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July 14, 2010

Ag teachers are at SCC to become enlightened

By Robb Murray The Free Press

NORTH MANKATO — Brandon Duff was teaching agriculture science to high schoolers in Carthage, Mo., for six years and, frankly, he was starting to burn out.

“It got stagnant,” he said. “I was getting bored with it.” He’d begun considering career options.

Then, last summer, he went to a Curriculum for Agriculture Science Education conference, which consisted of 80 hours of intensive learning and discovering new ways to teach agriculture.

The fire for teaching returned, and his new enthusiasm got passed along to his students. Last year was his best yet.

This week Duff and a dozen or so high school teachers are at South Central College learning the CASE model of teaching agriculture. Duff is one of the lead teachers.

CASE holds teaching seminars at seven locations throughout the summer. Attendees usually come with the blessing, and funding, of their school districts, and they take most if not all of the curriculum back to their schools and implement it.

The curriculum is heavy on hands-on learning, which means teachers spend their time at the conference with their hands on various equipment, doing the activities they’ll ask their students to do next fall.

The first two courses in the CASE curriculum focus on plants and animals. They introduce students to concepts of animal and plant systems and give them a foundation upon which their knowledge in those areas can build.

Marlene Mensch is the CASE curriculum director. She travels the country helping sites such as SCC put on the two-week course.

She said the program they teach very often is used to offer students a third-year science option. For schools that provide agriculture education, this can transition easily into the place of what was done previously.

“Most are ag teachers who want to shift their curriculum to one that’s more science based,” Mensch said.

Brad Schloesser, an ag educator at SCC, has helped CASE launch its program and has served as a CASE project manager. This is CASE’s second year. Other colleges hosting CASE this summer include Purdue University and Texas Tech.

So far, Mensch said, feedback from teachers has mirrored Duff’s.

“Someone said one of their students asked them, ‘How come we didn’t get to do cool stuff like this last year?’” she said. “Teachers also have said this program gives them more time with their students.”

Duff said the primary difference in the lecture/textbook method and the CASE curriculum is purpose.

“This is more about learning than knowing,” he said.

The CASE curriculum is built on students being in control of an activity instead of an instructor simply telling them what to do.

CASE is a special project of the National Council for Agriculture Education, which Schloesser calls a well-respected authority in the world of agriculture education.

The lessons students learn are designed to meet national education standards for agriculture, science, math and language arts.

Mensch says the program is scheduled for updates every three years.

 

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