SAE Student Success Stories - Story #6 - Pennsylvania

SAE is one of the most unique educational tools at our disposal as agriscience educators. SAEs have long standing impact on the lives of students. SAEs are not optional.

Story #6 - Pennsylvania

A male freshman student lives in town, however has farm production experience due to his grandfather owning and operating a family dairy operation.  He decides to start a turf and landscape maintenance operation with a few lawns.  During his high school career, this operation takes on more lawns, begins to design landscapes, repairs previously installed landscapes and begins to hire 2 to 3 other employees.  Applies to PSU, WVU and Ohio State decides to attend PSU in Ag Education due to his father being in that career for 40 + years.  During his senior year, obtains his Keystone Degree and is awarded the State Star in Agribusiness due to his SAE where he made pretty good money for the time (1980's).  Attends and graduates from PSU to obtain a career in Ag Education at Central Columbia in which he has been with for 22 years. 

Submitting Teacher: Mr. Doug Brown

SAE Theorem #4 (Moore, 2003, The Agricultural Education Magazine)

Students should develop a preliminary plan and budget for their SAE program. Students may have grandiose ides and plans regarding their SAE programs, but they may not be realistic. Time should be spent where the students outline what they plan to do, identify the resources required, estimate the time involved, determine when critical tasks need to be performed, and look at the financial aspects of the proposed activity.

 You are a developing positive agent of change who will one day help students explore and grow into their unlimited potential through agricultural education!

SAE Student Success Stories - Story #5 - Wisconsin

SAE is one of the most unique educational tools at our disposal as agriscience educators. SAEs have long standing impact on the lives of students. SAEs are not optional.

 Story #5 - Wisconsin

I began teaching at a small rural high school in northern Wisconsin and I had one student in my classes that lived in town, across the street from the high school. When I introduced SAE (actually SOEP at that time) I told the students that they must keep records on their program and would be graded each month (last Friday of the month) on the progress experiences, etc.  Well the student who lived in town, kept making excuses for why he couldn't have an program and couldn't keep records (I live in town, we don't have a farm, I just go home after school and watch TV, etc.) -- I met with him and told him that the requirement would not be waived and told him that, until he developed a more worthy experience, he would keep records on what he watched on TV, including times, themes/plots, and special guest stars, if he had no other experiences which were more agriculturally related -- he recorded on his record book the TV programs for a couple of weeks and then asked to meet with me once again -- he told me that he had a summer 'business' mowing lawns and worked part time at the local feed store processing, mixing and bagging feed and asked if he kept records on these activities, could he stop keeping records on the TV programs, which, as it turned out was more time consuming than if he had just kept records on the 'real' SOEP activities.  He received a recordkeeping award for his efforts at the chapter banquet that year, as selected by the Ag Ed Advisory Committee.

Submitting Teacher: Mr. Kevin Keith

SAE Theorem #3 (Moore, 2003, The Agricultural Education Magazine)

Letters should be sent to incoming students letting them know of the SAE expectation.  A simple letter sent to new students prior to the start of class outlining the goals and objectives of the agricultural education program could work miracles. In this letter, the teacher should outline the expectations and requirements along with the rationale for them. This includes SAE and FFA.  In years of teaching, I found this to be a very effective way to “Sell” FFA and SAE. When students and parents know in advance the expectations and why, it is much easier to get student to join the FFA and have a SAE

You are a developing positive agent of change who will one day help students explore and grow into their unlimited potential through agricultural education!

In your Corner,

Dr. Foster

SAE Student Success Stories - Story #4 - Pennsylvania

SAE is one of the most unique educational tools at our disposal as agriscience educators. SAEs have long standing impact on the lives of students. SAEs are not optional.

Story #5 - Pennsylvania

I had a student who was with me from 7th grade to 12th grade. He came from a small, successful family dairy farm but he wanted to do something in Wildlife as a career and was adamant about not going to college.  Despite his wildlife interest, his SAE projects were  first on a purebred dairy heifer and eventually his dairy herd:  calves that he had been given as gifts by his dad and grandpa that eventually went into the milking string.  Through class activities he became very good at judging dairy cattle, and eventually made connections to get some good Holstein and jersey bloodlines for his herd.  I'll never forget the day he told me he had decided to go to Penn State to pursue ag business/dairy production!   I was so excited!  He completed his 2 year degree,  and was one of the first from his high school to receive his American Degree in over 20 years!  He returned to the farm,  Granddad is retired, and now my student is assuming a lot of the day to day decision making for the farm along with his father.  His goal is to develop top quality Holstein bloodlines that he can market to other dairymen.  His daily Facebook posts regarding life on the farm show me that he is where he wants to be, and making strides towards his goal.  

Submitting Teacher: Ms. Ann Meyer

SAE Theorem #2 (Moore, 2003, The Agricultural Education Magazine)

Instruction should be given about SAE. One of the reasons students may not readily embrace having a SAE is because they do not know why they should have a SAE. The teacher should spend 3-5 days early in the courses in which new agricultural education students are enrolled teaching about SAE and why it is important. More detailed instruction should follow at a later date.

You are a developing positive agent of change who will one day help students explore and grow into their unlimited potential through agricultural education!

Dr. Foster

SAE Student Succes Stories - Story #3 - Arizona

SAE is one of the most unique educational tools at our disposal as agriscience educators. SAEs have long standing impact on the lives of students. SAEs are not optional.

Story #3 - Arizona

Young lady named Katie is in our program and she lives in the city with not a lot of land. her parents are scraping by and need Katie to help pay the for college and her vehicles. Katie has really only the skills that she learned in the ag program so she decides to start a business marketing and selling metal insects that she learned to make in class. She spends her time outside of class designing and fabricating these items both in our shop and at home. She has made money to help pay for both her vehicle and her college (she wants to be an ag teacher). This SAE has also given her confidence and helped her grow closer to her dad who helped her on the project. I think this last part is the most important!

Submitting Teacher: Mr. Patrick Wellert

SAE Theorem #1 (Moore, 2003, The Agricultural Education Magazine)

All students should have a SAE. When the Smith-Hughes Act was passed in 1917, one of the provisions in the act required all students to have a SAE. Our founding fathers deemed it critical for the success of the agricultural program to have applied “Hands-on-learning”. SAE is recognized as one of the three major components of an agricultural education program. Students can learn much and benefit greatly from a SAE (Dyer & Williams, 1997)

You are a developing positive agent of change who will one day help students explore and grow into their unlimited potential through agricultural education!

Session 21 - The AET

What are you curious about?
There is a lot to learn. I hope that I can be prepared to teach this. Are there workshops to get involved in?

• As a new/beginning teacher, you are provided with in-service training opportunities through the Center for Professional Personnel Development, which is housed in the Penn State agricultural education program. You (teachers) are asked every other year for input on what workshops they want. If teachers provide us with this information, we will make the workshops/professional development happen!

Is there a limit on how long a project can be on SAE (years)?

• The answer is yes. However, the length may vary somewhat, depending on when an individual enters agricultural education. The student would begin their SAE when they begin agricultural education, and then they could/would carry it through their senior year and beyond to help with the American degree.

Is there a chance there will be a full mobile app. coming?

•           We have developed a mobile webpage version over a full mobile app that needs development on both IOS and Android…so for now the idea is to offer the mobile site version to help students and teachers have access to key use areas of AET on either operating system…although seems to work better on Apple products.  The site is also designed well to work on tablets and Ipads as the complete site.

I want to explore some of my options with my "fake" project that I developed?

• Just log in and start filling in information. The deeper you get into the system, the better you will understand it, and when you encounter a problem there are people, like Roger, available to help.

I am curious about how much input student/teachers have on improving the AET system?

• From discussion/presentation by Roger, their team is very open to making changes based on the needs of the teachers/students. If they believe it is feasible, and people need it, they incorporate it into the system. I have found them to be very open to suggestions.

Can a teacher review a student’s picture before it is posted? Remove it is some way, if it is not appropriate?

•           Yes, teachers portfolio has a chapter level….then one for each student.  Also, the website that teachers can develop as part of AET can showcase student pictures as well as chapter pictures…but using the “manage website” menu in AET, teachers have to select them to show on the website.  Basically, the pictures cannot go beyond a student portfolio unless the teachers chooses them.

How long after graduation do students have access to AET?

•           The teacher in their program can keep them active as long as they need to, so really no cutoff.  It can interfere with their FFA roster, so that is usually when they decide to make them inactive.

I want to know more about the Futures conference in Texas.

•           I do workshops all over, but in Texas they have been managed from summer conference to region service centers (Education centers)

How many people actually designed AET?

•           Small group of us, 3 designed the system. For me, it was a compilation of 10 years in assisting teachers with using the 3 systems that existed in Texas.

Can you carry projects over by just picking them up or how would you pick that up?

•           Not sure on this one….do you mean carry over projects for several years? If yes, projects are considered ongoing until the student makes them “inactive”  that is the green “on button” in the Experience Manager System”  Once a project is inactive, still goes into awards and reports…but no new entries can come in and the inventory is removed as current.

If a student continues their project from year 1 to year 2, will the numbers (inventory for example) automatically load for the year two book?

•           Same idea as previous, the AET has no beginning and ending year….the program calculates values ending and then automatically uses that as beginning….any entries made in previous years will flow to all subsequent years.

How do I complete my profile? It says it is only 40% complete… what am I missing? Is there something that is typically missed here?

•          That calculation is based on simple data such as email, address, gender, parent contact, enrolled in one course, etc….

Judging cards on AET… can you explain more?

•           This was to help students develop a resume and potentially see their results from judging events…if they use Judging Card.  Most activities in AET are records based and the idea is a student records they attended a CDE contest, so we record that as a journal.  The resume was designed to allow students to record in their profile…they placed 1^st in a CDE in 2013…so that is extra information we previously did not have.  Having a link to judging card just helps those students review how they placed….then enter the details in the best manner to show in their resume.
• 
  
•           The resume is one I mean to review…but basically it brings in parts of AET that we have data on….participation in classes, SAEs, CDE contest, committee/officer leadership and community service…then let them add in their accomplishments to then create a MS Word based report they can edit and alter in more detail….but is not bad as it is.

When do you teach SAE/recordkeeping?

• Short answer... continually :-) You would want to introduce it early in the new school year, with introductory courses, and maybe a bit later in the school year (still in the first marking period) with your upper-class men.

What percentage of teachers across the nation use AET?

• I am not sure of the exact percentage, but I can attest that I have seen a huge amount of growth across the nation in the past 2 years, and I have not even been looking for it!

Was AET developed by FFA, or just adopted by FFA?

• AET was not developed by FFA, but rather Roger and his group. They were looking for a way to make recordkeeping more up-to-date/real-life. The AET is modeled on systems that businesses currently use for their records.

How do I learn to do all of this before I begin teaching?

• The best teacher is experience... You need to practice with it now, but you will learn most of your AET "lessons" by helping real students in real-time; thus,  you cannot learn it all before you teach.

Do our accounts go away after we are done with AEE 311?

• Yes, but you will get another one when you begin teaching.

What did you learn?

I enjoyed learning about the teacher side of AET.

Breeding herd manager! (Super cool)

I like the SAE reports and how it can be used for grading.

Inventory

Capital investments

That students can be granted partial access for certain areas of the AET

That there are lots of applications/awards linked to the AET

A ton!

That you must have a placement experience to enter a paycheck

AET is pretty awesome!

How to better navigate the AET site

Transfer stock

That I should put my lab job into AET and the complete report is really cool

I need to create projects in each area, if I really want to understand how they work

What do you want to learn more about?

How involved do students need to get in AET?

• At a minimum they need to keep their profiles up-to-date and they need to enter their journal and financial records. However, once they get on to how the system works, I believe you will have trouble "stopping" them. They will use this as their personal agricultural education "clearinghouse" where they will keep track of all of their program needs.

I just need to continue to explore what it has to offer.

• I agree! We all need to continue to learn/explore!

SAE grants. It would be cool to see examples.

Do you submit applications on-line or print and submit?

• You print and submit the Keystone, for example.

Determining which category SAEs fall under? Can they fall under more than one?

• You do need to choose a category to place them under. Honestly, I never had a problem with this, but I did see Roger's point this morning about the mechanic example and the 1099.

Why is my profile only 40% complete?

• You need to make sure that you are entering all of the information requested under "profile"... parent names, your address, email address, etc. for it to show that you are 100% complete.

SAE Student Success Story #2 - Pennsylvania

SAE is one of the most unique educational tools at our disposal as agriscience educators. SAEs have long standing impact on the lives of students. SAEs are not optional.

Story #2 - Pennsylvania

Student that lives on a farm, while on SAE visit, expressed interest in making a corn maze. We decided that would be a good SAE and he started a maze as a junior. He kept improving it and started making over $10,000 a year. He won a National entrepreneurship award scholarship of $1000. This was about 10 years ago and he is still operating and doing well with it as a supplemental source of income for the farm.

Submitting Teacher: Mr. Harold Berkheiser

You are a developing positive agent of change who will one day help students explore and grow into their unlimited potential through agricultural education!

Session 20 - Follow-up to degrees and proficiency awards (KIVA)

What are you curious about?
What was the answer to project versus program?

• A project is a singular project (research project, animal, etc.), and a program is the complete package of taking the projects that students complete and make it a more comprehensive SAE.

New assignment/changed assignment?

• Look for an email describing where to find the information on the changed assignment.

More on AET?

• Coming next week!

Could requiring an SAE make a student not want to take Ag?

• Yes, and that is o.k. If a student loves soccer, but doesn't want to be on defense at times, then they don't play/join, because even if you are a striker you better be willing to be part of the entire program/game.

How many PA ag. teachers complete SAE visits?

• The ones that understand how it helps a student develop make the time to do this important aspect of the program.

Will I be able to find all of the degrees on the FFA page?

• You should be able to do this, but it not, please feel free to talk with classmates and/or the instructors!

How do students process starting a new SAE?

• You as the advisor need to work with the student to find out their interests and abilities at that point in their education. You then work with them to develop beyond that point, using the SAE program.

What did you learn?

Program versus project

More about SAE

You can get a free pin from National FFA

New assignment sounds AWESOME

Proficiency awards

That I need to connect my curriculum and SAE

SAE and record keeping are critical to teach in my classes

KIVA

Kolb's model, again

What do you want to learn more about?

Can I use my students' interest to shape my curriculum?

• I believe that you can definitely do this. You will also use other factors in determining the curriculum (community needs, career and college readiness, approved program status with the state/type of program, etc.). You will learn a lot more about this in AEE 413.

AET

• Stay tuned! See you on Tuesday :-)

How many FFA students are active in sports?

• I was a three sport letterman... little known fact :-)
• I also heard at National FFA convention that a school in Missouri had to postpone their championship football game, because too many of the football team members were at National FFA Convention!!

How to incorporate others into helping with SAE's.

• Find experts in  your community and ask them to help. One point of clarification... these folks would be serving as volunteers for your school district; thus, they would need their proper clearances/fingerprints checked prior to working with the students. Be sure to work with administration on the proper procedures for your district!