Controlled Chaos

Another full week of classes, FFA events, extra curriculars, and professional development is in the books! This week specifically tested my abilities to balance and juggle everything that an ag teacher does. I am in the process of coaching a prepared public speaking team, coaching an Envirothon team, navigating conference registrations and fundraisers, and lesson planning and grading, just to name a few things. 

For lessons this week the students we're doing a lot of hands on activities. Plant and Greenhouse started off with learning about soil profiles and horizons by making edible "dirt." We then transitioned into soil textures, getting our hands dirty making soil sediment jars and executing ribbon tests. FFA Leadership got to do some fun activities with practicing elements of good public speaking by speaking on different funny topics in odd locations around the classroom. 

My favorite lesson this week was one that I did with my Fish and Wildlife class. We are still on our wildlife unit and are talking about different ways to identify wildlife. Two of the areas I wanted to focus on was tracks and scat. For tracks, we just looked at a few common species in Pennsylvania and drew their respective tracks. We also talked briefly about good conditions for finding tracks, and the difference in an animals gait and how that can be seen in tracks.

After that we transitioned into scat ID, another great way to identify animals. Each student got a cup of oatmeal and cocoa powder and was tasked with forming a playdoh-like consistency by adding water. Once it was formed, we went through three different kinds of feeding habits (herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore) and what the shape of each feeding habit's scat looked like. As we went, the students made the shapes with their fake scat. After each scat shape was made and talked about, the students then had a chance to dive a little deeper into scat ID by representing a specific species' scat. We discussed how shape isn't the only thing about scat that helps us to identify what animals it belongs to; what's in the scat tells a lot, too!

Each student got one of the three feeding habits and had to find a Pennsylvania species that fell into that feeding-habit category. They then had to find three things that species eats and represent it in their scat using various objects from around the room (I set out dried beans, rubber bands, scraps of paper, and marshmallows). After that, they had to form the correct scat shape with their animals three "foods" inside it. At the end of class, everyone stood up and shared the scat they made, what animal it belongs to, and the food that it eats that's represented in the scat. 

Overall, this lesson was a homerun. It took minimal time to set up, the cost of materials was relatively low, and most importantly, the students learned a lot while having a fun time doing it. As the students were

making the "scat" they were having such a great time, too. Some were making an utter mess, others were having fun squishing the mixture so it made funny noises, but when we needed to focus and do the learning part of the lesson, they all paid attention. I felt like it was a great balance between learning content and having fun; it was controlled chaos. I also had so much fun teaching the lesson and interacting with the students. Because the students we're having a good time and were all very engaged, I found myself feeding off that energy. Someone once told me that high schoolers really just want the chance to act like kids sometimes and after this lesson, I'm really starting to see the truth behind that. When you give them an activity like this where they can make a little more of a mess and cloak the learning in an engaging activity, it is a win win. 

This is surely a lesson I will be keeping and using for future classes.