Columbus FFA sets date for annual Agribusiness Dinner – WiscNews

Last week – Wisconsin FFA Half-Time Conference: Stevens Point on Jan. 10-11. Garret Baerwolf and Jordan Prosser represented Columbus FFA at the Half Time Conference. Garret and Jordan will return to the chapter to share what they learn at the conference from the state officer team and other FFA members to help prepare for National FFA Week and the chapter banquet.

Leadership Development Event: The Columbus FFA members practiced this week for the district speaking contest coming up Feb. 10. The Parli Pro team practiced using parliamentary abilities, Garret Baerwolf and Hannah Dahl prepared their resumes and cover letters for the Employability skills contest, Morgan Baerwolf is working on memorizing the FFA creed and Corrina Larson is studying the Discussion meet topics. Practice will continue this coming week.

SAE- The students participated in the Week 6 lesson at the high school focusing on written communication. The students practiced their written communication skills by sending an email to a teacher asking about a grade or assignment. The students were given a template as an example and were told about tips to help them write a professional and proper email. The students learned that email is a common form of communication in the world of work. The middle school students learned about personal responsibility and setting goals to become more personally responsible.

Ag Careers and Leadership: The Ag Careers and Leadership class were assigned groups and a country to research their agricultural commodities and global trading. The students began creating a country profile that they will share with the class at a Food Symposium in the near future. The students also participated in two activities that simulated global agriculture scenarios and situations. The first activity was the Business of Wheat. The students each selected a predetermined wheat related career and then had to research information and come to a decision about how scenarios in Russia, Germany and China were going to impact wheat production and their business. The students found it was not easy to locate information and that they learned that wheat production involves and impacts a number of businesses and that communication between organizations is important. The second activity was Worldly Cattle. This activity required the students to ship ten cows and one bull from Columbus to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The students learned that logistics is not easy especially when moving large livestock animals. Again, the students realized connections in the agricultural organizations would be vital for farmers trying to transport agricultural commodities.

Agricultural Food Science: The students completed a lab on freezing and refrigerated foods related to the lesson on the Organic Basis of Food. The students were assigned groups and a preservation method to create a lesson to teach their peers. The students worked on creating a slideshow, activity and an evaluation to check for learning. The students will begin to share their presentations this week. The students also reviewed the chemistry behind food science and the food they eat.

Food, Forests and Wildlife: The sixth grade students learned about mushrooms this week as they conducted an observation lab to learn about mushroom anatomy and completed mushroom fact research. The students moved on to learn about human recycling and began creating an Infomercial to sell a product they are creating out of reused trash.

Pizza, Pets and Plants: The seventh grade students participated in food science this week. They conducted a milk tasting lab where they learned how to properly conduct a taste test. They compared the quality of milk based on the processing method used on the milk. The students learned that the appearance of the milk can influence their idea about taste, but that it can be a false pretense to the actual taste of the milk. The students were surprised to learn what the milk samples were after they completed the taste test. The class participated in a Freezing Foams lab, which they made ice cream. The lab taught the students that salt was needed to make the ice colder in order to get their ice cream to change from a liquid to more solid. They loved this lab! The class finished the week by starting their pet unit. Each student selected a pet to research to learn more about the animal and why people select it as a pet. On Friday the researched how much it costs to own a pet.

Animals, Plants and Food Science: The students shared their livestock presentations and taught the class about the general purpose behind each livestock breed. The students then learned about livestock animal anatomy. The class participated in an anatomy labeling activity and then created their own livestock animal anatomy poster. The students had to label 20 external parts with the correct anatomical term. Friday the students began their plant unit by learning about the four major plant groups and their unique characteristics that organizes them into their taxonomical categories.