Virtually Checking up on School Based SAEs

Today I took a look at a student's Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) project using the Agricultural Experience Tracker (AET). Northern Burlington does not generally do SAE visits as the Child Labor Laws in New Jersey count the SAE as a form of child labor. However, the teachers will check up on their student's progress using the AET. Through the AET they can not only check the student's progress on their SAE but they can also use the AET to fill out applications for different proficiency awards.

In addition to the AET students whose SAE is located at the school have been able to receive updates from the teachers given permission to enter the school on the progress of their plants or animals. At Northern Burlington, a few of the students are responsible for taking care of the animals during the school week. These students have been allowed to use the animals on-site as part of their SAE. The animals that they use include goats, rabbits, and chickens.

During January, some of the students in the Advanced animal science classes that I was working with showed me the animals that they take care of after class. The students are each responsible for one of the animals/pairs of animals at the school. During the week these students make sure that the animals have food and water, as well as making sure that their water is liquid during the colder seasons.

The students who take care of the students talked about how they are permitted to have the animals bred as a part of their SAE. They must first do research on the genetics of the animals they intend to breed. If they are breeding the rabbits they also need to research when the best time to have them bred is. They do this to try to ensure that both, someone can be there when the baby rabbits are born, and so that the rabbits are not born too early when the weather is still cold. The students discussed how they are also responsible for the baby rabbits once they are born. For example, at times the mother rabbit cannot take care of all of her babies, in these cases, the students will take care to hand raise the babies until they can feed themselves.

Due to the quarantine, students were unable to breed the rabbits this year, as Mr. Dannucci usually tries to have the babies due by late April. However, unlike the rabbits, the nanny goat had been taken to be bred. Emily Adams, who had been responsible for feeding her, has been asking for updates on her to see how she was doing and anticipating the birth of her kids. The kids were anticipated to be due on April 17 but the goat, Sky, ended up not having any this year. While the students working with these animals may be disappointed to not be able to work with them during quarantine, they may have the opportunity to work with them again once quarantine is over or during the upcoming school year.

In addition to caring for the animals during the school year, some of the students are also responsible for caring for the animals over the summer. They will come into the school each day to feed and water the plants and animals to maintain their health. While the animals do not belong to the students they care for them as if they did and work hard to keep them healthy. This ranges from giving them the vitamins they need to making the teachers aware if they are acting strangely. While the teacher is also available to check on the animals each day it is the students who are regularly caring for them, so they are more aware of their day to day behavior. This system allows the students to experience SAEs even if they do not have the time and resources to conduct one outside of school.

Do you have a similar system at your school? Have any of your students ever conducted their SAEs on school property, and if so what did they do?