Middle School &
High School
Supervised Agricultural Experiences
by Vivian Whorley and Jennifer Zaebst
The three interlocking components of Agricultural Education are classroom/lab instruction, FFA, and Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE). SAE is an integral part of Agriculture Education--a glue which binds into a coherent whole the FFA student organization and the Agricultural Education instructor's classroom efforts. The SAE program builds networks and creates a link between the school and the community. Students build confidence, skills, and may earn money with the different types of SAEs. The traditional Entrepreneurship and Placement SAEs have been broadened to include Experimental, Analytical, Exploratory, Improvement and Supplementary SAEs (Understanding Agriculture: New Directions in Education, 1988).
The component of supervised experience is the weak link in the chain of Agricultural Education because educators tend to neglect it the most (Morgan, Chelewski, Buzza, & Martin, 1998). To be successful the SAE program must be community-based. Most Agriculture departments are small, relying on one to three teachers to manage the multifaceted program of Agricultural Education. One (or three) person(s) can only do so much, and so it is critical for agriculture teachers to rely on the agriculture community for help and support. Teachers must make use of any qualified help they can recruit from within the community to broaden student participation in the areas of Exploratory and Research SAEs. Enlisting community support and participation with SAEs can also assist new teachers in developing their SAE programs sooner than later in their careers. Dan Swafford, Agricultural Education teacher at Christiansburg High School, Christiansburg, VA, cautioned new teachers to develop their classroom control and rapport with students before attempting to develop a full-fledged SAE program (personal communication, October 13, 1998). He mentioned that it may take five years before a new teacher feels organized and confident enough with classroom/lab instruction to help students establish quality SAEs. It is entirely possible that strong support from community-based program partners could serve to expedite that process.
Benifits of Supervised Agriculture Experience
There is no doubt as to the potential benefits that all students can receive by participating in supervised agricultural experiences. In addition to providing reinforcement for classroom and laboratory instruction, and foundations on which to base FFA proficiency awards, SAEs carry benefits that are specific to the experiential learning environment. Actual experience in a specific agriculture-related career is just one benefit. The responsibilities a student takes on when he or she begins an SAE program can eventually translate into invaluable life and workplace skills. Good time management, organizational, writing, and communication skills, dependability, a strong work ethic, and personal and community pride are other examples of benefits derived from SAEs. "SAE goes beyond just occupational preparation by providing students with fundamental and transferable skills and knowledge which may or may not be related to a specific occupational area" (Hughes, 1992). A commonality between middle and high school SAE programs is that both can provide students with beneficial skills and knowledge in the multifaceted area of agriculture.
The obvious major difference between the middle school and high school SAE programs relates to the age differences of the students. Because of their age, middle school students have needs slightly different than those of high school students. High school students are closer to choosing, and entering into, a career than their younger counterparts. For this reason, Placement SAEs are more suited to the high school level. Middle school students’ opportunities and participation in Placement SAEs are extremely limited by the students’ ages. Middle school students need to be exposed to the vast array of agricultural careers before they can begin to choose one for themselves. They need and deserve the opportunity to become agriculturally literate (Arrington, 1992). Exploratory, as well as Entrepreneurship, Experimental, and Analytical, SAEs are particularly suited to middle school to help the younger students find what's "out there".
. For example, students may be encouraged to pursue interests in plant science, landscaping, wildlife conservation, vegetable production, and so on. Some ideas for SAE projects and corresponding instructional areas follow. A middle school student’s Exploratory SAE might consist of job shadowing a community member employed in the agricultural field, such as a butcher, a soil scientist, a veterinarian, or a vegetable grower (careers, agribusiness, animal and plant science, agricultural food products). Documentation might include, but not be limited to, a written, audio-, or videotaped interview, a photographic display, or an oral account of the experience. An individual student might plan and carry out an entire series of visits over the course of a semester to document the various careers in a specific agricultural field. These visits can then be turned into a collection of articles for the school newspaper or neighborhood newsletter. Another form of Exploratory SAE might entail investigating the manufacturing or production of one or many agricultural goods and services (agricultural products).
A middle schooler’s Experimental SAE might include comparing effects of different foods on the behavior of caged rabbits (animal science), comparing the use of different soil mixes on the growth of a species of houseplant (plant and soil science), or comparing the specific strengths of different species of woods to various stresses (natural resources; products). Additional examples of Analytical SAEs for middle school students are: an investigative report on the safety of pressure-treated lumber used in playground or garden construction (natural resources; current issues; ecology and conservation), a report on diseases of wild game populations in the area (natural resources; ecology and conservation), or a survey of community agribusinesses and their participation with the county’s Agricultural Education Programs. Additional examples of Entrepreneurship SAEs suitable for middle school students might include manufacturing and selling birdhouses (woodworking; agribusiness), or making and selling compost and compost tea as houseplant food (plant and soil science; ecology and conservation).
There are several other types of SAEs and supporting activities that can be implemented by middle school students. They include Improvement and Supplementary projects. Improvement projects are recommended to students as long as they are supplementing one or several of the other types of SAEs and not the only source of experiential education. Improvement projects seem to be a great way for agricultural education students to work together to accomplish goals. Examples of Improvement projects for middle school students include enhancing the school campus to attract songbirds (animal science; ecology and conservation; natural resources), providing lawn and garden care for an elderly neighbor (plant science), or helping to build a root cellar to store the family’s food harvest (plant and food science). Supplemental activities, as with Improvement projects, should not be out of reach for any agricultural education student. Sharpening a lawnmower blade, shearing a sheep, and harvesting herbs are examples of supplementary activities that might appeal to middle school students.
An important consideration with the middle school SAEs is supervision. Some SAEs require supervision above and beyond parents’ signatures on assignment sheets. For these younger students, supervision, in many cases, will necessarily be in the form of direct help from parents and community members, who will have the opportunity to act as "assistants" to the agricultural education instructor away from the classroom. Sharing of knowledge, modeling, and teamwork are all potential products of supervision. This assistance from adults should be encouraged as long as the students are doing the bulk of the work themselves and put sincere effort into goal setting, planning, and record keeping.
Placement SAEs may not be appropriate for middle school agricultural education students, but that fact does not prevent the students from taking the opportunity to create for themselves valuable and rewarding "learning by doing" educational experiences. Creative teachers, students, and community partners can work together to build Exploratory, Analytical, Experimental, and Entrepreneurship SAEs that are just as beneficial and enjoyable to middle school students as Placement SAEs can be for high school students. As long as the SAE’s design is based on the interests of the student and the criteria for SAE developed by the National FFA (Prelesnik, 1998), middle schoolers should experience all benefits possible to students involved in SAEs.(Experiencing Agriculture, 1992).
If SAE is to be taken seriously, in an ideal world, a separate position should be created to supervise the SAE Program. It is unrealistic to expect agriculture teachers to be "Super Greenhand" and tend to all their teaching duties and still do justice to the SAE Program. The SAE Program can get off to a good start freshman introduction and sophomore follow-up, but sometime melts away in the "too busy" schedules of junior and senior year. An SAE position could include one or two periods a day devoted to classroom teaching about, and implementing student SAEs. The position would be unusual in that the teacher would not teach the whole day, but spend the majority of his/her working hours in visiting the SAE placement sites, after school, or going over the other various SAE projects with individual students during school. This position would also provide an individual to help students apply for their Proficiency Awards and State Farmers Degrees.
References
Arrington, L. (1992, December). Expanding sae: Exploratory programs. The Agricultural Education Magazine, 13-15.
Experiencing Agriculture: A Handbook on Supervised Agricultural Experience. (1992). The National Council for Agricultural Education. National FFA Supply Service.
Hughes, M. (1992, December). The new sae. The Agricultural Education Magazine, 8-10.
Morgan, E., Chelewski, R., Buzza, A., & Martin, D.. (1998, July/August). Supervised experience: An integral part of agricultural education. The Agricultural Education Magazine, 2.
Pals, Douglas A. (1989). Value of supervised occupational experience programs as perceived by parents, employers, and vocational agriculture instructors. Journal of Agricultural Education, 18 - 25.
Prelesnik, M. (1998, July/August). Developing supervised agricultural experiences for all agriscience students. The Agricultural Education Magazine, 71, 10-11.
The National Vocational Education (Smith-Hughes ) Act. Available: file:///C/pmfravel/attach/smithugh.html [1998, September 8].
Understanding Agriculture: New Directions for Education. (1988). Washington, D.C: National Research Council.