students grow produce that could be used as pizza toppings. The students also learned how to plant beans with a hand-held planter and about mechanical equipment used on a farm.
On Friday, students toured the Springhouse dairy facility and then made homemade ice cream and butter as their final activity.
“I think it’s important that kids get an understanding that food doesn’t just happen,” Durila said. “It’s just kind of teaching them where this comes from or how it happens and it doesn’t just appear in Food Land or Giant Eagle.”
Durila said many children have misconceptions about where food comes from, which is why the homemade butter and ice cream was presented as a food science lesson.
By making these items traditionally, students could understand the process used by the food industry to create food and what ingredients are used, Durilla said.
Throughout the week, activities and outings for the camp allowed students to explore the many job options in the agricultural science business. Whether it was working in the poultry industry, food processing, a greenhouse, farming or working with agricultural machinery – students learned about plenty of career options.
“There is going to be a large need for people to process food for consumers. The world is growing,” Durila said. “So, people are going to be needed to make that happen to supply food to the world.”
Josh Conkle, 15, of Washington, was a student of Durila’s vocational agriculture program and was recruited to help with the camp.
Conkle also participated in all the activities and learned just as much as everyone else, he said.
“It’s interesting to see how the technology has grown from like a backyard garden to large scale industries and how food is produced so quickly,” he said.