Fort Cherry ag students strut their stuff
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry High School junior Reagan Carter displays her beehive at the Fort Cherry Agricultural Sciences Showcase. Carter maintains two hives and 120,000 bees.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry students, from left, Tristen Foley, Jessi Evwrly and Kamryn Feehan show a tower garden, on which they grow lettuce that is served in the high school cafeteria.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Alyssa Robinson, left, and Emilee Cowden demonstrate how to take a rabbit’s heartbeat during the Fort Cherry Agricultural Sciences Showcase.
Fort Cherry agricultural science students showed off the fruits – and vegetables, too – of their labor last week at its Agricultural Education Showcase.
The showcase, held Tuesday during National Future Farmers of America Week, provided students – many of whom are FFA members – with an opportunity to highlight the work they are doing in agriculture education.
The event included keynote speaker Scott Sheely, interim director of the Pennsylvania Agriculture Education Commission for Excellence, who addressed job growth and changes in the agriculture industry.
The morninglong event concluded with student presentations that included exhibits and projects completed by Fort Cherry vo-ag students.
Sheely lauded Fort Cherry’s agricultural science program, led by vocational agriculture teacher Jodie Hoover, and the high school’s Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs), individual projects undertaken by students outside of classroom time.
“I really like their approach to agricultural science. They do a great job with the SAEs, which we call project-based learning, and they have a good handle on that,” said Sheely, noting the district’s incorporation of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) into its curriculum.
Agriculture is one of Pennsylvania’s top industries, contributing more than $135 billion annually to the state’s economy.
Sheely forecasts that over the next 10 years, the agriculture industry will need more than 75,000 workers to fill jobs, but he anticipates a shortage of workers for those jobs.
“We have a massive crisis in terms of the number of jobs open in the next 10 years, and we look to the agricultural education system as a way to put people into career pathways to lead to filling those jobs,” said Sheely.
Fort Cherry’s agricultural science curriculum does just that.
The program includes two aquaponics systems, a hydroponics system, tower gardens and two greenhouses.
The aquaponics systems, driven by tilapia and koi, and the tower gardens produce lettuce that’s used in the high school cafeteria.
The greenhouses produce vegetables from seed that students sell, along with hanging baskets. Students also create floral designs for events.
“It gives kids ownership that they can show off their product, which is being served in the cafeteria,” said Hoover. “It’s real-life career learning. It’s more than sitting in the classroom.”
Sheely said many of the students in vo-ag grow up on farms or have relatives involved in farming, but agriculture is a viable career option for students from urban and suburban areas, with jobs ranging from farm equipment mechanics, drone operators, butchers and agronomy salespeople to agricultural lawyers, veterinarians and food scientists.
“This is an economic development issue because it has to do with keeping the industry alive and competitive. It’s a workforce issue because it has to do with finding workers with an interest in agriculture and food production and move them along, and then we have to find the educational systems that provide a qualified workforce,” said Sheely. “The industry doesn’t just want bodies, it wants people who know what they’re doing.”
More than 150 high schools throughout the state offer vo-ag programs to their students.
Among the SAEs Fort Cherry students displayed during the showcase were a honey bee observation hive owned by junior Reagan Carter, who currently has two bee hives and 120,000 bees, and a presentation by senior Hayley Felton, who works for Rivendale Farms, where she takes care of as many as 500 Rhode Island Red chickens, which produce about 3,000 eggs a week.
Carter said she started raising honeybees with her father about three years ago after he read about the decline of the honeybee.
“I was terrified at first and I had no idea what I was doing, but after I started taking care of them, it became my greatest passion,” said Carter, who has had as many as 500,000 honeybees.
She plans to pursue a career in bee research to save honeybees, which pollinate one-third of the food we eat but have declined by 60% since 1947.
Felton has also worked in the field at Rivendale, where she planted lettuce and seeded other vegetables. After graduation, she plans to attend either the U.S. Air Force Academy or Penn State Behrend, and pursue a career in meteorology.
Students also showed visitors how to take a rabbit’s heartbeat and explained how the hydroponics and aquaponics systems work. The FFA members also showcased their activities, including competition in dairy product identifications, Pennsylvania bird call identifications, showings of cattle, hogs, sheep and poultry, public speaking and more.
Emilee Cowden, an ag science student and FFA member, believes the programs are excellent preparation for life.
“It teaches you a lot about leadership and management, and it gets you out of your comfort zone to learn new things. And it’s so hands-on. We aren’t sitting around,” said Cowden.
Hoover also noted that agriculture plays a significant role in climate change.
“We’re going to have to get creative to feed these people,” said Hoover. “Agriculture needs tons of people, whether it’s the person who grows the food, ships the food or serves the food. We need all those people along the way to do that, and as our population grows and farmland diminishes, we have to get more creative.”