October 4, 2022- Members of ADM visited MacArthur High School to speak with students from the school’s FFA chapter.
MacArthur’s FFA chapter is a part of the Dwayne O. Andreas Ag Academy, which also includes fellow DPS 61 school, Eisenhower High School. The $1.65 million Academy was founded in 2018 and is funded by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.
ADM members were given the opportunity to hear firsthand from the student officers about what they are currently working on and where the program is heading.
MacArthur’s lead Agriculture instructor, Becca Merrill spoke on the courses she teaches. Merrill teaches Intro to Agriculture, Basic Ag Science, and Small Animal Care.
“I also teach Basic Ag Science, which they actaully get a science credit for biology from the Illinois State Board of Education, Merrill said. “It’s just Intro but on a higher level scale, so we are getting more into the genetics, phenotypes, and things like that.”
Some of her students provided detail on the SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) projects they are working on.
“It is a project that you can do all year long with Ag,” Jami Keck, Vice President of the chapter said. “For a lot of classes, it is your final, but sometimes we do it for our honors credit. My SAE is the goats out on the farm and taking care of them. And Cocoday. I work at Cocoday at the mall, and because it is a food service job, I am able to make it my SAE.”
Other students are working on SAE projects such as murals, helping with bunnies, working with the Decatur Public Schools Foundation, and working on a Farmbot.
Owen Raleigh is the chapter’s secretary, and is the Farmbot project leader. Raleigh is on a robotics team outside of school, and his background in robotics is why he was brought on as the project leader. He spoke on the coding and construction of Farmbot, which is a hands-on tool for learning robotics, nutrition, soil science, biology, coding, and more. As well as how the project creates more opportunities for research rather than commercial use.
“It is at the bigger scale where this could have commercial value, but right here for us this is more of a research project teaching students how to program,” Raleigh said. “This has taught us a lot about how to build, how to engineer and how all the electronics and motors work. “It has taught me a lot and I am hoping I can teach more students. Overall, I think it will provide a lot of research opportunities for the students here.”
Raleigh also credits the program with leading him on a path of pursuing a career in engineering.
“I have been able to explore a lot of this through Ag, Raleigh said. “It is certainly something I didn’t think I would be able to do, going into it. But after I took Ag Mehanics, the opportunities started opening up.”
The chapter participates in a number of FFA contests on the section, district, and state level. These contests include Ag sales, parliamentary procedure, and food service.
The Ag Academy is composed of nearly 500 students combined, from MacArthur High School and Eisenhower High School. The program was recognized as one of the top ten FFA programs in the nation, in 2021.
For more information on the Ag Academy, click HERE.
