The document summarizes changes made to the agriculture program at Carroll County High School to increase enrollment. Key points: - Classes were renamed to focus on career pathways like Agriculture Biology, Veterinary Science, and Landscape Management. - A school farm was developed where students can do hands-on research with crops like pumpkins and corn mazes. Local businesses support the program. - New equipment like a CNC router was added. An aquaculture center was also developed to raise and study tilapia and catfish. These changes have increased student enrollment and financial support for the program.

1. October 2009
Volume 2, Issue2
Virginia Agricultural Education
“Connections”
A Special Project of the Virginia Agricultural Education Curriculum Specialists Team
Remaking The Agriculture Department
The old saying goes “ If you don’t change, you don’t grow.”. This year, we are
introducing a series of articles written by local agriculture teachers on how they made
changes in their agriculture departments and the results of these changes. This month, we
will take a look at the Carroll County Agriculture Education Department. If you would like
your department featured in this series, please submit an a article on the changes made in
your department to Dan Swafford , e-mail jswaffor@vt.edu.
___________________________________________________________
Breaking New Ground With Old Traditions
Randy C. Webb, Carroll County High School
Where do you start when agriculture classes have lost their luster and enrollment is
dropping? Answer: You still teach what you know best by adding new, exciting names to
your classes that align with the career pathways, and the students will come. At Carroll
County High School, we have moved the program in a new direction by adding new classes
and changing a few names. From the days of Natural Resources III-IV-V, Horticulture III-
IV-V, and Agriculture Production III-IV-V, we now have classes like Agriculture Biology,
Veterinary Science, Power and Technology, Metal Fabrications, Specialty Horticulture,
Greenhouse Management, and Landscape and Turf Management. We began development
of a school farm where students can work with research in high school and get a hands-on
understanding of what steps are taken in establishing variety trials with replications. At the
farm, we are developing a laboratory that will benefit all the courses in our program from
the beginning eighth grader to our graduating seniors. Natural Resources will have timber,
stream management areas, Agriculture Production will have pastures, soil, and water
conservation, crop production, livestock production, and Horticulture will have areas for
landscape management, nursery stock, and much more. Getting the students out of the
classroom is still the most rewarding experience our programs can offer. We plan to
incorporate the field trials with fun activities that get more of our students involved in our
program. Here are a few of the things we are doing. We planted 18 varieties of pumpkins
for Dr. Alan Straw, and when the data is collected for the research, we will sell the
pumpkins as a fundraiser. The way we plan to market the pumpkins is through agri-tourism.
We also planted an acre of corn, cut out a maze, and plan to have hayrides on October
weekends, ending with a haunted maze on Halloween night. Students get excited about
activities like this and they tell their friends who then want to enroll. These added
activities also help our program grow financially without endless fundraisers. When word
gets out of what you are doing, you will be amazed at how many local businesses want to
get involved. This is still their best means of advertisement. Our local farm supply stores
have been more than generous to the program. Companies like Southern States have
donated seed corn and assisted with spraying and fertilizer applications. Others donated
fencing supplies and labor, and one feed store will be offering our students a $1,500
scholarship in 2010. Back at school, we have added new equipment like an ironworker, and
a C-N-C router. We’ve developed a unique recalculating aquaculture center, where we are
raising tilapia and catfish and capturing the waste in our self-designed bio-filter, which is
used to grow plants before we return the water to the fish tanks. These are just a few of the
ways we are building our program to ensure continued success in educating our students. I
am sure with a little inspiration you too will be “breaking new ground with old traditions.”
18 varieties of
pumpkins were
planted for
research

2. “Connections”
Preparing Students for a NOCTI exam
One of the options for meeting state standards for certification for completers is a NOCTI
exam. NOCTI or National Occupational Competency Testing Institute offers certification
exams in many areas. Not all are approved for credentialing in Virginia so be sure to
check the approved list. The first place to look for information is the following Web site:
http://www.nocti.org/StudStateVirginia.cfm
Here you will find blueprints for each exam, which are guides that tell you the percentage
of questions that will come from each topic or specific subject area. Please remember the
Virginia competencies are not necessarily going to completely cover all topics on the
exam. You do need to sit down and look at what you currently teach to determine if any
units or lessons need to be added.
Helpful hints from other teachers
- The greenhouse production test uses quite a bit of brand-specific terminology-for
example, Oasis
- Giving students the pretest can be very helpful. You are not allowed to see
questions from the exam. However, the score reports will tell you the number of
questions students got right from each section. This can give you a better idea of
areas you need to focus on throughout the year or during review.
Special thanks to Melessa Harvey, Liz Borst, and Cindy Wilson for offering insight with
their experiences giving the exams.
2
Dates & Deadlines
October
20th
-24th- National FFA
Convention
November
6th- State Soils
17th
-21st- NAAE Convention

3. “Connections”
3
3
Find “The Owl” to Earn VAAE Bucks
Communities of Practice Highlight
Explaining and demonstrating the concept single pole and
three-way switches in electricity
An interesting idea for teaching electricity was recently posted
on the NAAE Communities of Practice board. It is a link to a You Tube
video created by an electrician. He has created a model board that
uses rope light to help demonstrate single pole and three-way
switches.
http://naae.ca.uky.edu:8080/clearspace_community/message/3103#3
103
Featured Resources for Teaching
 http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/leaves.html
Information on why leaves change color in the fall and several simple
experiments to try in class.
 http://www.millerwelds.com/interests/projects/
Metal working project plans and an extensive idea gallery.
http://inspiredideasmag.blogspot.com/2008/12/cupcake-flower-
arrangement-this-tiny.html
Simple floral design idea for floral cupcakes

4. VA Team Ag Ed
Dr. Glenn Anderson-
Ag Ed Specialist, Va
Dept. of Education
Glenn.anderson@doe.vi
rginia.gov
804/225-2840
Dr. Howard Ladewig-
Interim Virginia Tech AEE
Dept,
Head
hladewig@vt.edu540/231-
6836
Dr. Donna Moore-
Virginia Tech AEE Dept
mooredm@vt.edu
540/231-5717
Dr. Tom Broyles-
Virginia Tech AEE Dept
tbroyles@vt.edu
540/231-8188
Andy Seibel- FFA
Executive Secretary
gseibel@vt.edu
540/231-3823
Kate Hawkins-
Curriculum Specialist
khawkins@vt.edu
540/869-7025
Ron Byrd- Curriculum
Specialist
rpbyrd@vt.edu
276/768-8590
Dan Swafford-
Curriculum Specialist
jswaffor@vt.edu
540/558-8906
We’re on the Web!
www.aee.vt.edu
VAAE President’s Message
Colleagues,
My time serving the VAAE has been filled, honestly, with lining up activities and
preparing for them to be accomplished this year. After our ACTE/VAAE Conference in
August, it was time to prepare for the coming year by organizing the calendars and working
with our executive director, Mr. Ron Byrd, to confirm and learn the “ins and outs” of this
position and its responsibilities. I wish to express my thanks to Mr. Byrd and the past officers
for their hard work, service, and dedication to our organization. I am pleased to share that I
and the officers will be working to better serve you, the members, in the coming year to
achieve even more success professionally for the benefit of our students, programs, and
chapters.
As we settle into the school year and have our FFA chapters and agriculture classes
going at full-speed, it’s hard to imagine that we’ll be celebrating the holidays very soon. I’m
sure you love the many enjoyable aspects of the fall season, for work or play – harvest time,
hunting seasons, our state fair, citrus sales, and the many CDEs with FFA members, just to
name a few. I often wonder whether this time of year helps you to reflect upon the “harvest” of
successes you have been able to enjoy as an agriculture instructor …. a “harvest” that has
yielded and will continue to yield for students the immense opportunities at home and abroad
through their experiences in agricultural education.
It is with this backdrop that I wish to share with you what I believe are some aspects of
the important work we need to embrace to re-secure the future of “farming” agriculture, the
rural way of life, and our state’s economy. As you are well aware, the sharing of knowledge
and skills with our students about the scope and critical need for a successful agriculture
industry doesn’t just end with the graduation of our students – indeed, we need to be leaders
in our home counties and communities in ensuring that our local citizens see first-hand the
benefits of our many hours of work and effort with these students. There are countless ways
that you and your students can project your influence and important community presence:
Perhaps your FFA chapter’s creed or public speaking winners could present the creed and/or
a speech to the local chamber of commerce members? Maybe your chapter could benefit
from meeting members of local supervisory boards or other leadership teams? Might there be
an opportunity to invite school leaders and local officials to an FFA apple butter judging
contest? As the new election season unfolds, might there be a way to welcome those leaders
to your meetings or activities? Who knows better than you the many possibilities available for
getting those sometimes hard-to-reach community members and leaders to come out in
support of the FFA and agricultural education?
Regardless of whether your chapter treasury is low or high whether you have low
member numbers or are 100 percenters, the need and time to re-kindle or to develop and
maintain positive relationships with those in positions of influence is now. It is never too late
and never too difficult. The words of the FFA Creed share to “believe in the future of
agriculture, with a faith born not of words, but of deeds.” What deeds will you and your
chapter pursue in promoting our profession and the ”FFA way”? To the naysayers who claim
“It’s too late – Ag. is all washed-up here in our county” – would you say that to a young person
proudly showing off their first FFA ribbon? Would you say that to a fellow professional in your
building or even your administrator? What about sharing those sentiments with your
superintendent or local leaders? I would hope that none of us knows anyone who would feel
this way and who would certainly NOT be a part of this, our chosen profession.
Friends, we DO have the opportunity to make a positive difference in our communities
– it takes a unified message, a common cause, and a continuous effort to convince those in
positions of leadership and influence that agricultural education is not only here to stay but is
necessary for our very existence! What part will YOU play in sharing this good news? Our
message is our mission – to maintain the highest levels of learning and experiences for the
students wishing to enter the agriculture profession. I challenge you to take an active role and
BE the leader in your communities that you know to be needed and beneficial to our
profession and way of life. I challenge you to not only be a more active member of our
association, but to also encourage other agricultural educators to become members of our
professional association. To coin a phrase “Membership has its advantages” that reach far
beyond the classroom, lab, office, or home – help our membership and positive influence grow
for advancing agriculture, our communities, and our profession.
Sincerely,
Jeff Wilt, VAAE President