S vs. A vs. E...the ongoing dilemma of SAE

Iowa Degree time of year, the ongoing debate about SAE continues. However, calls/questions are at a lower level than previous years.

I taught a sophomore-level AgEDS class at ISU this morning, and I spent the entire period gathering the ideas/perspectives of our future teachers.

Their random comments are hard to quantify as data, but following comments were common themes:

Supervised

• Supervised is important, critical
• implies over-seeing the program or project, collaborating with the student to help the student learn
• does not imply SAE visit only - supervision  can be provided in ways other than an on-site visit; could be conducted in school or at the end of a class
• providing input and/recommendation to help the student improve is important

Agricultural

• too hard to define, almost impossible to classify careers that are agricultural vs. careers that are not agricultural
• in the big scheme of transferrable skills, the A is less important than the S or the E

Experience

• contextual learning / learning in the context of real-world careers
• communication skills are transferrable to many, many careers
• help students build upon what they learn in an agricultural education course, even if they cannot find an approved "agricultural" job

S a E (rather than SAE)

• From an educational standpoint the "a" is far less critical than the "S" or the "E"
• we should not be turning away kids or discouraging kids because of the little "a"
• almost any skill is tranferrable to agriculture or vice versa

S & E do not imply that this learning must be conducted outside of the classroom. Thinking that all SAEs must be conducted outside of the school or outside of the classroom is un-realistic for some students.  The goal is learning, no matter where it happens.  Teach all students, anyway that is feasible.

I told the following story to the AgEDS students: 

I used to select a 'weekly' manager in my aquaculture class. During class, they did the same things as the other students, but I would have them present a 3-5 minute overview of the aquaculture system from their perspective as a manager. Because the internet was a brand-new technology, they loved searching for aquaculture information in their attempt of provide managerial input. (I never had them keep SAE record books for this, but wish I had.)  The majority of these students were not FFA members, and were not in any of my other Ag Ed courses.

In summary, the Ag Ed students in AGEDS said:

SAE should continue to be a requirement for FFA membership, but decreasing the emphasis on the "a"...SaE...would allow ALL Ag Ed students to have an SAE.

? Cash register at McDonalds ? They said, this absolutely should be considered an SAE, because of the valuable communication skills students can learn. The S & E are far more important in the big scheme of life than the lower-case "a". They are in an agriculture course and are already learning far more about agriculture than other students.

Does not seem to make sense to punish some "agriculture" students because their SAEs are not "agricultural-enough".

If the student's chapter advisor rules the SaE as "agricultural", it should be accepted as "agricultural" by teachers who do not  know the student or the project/program.

SAE should be thought of as SaE

An SaE may not provide the size and scope needed to adequately compete for an FFA award, but it should be considered as acceptable as an SAE. ( A degree is NOT an award.)