This school year marks the second year with the new STEAM building. One area of the new STEAM building is the agricultural educational department, which includes the new classroom, the small animal lab, the large animal lab with pen spaces, and the climate-controlled greenhouse.
The small animal space is a student interest highway, and there are several different “class” animals. There is a guinea pig named Biggie, a rabbit named Pookie, three turtles, and a bearded dragon. Plus there are some newly hatched chicks.
Having the space to keep them healthy and happy has been extremely helpful. Keeping class animals teaches students responsibility because they must take care of them by feeding and cleaning cages. During the school year, students are not allowed to take the class animals home, but there are exceptions for Spring Break, Winter Break, and during Summer. If a student wants to take home a class pet, they need to fill out a form and talk to Ms. Loehrke, Amherst’s agriculture teacher.
The new classroom space has been very helpful because it is much larger than the previous classroom. And everyone really likes the new dedicated small-animal and large-animal facilities, too.
“The new space has helped students experience more hands-on activities like bringing in animals because we now have the room to keep these animals on campus,” said FFA chapter president Deqlund Waltenberg. “It has helped the FFA by being able to teach the younger grades about plants and animals.”
Being able to have students of all ages come in to see the new space and the animals has been extremely helpful.
“We have not yet held animals here long term, but that is our future goal,” Ms. Loehrke said. “Although we’ve had animals here for interacting for educational purposes with all ages. Just a few weeks ago we had a calf, a goat, and some chickens to teach the kindergarteners all about them.” Having the bigger space helps because it isn’t just teaching kids through a screen or papers and pictures. Students enjoy these extra opportunities for hands-on learning.
With the new greenhouse there is more room for growing the plants for the annual FFA plant sale. Last year’s sale went well for it being the first year in the new space and Ms. Loehrke’s first year running the sale.
“I was a little stressed out and didn’t know exactly what to order, but we were very successful,” Ms. Loehrke said. All of the funds from the Plant Sale go to FFA, which helps fund trips like conventions, association dues, and next year’s greenhouse expenses. “It is so helpful just being able to have the room and the space we need for the plants,” Ms. Loehrke added.
Current FFA vice president Kendall Kirsling stated, “The plant sale last year was very successful. We had a wide variety of good healthy plants. We also got a lot of positive comments about the sale.”
“It was exciting to see all the plugs we planted in March turn into all of these beautiful flowers and hanging baskets,” Deqlund said. “In the end, all the hard work paid off.”
The extra greenhouse space has also been helpful for bringing in groups of students to learn about different areas of agriculture.
“We use it for more than just the plant sale,” Kendall explained. “We used it to house some extra animals during our kindergarten animal day.” Kendall said that with the new space, there have been more kids interested in animals.
“With the new space, we are now able to bring in younger kids to learn about the animals in the fall and the plants in the spring,” Deqlund added.
If people in the community want to come see the new space, there will be opportunities throughout the year.
Last year there were three opportunities where the community was invited to come see the Ag space. This year if people would like to see the new space, contact Mrs. Loehrke ([email protected]) and set up a time to get a tour. And everyone is invited to come to the Plant Sale this spring to see the space and support the FFA.
