About WB Ag Ed

• From 2015-2020, the United States Department of Agriculture Estimates 58,000 annual job openings for college graduates in agriculture areas.
• Just 12% of jobs in agriculture are actually on-farm jobs. It takes the other 88% of industry personnel to support the farmer and their production.
• 1/7 people in Ohio are employed by some facet of the agriculture industry.
• These statistics set the stage of relevance and importance for what agriculture education programs are doing across the country…
  • Preparing students for careers in agriculture and a host of all other industries be teaching students:
    • How to write resumes and cover letters
    • Job interview skills
    • Critical thinking and decision making ability and how to defend those decisions
    • How to speak in front of a crowd

The Ag ed program at Western Brown is built on the three-circle model that encompasses Classroom, SAE & FFA

• Classroom
  • The classroom is the heart of agriculture education and each course offered is part of the larger Ohio Agribusiness & Production Systems Career Pathway.
  • Courses Include:
    • Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources (9th Grade)
    • Animal Science and/or Mechanical Principles (10th Grade)
    • Agribusiness, Finance & Communication (11th Grade)
    • Agriculture Systems & Industry Credential Capstone (12th Grade)
  • All courses have an articulation agreement with Southern State Community College and can be transferred as Agriculture Elective Credit.
  • Additionally, the Agribusiness course offers students complete course transfer credit to Clark State University.
  • All courses have state-mandated End-of-Course Assessments that students MUST pass.
  • All courses are worth 1.25 Credits.
  • To earn the extra 0.25 credit, students are expected to participate in FFA and SAE activities.
  • Additional science credits can be earned and applied towards a student's graduation eligibility. See the CDE tab.

• FFA
  • Formerly referred to as the Future Farmers of America, the FFA changed its name in 1988 to the National FFA Organization to reflect the growing diversity of agriculture. Let’s face it, not everyone is going to be a farmer but there are more than 250 career fields that help support the farmer from chemists and biologists to logistics, sales, pilots, livestock nutritionists and food scientists.
  • FFA is the largest school-based youth organization in the country with more than 653,000 members from Alaska to the US Virgin Islands and from the state of Maine to Hawaii.
  • Its mission is to develop students’ potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agriculture education.
  • Regular FFA activities are offered during the summer months and each quarter. 10% of students' grades are reserved for FFA involvement.

• SAE
  • Supervised Agriculture Experience programs are planned, practical activities conducted outside of regular scheduled class time that help students develop and apply agricultural knowledge and skills learned inside the classroom.
  • Four types:
    • Entrepreneurship - Like owning your own business
    • Placement (Paid or Unpaid) - Like working for someone else’s
    • Exploratory - Job shadowing and/or training
    • Research - Conducting a science experiment
  • Should be a reflection of your interests and resources available to you.
  • Students will be introduced to hundreds of SAE ideas throughout the year.
  • 10% of students' grades are reserved for completion of an SAE program.

Ohio Program Quality Standards for Agriculture Education Programs

• House Bill 59
  • Established the program quality standards and expectations for career-tech programs in our state. These include:
    • Experiential Learning
      • All students plan and conduct a year-round experiential learning program that connects the technical knowledge and skills learned in both the classroom and laboratory to the workplace (SAE).
    • Leadership Development/CTSO
      • All students participate in a year-round intra-curricular Career-Technical Student Organization that promotes cognitive and social emotional development (FFA).

Why Agriculture Education Courses Are Worth 1.25 Credits

• Agriculture Education is Intra-Curricular
• Agriculture education requires involvement in classroom, SAE and the FFA chapter
• This is referred to as the 3-Circle model of agriculture education
  • Classroom: 80%
    • Coursework
  • FFA: 10%
    • 2 activities per quarter
    • 2 hours of community service
  • SAE: 10%
    • Approved plans of SAE, up-to-date records of time and finances.

How Students Keep/Track Records of FFA & SAE

• All students will receive access to their own personal Ag Experience Tracker (AET) account at https://www.theaet.com/

Path to Graduation

• Students who complete the Agribusiness & Production Systems pathway (4 Courses offered) and have 500 hours of documented SAE hours are eligible to receive an Ohio Agribusiness Industry Credential which can be used as a path to graduation eligibility in the state of Ohio regardless of how students perform on their other core course state testing.

AET and other resources provide our program with ever-growing data to garner support and demonstrate the effectiveness of agriculture education. Here are a few of our 2018 statistics:

• 7,400 total hours invested by students in their Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE) projects
• Direct student investment of $46,000 into their SAEs and $117,000 earned from those SAEs
• More than 1,100 hours of community service invested in our local community
• $81,650 in total economic impact on our local community from volunteerism and SAE investment
• 11,600 total hours invested in Career Development Events, SAEs, Community Service and other FFA Activities
• More than 3,000 miles traveled and 7 states visited