When you’ve got 1,000+ students… 375 in FFA… six from a farm… how do you engage the whole student body in ag? Ask Mrs. Boettcher at DeForest Area High School.
Agriculture is Wisconsin’s flagship industry, and DeForest Area School District is preparing students for careers on and off the farm. Mid-West Farm Report recently joined secretaries for the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Department of Workforce Development, and Department of Public Instruction on a tour of DeForest’s ag program.
Students are getting hands-on experience with aquaponics, raising tilapia and lettuce for the culinary arts and school lunch program. They are growing flowers and vegetables in a new greenhouse through their horticulture units. And, students are raising rabbits and chickens in the classroom for their animal sciences studies. Let’s not overlook the box stall that is inside the classroom, with an accessible garage door so a horse or cow can be brought in from a neighboring farm.
FFA officers Callie Burke, Natalie Hensen, Sam Mell and Zander Christianson were all smiles showing the tour group their agriculture department and raving about their ag instructors, including Gwen Boettcher.
But the classroom isn’t just meant for students from a farm or in FFA — although taking an ag course does make you an FFA member! Boettcher’s goal is to bring ag literacy to every student at DeForest, and to make sure they graduate high school knowing that there is more to the industry than milking cows or being a veterinarian. There are over 400 careers to choose from, on or off the farm.
To reach that goal, the ag department is spreading its roots into the other Career and Tech Education courses: culinary arts, mechanics, welding, school lunch… even in the required financial literacy credit high schoolers have to take. Some of the DeForest CTE teachers have also gone through additional schooling in order to make select courses accredited — accepted by schools suck as Madison Area Technical College. High school students also have the option of a supervised internship or apprenticeship.
While DeForest has gotten the attention of state agencies for its programs, Boettcher says there are a number of outstanding ag programs across the state. The current dilemma is that there are not enough ag educators. She serves on the Wisconsin Workforce Development Council for Agriculture Education, where she works to grow the number of ag teachers across the state.
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