Grassland FFA traveled to “Big E” in Massachusetts

To compete at the Eastern States Exposition, “The Big E” in Career Developments Events, contestants had to place 1st or 2nd as a team at state competitions in June. Grassland FFA came home with individual champions in both events in which they competed. In the small animal veterinary skills competition Crystal Diem won 1st place followed by teammate Calliana Riggins who earned 4th Cyndi Phae 18th and Jessalyn Horst 22nd rounded out the scoring for the Grassland FFA which placed 3rd in team competition.

Team members had to show their competence in a variety of skills necessary to pursue a career as a veterinary technician including: There was a power point that included different breeds of dogs, cats, reptiles, birds and fish. This was an I.D. test to see if the contestant knew what each animal was. It also involved equipment and feed type identity. It included an oral explanation to a judge of how to hold a cat while trying to find the jugular vein. The last part of the competition was a written test that was all multiple choice that evaluated the contestant’s knowledge on diseases, history of diseases and other general facts that were involved with the veterinary field of science.  (team pictured below)

In the Poultry Evaluation CDE Wes Weaver lead the way as individual champion followed closely by his Garden Spot sophomore teammates who swept the top for individual places to win the team title. Bethany Sauder 2nd, Kelly Seifrit 3rd, Nathan Moyer 4th.  This was the second year in a row for a poultry team  from Garden Spot to earn first place at the Big E. Contestants demonstrated their skill in grading eggs by both candling and exterior examination, evaluating both meat type and laying hens as well as ready-to-cook poultry and further processed.

In addition to the competitions the group toured SUNY Cobleskill in New York on their way to the Big E.  The had an in-depth tour of the agricultural facilities at the college which included everything from seeing trout being sexed and measured at the aquaculture facilities, to being the first group to tour the brand new state of the art heifer facilities at the dairy complex.  The group also enjoyed a visit with the director of the equine facilities as well as the livestock program. SUNY Cobleskill is also known for its agricultural mechanics program. The 3 ½ hour tour wrapped up with a close up look at the horticultural and greenhouse facilities.

While at the Big E students had the opportunity to visit many educational displays and exhibits.  Not the least of these exhibits is a replica of each of the six original New England state capitals where samples of the agricultural products of each state were highlighted.  FFA members from Maine to Virginia and Michigan to Delaware participated in the competitive events.

For more information, visit the Big E Website.

 

Grassland FFA Named National Three Star Gold Chapter

The Grassland FFA will receive the prestigious Three Star Gold rating as the highest recognition a chapter can earn for the planning and implementation of chapter activities within the Program of Activities. A local chapter POA sets goals, implementation strategies and evaluative criteria in 15 different standing committees. Of the 148 FFA Chapters across the state only 14 were recognized at the national level and only 6 earned the 3 Star Gold Award, after competing with FFA Chapters from around the nation.

Under the direction of President Paul McFarland and Vice Presidents Michael Seifrit, Jon Martin and Seth Yoder the Grassland FFA completed the comprehensive National Chapter Rating Application. The award recognizes overall excellence in a local chapter’s operation. The Grassland FFA organizes itself into the three divisions with one of the Vice-Presidents overseeing five committees within each division: chapter, community and student.  The chapter will receive their recognition at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis in October.

Members of Grassland FFA Excelled in State Competition

Members of the Grassland FFA excelled in state competition held in conjunction with State FFA Activities week at Penn State in June. A total of 35 Garden Spot students qualified for state level competition with 24 of them earning individual recognition. The total medal count for Grassland FFA included 13 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals. Individual champions included Kristin Horton, floriculture and Crystal Diem, small animal veterinary skills. In team competition Grassland entered 6 teams they came home with 3 state championships, 2 runners up and a 4th place finish.

1st place teams included Floriculture made up of Kristin Horton, Percella Hankins, Jalisa Zimmerman and Katie Mueller all of whom earned gold medals by placing in the top 5 in the state individually.

Note: Photos are below the descriptions of each team.

The small animal/vet skills team consisting of Crystal Diem, Calianna Riggins, Jessica Horst, and Cyndi Phae also placed 1st in the state.

The third state championship team included Taylor Martin, Joshua Weaver, Connor Bender and Andy Horst who won the Milk Quality and Products competition.

The Poultry Evaluation team placed 2nd in the state with Bethany Sauder, Nathan Moyer, Wesley Weaver, and Kelly Seifrit all placing in the top 10 in the state.

The Ag Sales team consisting of Ben Snyder, Abbey Martin, Rachel Weaver and Clay Lehman finished second in the state and all placed in the top 10 individually.

The Forestry team finished in fourth place led by Seth Yoder and Bryan Peter in 3rd and 5th respectively with Paul McFarland and Regina Sauder rounding out the team.

Additional noteworthy efforts were: 9th grader Derick Weaver placing 3rd in the state in Conservation Speaking, and Percella Hankins and her committee earning gold for the chapter scrapbook. In the National Chapter Rating Application Grassland was one of only 14 chapters out of 148  statewide to earn a gold medal. Paul McFarland, Jon Martin, Michael Seifrit and Seth Yoder spearheaded that effort.

The Floriculture and Milk Quality and Products teams will represent Pennsylvania in National competition in Indianapolis in October. The Poultry and Small Animal/Vet Skills teams will compete at Eastern Nationals in Massachusetts in September.

With this many students going on to further competition there will need to be some fundraising. Staff students and community members who would like to support and encourage these students will have opportunity to do so through a school and community chicken BBQ planned for the weekend of  September 7-10 and a second faculty/student  luncheon in October. More details will be available soon so be on the lookout.

Congratulations to all of the participants for representing themselves and their school so well and best wishes as you compete beyond the state level this fall.

Grassland FFA Team Places Second at Lancaster County Envirothon

Members of Grassland FFA ‘s Envirothon Team placed 2nd in Lancaster County. The team made up of Heater Musser, Katharine Messner, Jon Martin, Seth Yoder and Bryan Peter competed in the areas of Aquatics, Current Issues, Forestry, Soils and Wildlife. The team came within 3 points out of a possible 500 of winning the competition.

Garden Spot placed two other teams in the top ten. Finishing in 7th was the team of Connor Bender, Jordon Horst, Kyle Hurst, James Martin and Erin Shirk While the team of RJ Davis, Nate Good, Charlie Himes, Tanner Leid and Paul McFarland placed 9th in the competition among 20 Lancaster County Teams. In addition to their silver medals, the team also won a five pound Hershey bar and a satellite map of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

 

NRCS Helps A-F-W Class Learn More about Soil

Two members of the Natural Resources Conservation Service presented to Mr. Lauffer’s Aquatics-Forestry-Wildlife class. Mark Myers and Rob Weaver, both soil conservationists for NRCS, spoke to the class on the importance of soil conservation.

They used a power point designed to stress areas of importance in soil science. Topic included soil erosion, soil structure and texture, use of the websoil survey, conservation planning, stream bank fencing, and nutrient management.

Bryan Peter, Paul McFarland and RJ Davis literally get their hands dirty as they determine  soil texture with NRCS soil conservationist Rob Weaver.  This  a hands-on lab on determining soil texture using tactile senses and forming a ribbon of soil to determine the percentages of clay, silt and sand in a sample.

 

Seth Yoder, Nathan Good, Paul MacFarland and Bryan Peter study a soil profile monolith and identify    the various soil horizons and the characteristics of each.

Lastly the NRCS representatives showed some slides of best management practices they had helped local landowners put into place. They talked about what made their jobs rewarding.  High on the list of positives were that you get to work in different locations and situations, that each day is different, that you help people solve problems and make a difference for the environment.

Three teams of Garden Spot students wil be competing in the Lancaster County Envirothon on May 3. One of the five stations in which they will be tested involves soil. The others are aquatics, forestry, wildlife and this year’s current issue non-point source pollution.

Chad Esh Visits FFA Leadership Classes

Being shot, surviving, and still being able to forgive was the message brought from Chad Esh when he met with the Grassland FFA on Wednesday, April 4, 2012. In February of this year, the Grassland FFA held a fundraiser called Whole Hog for Chad, to support this local young man who was shot while on a missions trip to Haiti. A few of the FFA members knew and worked with Chad, and thought it would be nice to donate the proceeds  from this fundraiser to help cover his medical costs and other expenses.

A Check for $2,500.00 was presented to Chad Esh from the Grassland FFA, after he shared his amazing story with the FFA members. All who listened were blessed and inspired by Chad, who said he plans to go back to Haiti to help again in the future. Grassland FFA was delighted to be able to help and wishes to thank all who supported the Whole Hog event. This year the event had a local connection and an amazing outcome.

FFA Attends SLLC

SLLC (State Legislative Leadership Conference) was held in Harrisburg on April 18-20, 2012. Three sophomore Grassland FFA members attended: Clayton Lehman, Abbey Martin and Rachel Weaver. During this conference, members were given the opportunity to work with actual bills that were in the Pennsylvania house and senate that dealt with issues that impacted young people and agriculture. Students went through three workshops and learned about proper etiquette, how a bill goes through the system to become a law, and parliamentary procedure. Afterwards, the FFA members did some role-play and were split up into either the senate or the house to discuss the bills. The students were also involved in a service project to a retirement home, orphanage or church. On the final day of the conference, members met with, talked to, and ate breakfast with their state representative, Gordon Denlinger. The members took a tour of the capital. Everyone who attended from Garden Spot said that SLLC was the best conference they ever attended. The members were accompanied by student teacher Robyn Bechtel and FFA Advisor Bob Lauffer.

 

 

 

 

Can you find our three participants in the sea of blue on the steps of the capital?

FFA Members Excel In Parliamentary Procedure

Members of the Grassland FFA recently competed in county and area competitions. The competitions were hosted at Garden Spot High School on Tuesday March 27th. The evening started with a demonstration by last year’s team which won the county and area competition and fell just shy of making it to the state championship round. Team members were: President- Cortney Martin, Vice-President- Jon Martin, Secretary (early grad Alli Weller with Katelyn Byram filling in) Treasurer- Regina Sauder, Reporter- Kaitlin Zimmerman, Sentinel – Paul McFarland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon Martin, Cortney Martin and Regina Sauder share a laugh during the questioning phase of the Parliamentary Procedure Competition.

This year’s team, the top team in Lancaster County, then competed against Octorara, the top team in Chester County. Both teams qualified for regional competition but the Grassland team will not be competing due to several scheduling issues.

Congratulations to the following team members for their first place effort: President- Paul McFarland, Vice-President- Jon Martin, Secretary- Katelyn Byram, Treasurer- RJ Davis, Reporter- Seth Yoder and Sentinel – Connor Bender.

 

 

 

 

2012 team members taking the written exam.

 

 

In an FFA  parliamentary procedure competition contestants must take a written exam and an open book research quiz using Robert’s Rules of Order. They then walk into the contest site and have a card with a main motion and 5 other motions: 2 incidental, 2 subsidiary and 1 privileged at their seat. Each seat has one of the five motions highlighted. Contestants have one minute to individually gather their thoughts and must then conduct opening ceremonies and discuss and act upon the main motion. Each contestant is responsible for appropriately working the particular parliamentary motion highlighted on their card into the discussion. The competition brings out the best in team work and the ability to problem-solve and think quickly on your feet. These are skills FFA members can use throughout life.

9th grade Environmental Science students design watersheds.

9th grade environmental science students completed an authentic assessment of their understanding of the complex issues involved in land use planning as relates to watersheds. Students worked in small groups to take what they had learned in the watersheds and wetlands unit and put it to use. Each group had to determine how and where various land uses would be implemented within a watershed.  Agricultural education student teacher, Robyn Bechtel, developed a 3 dimensional template out of Styrofoam to simulate the topography of the watershed.  Students were given certain required parameters that had to be included in within their watershed such as:  housing, a way of making a living, forests and open space, roads, cropland, a landfill an of course water features. They were also encouraged to locate wetlands strategically throughout the watershed. Once the mock watershed was designed it was drawn with markers on a large sheet of butcher paper and then fitted onto the Styrofoam mold.  Each land use was depicted with a different colored marker so that the students could track any runoff or pollution and trace its origin. Students had to reach agreement as to where they would locate land uses within their watershed. Students explained why they had made the decisions they did regarding the placement of the various elements and were asked to predict what would happen during a “rain event”. The instructors then created a simulated rain event by spraying water on the watershed.

Students observed what happened within their watershed and then evaluated the results and discussed what they could have done differently to reduce run off and pollution.  Students were evaluated on their decision making as well as how well they understood and suggested potential modifications. The environmental science class incorporates a hands-on component along with the written unit exam for each of the units in the course.  Students rated the hands on watershed assessment very high and felt it was a great way to learn and show what they had learned about runoff, infiltration and pollution within a watershed.

Grassland FFA Greenhands Excel in Public Speaking Competitions

Six 9th grade members of the FFA competed in various County Public Speaking Competitions at Solanco High School on March 22. The students competed in preliminary competitions as part of their FFA Leadership 9 class and were selected by their peers to enter county-wide competition.

Front from left row left:  Derick Weaver 2nd in Conservation; Ben Lehman 3rd in Conservation; Brynn Griffin 4th in Junior Prepared; Back row from Left: Morgan Mueller 3rd in Junior Prepared, Blake Martin 2nd in Creed Speaking, Kelly Seifrit 4th in Creed Speaking. They will compete at the Regional level April 12th hopeful of qualifying for state competition in June.