Why take Mr. Lotspeich's Agriculture Class?

Agriculture can be basically described with 5 F's.  Food, Fabric, Forestry, Flowers and Farming. 

I'll admit, this doesn't sound very exciting when just listed as this but let's take a look at what ways we are learning about each of these categories.  There is nothing more interesting in this world, in my humble opinion, than learning about these things that directly affect our daily lives.

Food

It comes in so many delicious forms from a cheesy pepperoni pizza to the juicy fruits and vegetables!  Whether you enjoy a well balanced diet that gets you all of the recommended food groups or you prefer to "specialize" in a couple of them (carnivores or vegetarians), we are all affected by the price, quality and availability of food in our lives.
How do we get such hearty and healthy food in the US?
It's not an easy task!  Farmers and ranchers in the US and other countries have practice growing more food on less and less land.  All while taking into account factors like floods, droughts, heat waves, rising fuel prices, whether to produce conventionally or organically, and human factors like people wanting them to stop raising specific plants or animals.  Sound like fun?  It can be with the right knowledge and skill.  You also get the chance to see something that you raised grow from a small plant or animal into a high quality food product that will be turned into food or some of it's by-products will be.  Learning about this alone should make you interested in agriculture!

Fabric

Take a look at yourself in the mirror.  How many different brands of clothing can you see on yourself?  A major part of your reflection is going to be the way you dress.  Our clothes can tell others how we are feeling, what we believe in, where we come from and are sometimes just plain funny.  There are two major types of fibers that you can wear: Synthetic and Natural.  Synthetic fibers are often made in factories from some sort of plastic-like material and have many uses in modern fashion and clothing.  Natural fabrics, our wools, cottons, hemps, silk, and other natural fibers are also still a major source of high quality fabrics.  Most pairs of blue jeans are going to be made from cotton and you can't beat the warmth of a nice wool jacket packed with some goose down on a cold day!  Our natural fibers are still a main part of the clothing and fabric industry and are used in everything from our everyday clothes to blankets and even woven into our dollar bills we use today!

Forestry

Conservation and responsible usage.  That is what the forestry industry is all about.  Preserving the beautiful landscape we have today and also using what we can to keep our country thriving and with a constant supply of lumbar.  Private citizens own 38% of all forests in the USA and that allows them to conserve habitat for wildlife and the enjoyment of outdoors men and women.  Where would you be without forests and natural resources?  Almost everyone in this country enjoys a roof over their heads at night and we have the forestry industry to thank for a major piece of that. 

Flowers

We see them along side of the road sometimes and they are given for all sorts of occasions from condolences to celebration.  The greenhouse and nursery industry produced $15.9 billion in sales in 2009 and has the potential to keep increasing with the increasing amount of people going back to work.  If you want to learn about what makes a floral design desirable and how to market that product than agriculture is your place to be.  The booming floral industry has job opportunities including scientists developing new types of flowers, growers of flowers, and people interested in marketing and selling plants and flowers to consumers. 

Farming

This is what most people typically think about when they hear the word agriculture.  The fact of the matter is, only 2% of the US population is directly involved in farming and ranching.  That means 98% of our country has a big debt of gratitude to pay those 2% for keeping them well fed.  Farming and ranching has taken on many new facets with one of the biggest sectors being the increase in technology being used on farms and ranches.  Almost all farms and ranches are going to have computer systems running parts of the operation and GPS installed into tractors and farm implements.  This industry also covers the animal agriculture industry where in the next 40 years our American ranchers must double the amount of meat they produce to keep up with the rising population.  This is the basis of agriculture and almost all other aspects stem from something produced on a farm or ranch.  We need people interested in producing food, processing food, keeping food safe, marketing food, selling food and increasing the science and technology used by our farmers and ranchers today. It seems like a big job but I know there are many bright people out there who can take this challenge and give farmers and ranchers the tools they need to succeed. 

I am very excited to see young, intelligent, motivated and hard working individuals who are looking to make a difference in something that affects our lives every single day.  Where would we be without agriculture?  Naked and hungry.  Nobody wants that and this is why you can play a part in continuing and increasing the success of any of the broad facets of agriculture. 

A little bit biased (connecting home and school experiences)

I am a little biased when it comes to my content area and to be frank, I'm pretty proud of it.  It's true, my experiences as a child and young adult have shaped my paradigm of agriculture and the necessity for it.  I feel that it is necessary you know that I feel this way before you read on.  I am opinionated and this is my template to share my opinion.

The beginnings

I wasn't born on a farm or ranch but my parents were.  I was actually raised in a "city" from the age of 0 to almost 6.  I can dimly remember coming out to my grandparents ranch in Deeth to see the sheep and cows and family.  I know that I was like almost any boy my age and loved the outdoors which included getting into as much trouble as I could when we went to the ranch.  It's still unknown to me the exact reasoning, but the summer between my pre-school and kindergarten year we moved from our little suburban Elko, Nevada home and moved out to the ranch.  We took over the house my dad grew up in because my grandparents were moving in with my great-grandfather who could no longer take care of all his needs alone.  I know lived across the yard from my grandparents and just across the fence from the best learning environment I have ever known.  The Grock Ranch.

Lessons learned

Working for a worthwhile cause
Stick-to-it-iveness
Appreciation for the land, others and my own abilities
Responsibilty
Numerous technical skills like caring for newborn and sick livestock, welding, fence building, irrigating, record keeping, operating machinery and how to have fun with nothing more than a stick and rock in a barn yard.
This list is not all inclusive.  I doubt I could sit down at once and come up with everything I learned, these are just a couple examples of some that stuck out. 

How these experiences shaped my thoughts about ag and teaching

As I said before, I am biased.  I think that my experiences on the ranch have given me such a great understanding of what  is needed in agriculture that it probably only makes me more biased.  I believe that there are many lessons that can be learned in an old fashioned agriculture experience where you are working outside with some form of crop or livestock; sweating, building calluses, getting frustrated, seeing hard work pay off with a successful crop or a load of livestock, watching the sun go up and down in the same day, and having time to yourself to think about a little bit of everything in the seat of a tractor.  With that said, I also know that agriculture is much more diverse than our idea of old fashioned farming and ranching.  We have the ability to say that almost everything is related to and influenced by agriculture.  Over 200 careers and 20 million people employed in agriculture related fields shows me that I can't simply think inside the box of cow, plows and sows. 
I am going to use my agriculture experience to influence my teaching in two ways.  First, I am going to insist that my students get as much of the lessons that can be learned in agriculture by the hard work, sweating, experiencing failure and success, getting dirty and having more responsibility than your average high school age student does.  I can do this by incorporating hands on, practical application to as many of my lessons as possible.  I am very blessed because much of my curriculum allows me to do this fairly seamlessly.  Secondly, I am going to insist that my students understand the greater idea of agriculture.  Not every student I have is going to be a farmer.  Not every student I have is even going to end up employed in agriculture.  However, every student is going to be impacted and have an impact on agricultrue in multiple ways.  I want every student to leave my class realizing how much agriculture has to play in their daily lives and how to remain an informed consumer.

Linking to students' background knowledge

This topic is a little more difficult as I don't know exactly where I am going to be teaching.  One thing I can think of though because I just  did a lesson on it was livestock judging.  In animal science, livestock selection and judging is one of the state standards.  I don't think of it as, we all are going to need to select livestock in our careers as much as I can see us all having to make difficult decisions and be able to defend them.  I could begin by bringing up a controversial topic and giving students the opportunity to defend their opinion on it.  Then say, what you just did is the exact same thing we are going to be doing here, the only difference is we are using livestock as our topic of choice in agriculture.  I think students can make a connection like that because they are often wondering how this has anything to do with their daily lives.  Another connection I believe I can build upon is the unknown contact with agriculture almost all students have on a regular basis.  Agriculture by-products is a great example of this.  It is a state standard and students are often unaware of the myriad of items they use on a daily basis that are derived, at least partially, from animals.  Many students will be shocked to know that jello comes from hooves and bones and make up they are wearing might have cows blood in it. 
Depending on where I teach, drawing upon a student's agriculture background could be very easy or fairly difficult.  My extensive background in ag gives me a good basis to be able to compare and activate background knowledge either way.  I am very thankful for that as I look toward student teaching getting closer.