BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — Students at Bartlesville High School learned about soil Tuesday afternoon. It is part of a new agricultural education program.
Teachers saw an opportunity for the agriculture program and were looking to keep students in the district.
“We saw a big change in the student population," said Marty Jones, agricultural education instructor at Bartlesville High School. "Maybe some students moving out of the district to find other ways of being involved in an ag program.”
The program has three components. Classroom learning, supervised agricultural experiences and Future Farmers of America, or FFA. Freshman Mia Merciez decided to join FFA, because of her love of horses.
“I wanted to learn, obviously, ranch management," she said. "And then also how to present myself and how to do speech and business, because I also want to have a degree in that.”
Construction on a new building for the program will begin in January. It will serve as a hub for the program, which teaches students skills beyond agriculture.
"It’s not just about farming and animals," Merciez said. "It helps you with how to have a business, how to do things yourself and do things with others also.”
The program currently has 82 students. They will learn a range of topics from animal science to plant science. Jones says its been fun to introduce them to so many new things.
“Regardless of what their background is, we get to have a lot of really cool “aha” moments in our classroom where students go ‘oh that’s how that works,'" he said. "That’s why we do those things.”
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