Hello Pirates! This year has been off to a great start, especially for our agriculture classes. Carrying over the success of last year, Mr Jarrett and Mr Marshall are introducing new plans, continuing old ones, and preparing students for shows and contests. These upcoming developments are going to bring new and exciting opportunities to the agriculture classes and hopefully they can be expanded even further.
The PHS agriculture department has been recognized as one of the top 4% in all of Oklahoma and has also been awarded a $30,000 grant which was used to get new welders as well as construct a greenhouse to offer horticulture opportunities. Poteau High School being recognized like this is a wonderful example of how proficient our teachers are and how talented and hard working the students are as well. This is a fantastic opportunity for the ag program to expand, and there are many new things Mr Jarrett and Marshall are planning for this year and the years to come. Here’s a little insight on some of those plans as well as details regarding the activities already started this year, and information about our newest ag teacher.
Students have already begun attending competitions, and put hard work in over the summer to prepare for this year. Animal showing and shop are already in full swing with student projects, and classes such as food science and horticulture are getting ready to go to work! This is only the beginning, and many events and activities are still to come. The ag program is ambitious, and they know that these students, both new and old, will do great things this year and be successful.
The new teacher, Mr Marshall, will be teaching introductory agriculture classes as well as ag communications, agriscience, horticulture, and food science. The ag communications class is preparing for speeches and learning other skills involved with the transfer of information. Horticulture and food science are still preparing to begin their projects, they will be getting more into the lab and greenhouse side of things soon.
The horticulture class will be propagating plants in the greenhouse. They will be growing houseplants at first and will move on to crops later in the year. Mr Marshall says he wants to get a headstart on it while the weather is still nice, so in the coming weeks they will begin planting. The end goal will be to sell these plants to the community. It will be an engaging experience for the horticulture students, who will take a plant from a seed and care for it and cultivate it until it flourishes, hopefully giving them a greater appreciation for plants and the people who care for them. Experiences such as this are what Mr Jarrett and Marshall are hoping to offer to more students. Caring for plants is a skill that not many schools offer, but PHS is hoping to expand this further, offering more opportunities like this for future students.
Food science is a class that deals with food processing and preparation, students will learn about the different cuts of meat, the different properties, and how it is processed from the farm to the supermarket. The meat lab will give students hands-on experience with cuts of meat and proper procedure practices and PPE for a food environment. Over the course of the class, they will not only learn from the book and see the scientific side of the meat industry but will also get in there and make cuts themselves. Even if students do not continue into the food preparation field, they will still get certification and knowledge on the different cuts of beef, pork, and other meats. This information can be helpful in day to day life, in the future they will be able to identify the best qualities in a cut and be able to take that knowledge to pick the best for their buck.
In the coming years, they would like to expand the agriculture program, incorporating the new school farm that is across town. Mr Jarrett is also starting an electricity team this year, not only will it be an enriching experience for the students, but it will also give them the opportunity to engage in activities that will give them an insight into the electrical professions. Mr Jarrett is especially skilled in the shop, and he wants to push the activities they’re doing in there further. Overall they are going to offer more opportunities for the students to engage in things that they enjoy doing.
These opportunities will give students valuable experience that they otherwise would have never had access to. Such experience will include learning a strong work ethic to prepare them to be valuable employees and employers in the future. If students don’t get anything else from the ag program, hopefully they will take the skills they’ve honed and apply them to their life going forward. Agriculture is the basis of everything, the economy, and the nation. If it weren’t for the millions of people employed in agriculture related jobs we would not be where we are today, nor would any country in the world. Agriculture work is the foundation of society and it is what keeps the cogs of advancement progressing. Preparing students for the workplace is an incredibly important aspect of their education, and the ag program goes above and beyond to give these students the experience they need.
Agriculture gives students an appreciation for the workers who are often overlooked. The world around us runs like clockwork because of the hard work they put in, agricultural work is one of the most underrepresented and underrated professions out there, and being in an ag class really opens someone’s eyes to all the effort that goes in behind the scenes. Everything taught in agriculture classes has some use for real life, even if it’s not obvious to them at the time. All of the information they learn has practical use and applications, and that is one of the main goals of the ag program. This year students will have a plethora of opportunities to engage in to learn more about not only agriculture, but the workplace, cooperation, handiness, and a strong appreciation for hard work.