Carley Snider, from Felicity, attended the 2016 National Association of Agricultural Educators Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Selected from a pool of nationwide candidates, Snider was one of 24 preservice agricultural education students who participated in the Future Agriscience Teacher symposium, five day professional development and networking event that was part of the annual NAAE convention.
The symposium consisted of professional development training, including instruction on inquiry-based teaching methods by National Agriscience Teacher Ambassadors, classroom management, and developing engaging lessons. In addition to professional development, attendees also participated in organizational business, committee and regional meetings.
The FAST symposium provided essential training and support to equip future agriscience teachers with 21st century science, technology, engineering and math skills through practice application in the context of agriculture. Snider attended various workshops geared towards increasing her content knowledge, classroom management skills and abilities to sucSnider cessfully advise an FFA chapter. Information about inquirybased learning and how to incorporate it into the classroom, as well as learning about curriculum to increase learning opportunities for future students and, were presented to the attendees.
“One session I attended focused on activities to use when teaching welding in the classroom and another on successfully teaching mig welding,” said Snider. “These were really helpful workshops, as I’ll be teaching welding next semester during my student teaching.”
“I also attended a great session discussing the inclusion of LGBTQ community members in agricultural education classes. It was great to hear about how agricultural education and the FFA are working towards being more inclusive to all stu-dents. I aspire to run an agricultural education program and FFA chapter that is welcoming to all students in my school,” she said.
NAAE is a federation of state agricultural educators’ associations with more than 7,800 members who are involved in school-based agricultural education from middle school through postsecondary. The FAST symposium is a component of the National Teach Ag Campaign, an initiative by NAAE to raise awareness of the need to recruit and retain quality and diverse agriculture teachers, encourage others to consider a career teaching agriculture, and celebrate the positive contributions that agriculture teachers make in their schools and communities.
The agriscience education major at Ohio State prepares students to acquire a license to teach agricultural science in secondary high schools in Ohio and across the country, with extensive training in agricultural science, educational psychology, instructional methods, and youth development. For additional information on the agriscience education major, visit acel.osu.edu or call 614-247-6358.