Now as I look back, had it not been for those agriculture classes I probably would not be at Penn State today. I especially wouldn't be planning to teach some of the same materials I tried to much to learn in high school.
As a senior in Agricultural education, I am preparing for a "Genius Hour" talk during one of my lab periods. The topic I would like to discuss is obviously environmental science. So I would like to purpose some questions for my followers:
-How can we include more environmental education into our agriculture courses to improve environmental literacy among high school students?
-What methods could be used to ensure no students leave the program without a basic understanding of the environment.
-What types of new technologies have come out that could help us get students interested and engaged in environmental science.
I would love to hear some of the answers and ideas that everyone comes up with and hopefully be able to use some!
Good job Matt!
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I love using Vernier LabQuest devices and sensors when teaching environmental science- dissolved oxygen, temperature, soil moisture, CO2, electrical conductivity. Going outside is the cheapest lab I have access to- even if it's just the school yard or flower beds. Ecology has a lot of abstract concepts and the simple act of going outside can make a lot of those concepts make sense. What if every school had a rich, living, diverse outdoor space close by in which ag teachers could bring students to conduct these investigations? What would it cost to implement and maintain?
ReplyDeleteAnother tool I've used are the explorelearning.com Gizmos. The Pond Ecology one is really good! It is a subscription service, but grants are available and you can partner with science teachers in your district to get cost savings. Check it out with their free trial. I used the Pond Ecology one in my Enviro Sci class and followed the teacher guide with the interest approach and outdoor investigation.
This is great information and technology! It definitely brings place-based education and Agriculture education together very nicely and gives me some ideas to help with the Wildlife Ecology unit I will be Student teaching in the spring!
DeleteThank you!
One of the ways to include environmental ed into Ag Course is by utilizing resource people and items available. Every Environmental Agency I know of is happy to talk with students and provide materials when possible.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes this app great?
ReplyDeleteSpecifically, polyvalent ions are now supported for soil chemistry for agronomy professors or field lab studies.
Cymbol helps with literature and science in school, video here created unsolicited by Owen Flattery explains some techniques http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO0LrRTztEo which helps students and teachers alike.
Right now more educators are needing to become aware of Cymbol for iPad, whether for literary arts, footnotes to the more exacting nature of chemistry, physics and math emphasis in STEM.
Let us also look at the aspects of the Hex→Unicode conversion for introduction to computer technical insides via 1:1 environments, language arts and binary mathematics to peer inside of those tablets?.
Here are some references to derive some of the arena and you may want to do something in that regard to expand much more precisely in your own way for those colleagues of yours or educators in your arena.
Faye explains how writing with the iPad works better via Cymbol as another example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66hDakYwxH0
• Pilcrow ¶
• Section §
• Trademarks ® ℠ ™
• Superscripts¹ and subscripts ₁ with even polyvalent ions!
• Easily tied with your favorite App's on the iPad (Keynote/Pages/Mail/Numbers/Notes/iDraw)
• Hex→Unicode conversion!
Example of easily demonstrated Cymbol iPad activity
Enter in:
261B
Highlight and tap Hex→Unicode
☛
Voila now you have a hand!
APP URL
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id416714959
I would highly recommend including actual hands on real life experiences with these studies. For instance, all of Pennsylvania participates in envirothon, which is a competition for all high school students interested in environmental subjects. The same concept can apply to CDEs in FFA, but this will expand your Ag classroom even further.
ReplyDeleteTo dive in even further, utilize other teachers in hour school that gave experience teaching the basics of these concepts (biology, chemistry, even general/earth science). They can help teach basic concepts and you can fill in the holes to make it more unique and Ag related
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