A day Observing School Based Agricultural Education

Like I have mentioned earlier, I have been deciding what I am looking for in my Student Teaching Internship for Spring of 2024. In my last blog, I said that I am looking to teach agriculture mechanics, have a good relationship with my cooperating teacher, and a robust Supervised Agriculture Experience Program. Well, after coming up with the criteria I am looking for in my program, it was time to go explore some schools. I asked my advisors for their opinion on some schools that I should go visit, based on what I am looking for. I figured since they were in this profession a lot longer than I have, they would have the best knowledge of the programs in PA. So, after getting their recommendations I decided to go visit Cedar Crest High School and it definitely did not disappoint! I am going to highlight some things about the program that I think we very cool. 

Cedar Crest High School


Mr. Phillip Haussener, Ms. Claudia Brady, and Mr. Darren Grumbine are the awesome Agricultural Educators that run this program. One thing that I really liked about this program was their philosophy on how they teach students and all of these teachers truly embody that. They do not want to make students experts in every field of agriculture, but instead want to expose students to all opportunities within agriculture. I think this is important because as teachers ourselves we aren't experts in everything, so we cannot expect our students to be. 

Their agriculture courses are organized in an interesting way, but I think it provides a lot of flexibility for teaching students. They have Agriscience and Technology I, Agriscience and Technology II, Agriscience and Technology III, and Agriscience and Technology IIII. Ms. Brady currently Teaches 6 sections of Agriscience and Technology I and Mr. Haussener teaches the sections of Agriscience and Technology 2-4. Obviously, there are many more students interested in the Agriscience 1, and then they are able to move on to 2-4. Mr. Grumbine also offers Electricity/ Small Gas Engines and Welding and Concrete. If students find that they enjoy these subjects that are briefly taught by Mr. Haussener in the Agriscience courses, then they can sharpen their skills by taking a full course on the Ag mechanics topics. On top of these general courses, they also offer a Supervised Agricultural Experience course, to give students credit for completing their projects outside of class. 

By organizing the courses in this way, Mr. Grumbine and Ms. Brady can be flexible in what they teach since the classes are very broad. Obviously, they are going to focus on Animal, Plant, and Food Science but they could also add in small units of International Agriculture, Agriculture Business, or Parliamentary Procedure. Another thing that I really like about their program, is that they display agriculture as the full picture. They show students the process of chicken, from the egg and fertilization to harvesting and the cuts of a chicken. I really like how students are able to see agriculture from start to end, rather than just parts of the process. 

Another cool thing about their program is that they have so many hands on resources and facilities for their students to learn in. Mr. Haussener's classroom is equipped with some great technology to teach his lessons and also has a great place for FFA updates and announcements. He has space in the back of his room for food science materials such as a stove and fridge. Also, there is an incubator in the back of the room to start eggs. They have an animal room, where they hold almost 40 rabbits that each student is in charge of. They also have broiler chickens and laying hens in that room that students can learn from. They have a greenhouse, that is equipped with the space and tools for students to learn how to produce flowers and sell them in sale. 

The facility that I was most excited to get to see is the shop, which is equipped with multiple welders and space for students to work. As I mentioned earlier, I was looking to teach Ag Mechanics during my internship, so I really wanted to see how things operate in the shop. This shop is shared by Mr. Haussener and Mr. Grumbine, so sometimes their classes overlap. 

They also have a very active FFA chapter, with many community connections. Mr. Haussener and Ms. Brady do a good job of ensuring that students are getting the full FFA experience and they attend all of the events that they can. They also incorporate SAE into their classrooms, so that every student in Agriscience 1, has an SAE with their rabbits that they are raising. This gives them a sense of ownership and they learn how to enter things into AET. After the students take Agriscience 1 and they take the other Agriscience courses, they are required to complete a different SAE outside of the classroom. This is where students can find their interests in agriculture and complete a project of their choosing. 

Overall, I think that Cedar Crest has a very good Agriculture program and a Strong FFA program. I think that the teachers of the program definitely push their students to be the best that they can be. 

Thanks for reading about an awesome trip in SBAE

~ Paige 

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