News: Teacher stories

The National FFA convention offers lots of opportunities for learning in the teacher workshop strand. This year, Courtney Bockbrader, Whitney Short, and Meredith Wolfe led a session on bringing hands-on, science-based labs to life in a variety of classes. Approximately 30 people attended the session. Presenters covered water quality and led the group through several activities including a stream simulation with biotic sampling and water quality testing of temperature, pH, dissolved …

Natural water sources’ health can be affected by many things. Killbuck Creek runs along the River View High School school property, so the environmental science class has been able to monitor a range of chemical and biological indicators of water quality. Students learned about water quality, macroinvertebrates, and methods for testing water quality through the Feed The World curriculum. Instructor Allyssa McMullen attended the Ohio Corn & Wheat-sponsored FTW workshop …

Farmers need to know if their soil will hold onto nutrients or wash away easily. Valerie Karhoff, Agricultural Education and FFA Advisor at Lakota High School, presented the Feed the World soil texture lessons so her students would become familiar with the three major textures and understand the various sizes of sand, silt, and clay particles. These sediments are weathered from surface rocks or eroded by water or wind and …

“When you’re collecting water samples, watch out for dogs, herons, and mud.”—these are words of advice from Thomas Weger at Elida High School. Weger’s math remediation class used the Feed the World water quality lessons to test water in four different locations: a river, two creeks, and a pond. They were surprised to find that the pond had a zero phosphorus level and stayed clear, but the others showed 1000. “…

What would it be like to be a farmer in another part of the world, where education and government stability as well as weather events can affect productivity? Want to help your students understand those concepts? The lesson “Farming for the future” on Ohio Corn & Wheat-sponsored Feed the World challenges students to consider the factors that can impact yield. Rebecca Scott teaches at Field High School, and after attending …

Rachel Sanders’ bioresearch students at Global Impact STEM Academy are investigating the properties of biofuels. The first type of biofuel being produced is ethanol from milled dent corn. Students are learning about the ethanol production process and the by-products produced using lessons from the Ohio Corn Education Feed the World website. Students have been amazed at the different uses of corn. One stated, “Who knew corn could provide such a co…

Rachel Sanders’ bioresearch students at Global Impact STEM Academy are investigating the properties of biofuels. The first type of biofuel being produced is ethanol from milled dent corn. Students are learning about the ethanol production process and the by-products produced using lessons from the Ohio Corn Education Feed the World website. Students have been amazed at the different uses of corn. One stated, “Who knew corn could provide such a co…

As part of “Diversity of Life” science standards, Ann Rougier’s 10th Grade Biology class at Stivers School for the Arts combined corn and ecology. Her students planted two corn seeds in eco-column terrariums along with three other types of seeds of their choice. As the corn grew, the roots entered the aquarium portion of the eco-column. In some cases, this provided a balance needed for the fish and snails in …