For 35 years, 7th and 8th grade students have been allowed to join FFA. Now 5th and 6th grade students are able to participate in FFA. This is providing agriculture teachers the opportunity to decide how to involve those students in both agriculture classes and FFA.
Emma Huber is the Middle School Agriscience teacher in Portage and is currently teaching 6th grade students. Through Huber’s curriculum, these students begin to explore different pathways in agriculture. “My 6th grade classes get to look at plants, animals, natural resources, and foods,” said Huber.
The courses will diversify for students that continue with agriculture courses into 7th and 8th grade. The diversity of introductory courses will help students decide what specific courses they want to take in high school. The courses for 6th and 7th grade students are only 9 weeks long, or a quarter, and a semester for 8th grade students.
Over the last several years, the Portage Agriscience Department was already offering classes for 6th grade students – they just weren’t allowed to be official FFA members. Huber said, “in previous years, we would allow 6th grade members to be local members and just do things in our community.” It excites Huber to not have to tell students “no” to participating in events that were restricted to official FFA members.
While 5th graders can also officially join FFA, that will be a challenge for many districts like Portage. Students need to also be enrolled in agriculture courses to be FFA members. “In Portage, that’s not going to happen anytime soon,” Huber stated. This is due to having 3 elementary schools, 2 of those being rural, in the district. Going to those schools to offer a course with her currents schedule just isn’t possible.
This is an exciting development for FFA. Huber says she already has 50 6th grade members. “They’re so excited to be a part of it and I’m excited to help them explore it at an even younger age than was offered before,” said Huber.
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