ATHENS, Ga. — Poultry has grown to change into the highest commodity in Georgia’s primary trade, agriculture. Acquainting school-aged college students with potential profession paths in avian science is vital to staffing the state’s poultry sector.
Constructing on the muse set by Avian Academy, the favored persevering with schooling course for lecturers provided yearly by the College of Georgia’s Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), the Georgia Division of Training labored with CAES to create middle- and high-school poultry science curricula. Now in its third yr of use in Georgia public colleges, the programs have been adopted by colleges throughout the nation.
Jessica Fife, outreach coordinator for the CAES Division of Poultry Science, labored with Christa Steinkamp, the curriculum and know-how director for the Georgia Agricultural Training (GAE) program, and CAES school to design a poultry science pathway that features a new poultry science course and avian science and biotechnology course for the state’s public colleges. GAE oversees classroom instruction, supervised agricultural experiences and pupil group involvement for the Georgia Division of Training.
Beginning with the supplies developed for Avian Academy, Steinkamp labored with Fife on a draft of the course requirements, then created a course-standard writing committee together with agricultural schooling lecturers and stakeholders from trade and different establishments, together with the CAES Division of Agricultural Management, Training and Communication (ALEC), College of North Georgia and Athens Technical Faculty, in addition to trade representatives together with the U.S. Poultry and Egg Affiliation and Tyson Meals.
“The committee got here to a consensus that this was loads of content material for one course, so we determined it will be two programs,” mentioned Steinkamp, a 1999 CAES agribusiness graduate. “As soon as these requirements had been accepted by way of the Georgia Division of Training, Jessica developed extra supplies for these requirements to supply help for lecturers who need to incorporate this into their instructing.”
Working together with her graduate advisor, ALEC Professor Barry Croom, and poultry science Affiliate Professor Andrew Benson, Fife used the coursework and textbooks for the “Introduction to Poultry Science” taught at CAES to create the help supplies for the curriculum.
“We had lecturers and educators on all ranges look by way of the curriculum and ensure the course curriculum was acceptable to these requirements and one thing they’d need to use,” mentioned Fife, who began the work as a part of her thesis for her grasp’s diploma in agricultural and environmental schooling, which she earned in 2020.
Making ready college students for future careers
The Georgia Division of Training accepted the poultry science course to rely as a fourth science possibility starting within the 2022-23 faculty yr. By finishing the required three-class coursework for the pathway, college students shall be acknowledged as finishing the Poultry Science pathway within the Agriculture, Meals and Pure Sources pathway beneath the Georgia Division of Training’s Profession, Technical, and Agricultural Training framework.
“We created the requirements and the pathway, however to encourage lecturers to undertake it within the classroom, we created the complete curriculum for that first poultry science class. We broke it up into items with timelines, actions, classes, concepts for extra-curricular actions, and different sources lecturers can make the most of,” Fife mentioned.
“Lecturers can use the sources we’ve got created and modify it based mostly on the extent of their college students, how in-depth they need to go on sure matters, and the way a lot time they’ve for every matter. Lecturers every have their very own persona and stage of expertise, they’ve other ways they like to show, and so they can create their very own lesson plans utilizing the curriculum,” she added.
As each the poultry science pathway and curriculum had been accepted to be used starting in fall 2021, the variety of colleges and lecturers adopting the programs remains to be rising, however Steinkamp sees the curriculum and sources developed with UGA as a big benefit to growing information concerning the poultry trade by way of Georgia’s Okay-12 colleges. In accordance with the Georgia Division of Training, there are 397 agricultural education schemes in center and excessive colleges across the state, plus 57 agricultural packages in elementary colleges.
“Lecturers have a lot on their plates, in the event that they didn’t have these curriculum supplies, it will be more durable for them to include these classes. These supplies make the programs extra adaptable to be used within the school rooms each in fundamental agriculture lessons and within the poultry science and avian biology programs,” she mentioned.
Cross-country attain
The lessons are designed for a highschool stage, however tutorial sources are additionally obtainable for center faculty agriculture lecturers, mentioned Fife, who does each in-person and digital visits at colleges in Georgia and throughout the nation. In Georgia, almost 300 college students have taken pathway programs in poultry science or avian science and biotechnology between the 2021-2022 faculty yr and the present 2023-2024 faculty yr.
Along with Georgia, Fife mentioned she is aware of of faculties utilizing the curriculum in California, Michigan, Arkansas, Texas, South Carolina and Delaware.
“The curriculum is offered to anybody. There’s a center faculty in California that teaches a poultry science class and so they’re utilizing all of our curriculum, and I’ve achieved digital faculty visits in California, Texas and Michigan. Whereas we created the pathway for state of Georgia requirements, the curriculum has gained attain past our state,” she mentioned. “It’s been thrilling to see what number of locations are utilizing it, and people are solely those which have reached out to us to tell us they’re using the curriculum.”
Whereas word-of-mouth could account for the attain the curriculum has loved, Fife mentioned Googling “high-school poultry classes” is simply as more likely to account for a few of the adoption, as UGA’s curriculum tops the search outcomes.
“There was not loads of poultry content material on the market for educators and rather a lot that’s out there’s outdated or has a really medical content material design,” Fife mentioned. “All of our sources are additionally branded to the school and the division, so lecturers can name us to arrange faculty visits, farm excursions and connections for trade partnerships,” she mentioned.
Business help for the creation of the poultry science curriculum has been overwhelmingly constructive and has included help for agricultural education schemes in high poultry-producing counties.
The trade is prepared and ready to kick-start the following era of poultry scientists, Fife mentioned. If lecturers are keen to speculate their time and educate the topic, members of the poultry trade are keen to help in no matter means they’ll.
To be taught extra about outreach and schooling efforts within the Division of Poultry Science, go to poultry.caes.uga.edu/community-outreach.
Maria M. Lameiras is a managing editor with the College of Georgia Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
