A course of study is a comprehensive plan that presents the scope and teaching sequence of all the learning activities provided for a particular course. It indicates the content and when the various topics will be taught. A course of study is the blueprint, or design, for instruction. A teacher of agriculture needs such a plan for each course he or she teaches. A course of study is prepared sequentially by assessing community needs, identifying objectives or competencies, specifying course content, and arranging or structuring the content in an appropriate sequence.

REASONS FOR A COURSE OF STUDY

What are some reasons for writing a course of study? Is it worth the time required to develop it? These are common thoughts when approaching the task of writing a course of study, and there are several reasons for developing a well-planned course of study.

Rationale for Content

The process of preparing a course of study requires the teacher to think through what is to be taught. This thinking process begins by assessing community needs that are relative to preparing students for jobs in the community. Community needs, for your purposes, are assessed by examining the types of occupations available to your students and your graduates in the community. Part of your content is then planned to prepare competent persons to enter those occupations. Another part of your content, however, is planned not as occupational content but as agricultural literacy content to enrich your community’s knowledge of agriculture.

Communication with Others

Another reason for developing a course of study is to communicate information about the course to others. Administrators, supervisors, community members, agribusiness owners, parents, and students often desire information about a program. The course of study can provide much of that information.

Lesson Planning

A teacher needs to know what subjects to teach in order to plan lessons. Also, the teacher should encourage supervised agricultural experience programs, laboratory work, and FFA activities that relate to instructional content. If students are to study animal science in a course, animal supervised experience programs should be encouraged. If students are to study bedding plant production, bedding plants might be produced in the school greenhouse. If students are learning about meat processing, participation in the FFA meats career development events would be an appropriate activity. Lesson planning, supervised experience programs, laboratory work, and FFA activities will be more interrelated if the course of study is used as their foundation.

Course Structure and Student Learning

As discussed in Chapter 2, when a course is planned and organized, students achieve at a higher level; students have a greater understanding of what is expected of them and teachers interrelate concepts and plan for later reemphasis of principles. Structure of content is essential in order to develop units of instruction that package learning activities in a logical and sequential manner. Students of learning theory suggest that the sequence or order in which subject matter is taught may relate to the amount of knowledge and skills learned and retained for long-term benefit.

The teacher developing a course of study can choose a sequence that teaches basic skills prior to more complex skills, such as teaching record keeping prior to records analysis. He or she may also choose to teach certain problem areas when they are seasonally relevant, such as combine adjustment during the harvest season or wildlife habitats during the fall. The order of content and the amount of time devoted to each topic should be decided by the teacher with the goal of facilitating student learning.

Planning for Resources

The course of study will be helpful to a teacher needing to secure instructional resources. Videotapes and DVDs may be ordered so they will arrive for use when they are relevant to the topic being studied. Valuable Internet web sites can be located prior to introducing a new unit of instruction. Instructional supplies, such as plant cuttings and test tubes, can be ordered so that the plants arrive at the time they need to be cultured for applying instruction. Field trips can be arranged in advance, with some assurance that the field trip will relate to instruction. Resource people can be invited into your classroom with enough advanced notice for them to adequately prepare for instruction.

TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY

The primary responsibility for planning a course of study rests with the teachers because they are expected to be experts on subject matter. He or she should be knowledgeable concerning the community as well. Also, the needs of students are often best understood by the teacher. Therefore, although others can and will be involved in recommending what should be taught, the teacher is best qualified to plan the course of study.

Expert on Subject Matter

Teachers are to be students of their teaching specialty. Therefore, they must stay abreast of the literature relating to the subject matter being taught. Through supervised agricultural experience (SAE) and home visits, teachers will be aware of how current knowledge is being applied. Although beginning teachers will not be experts in all phases of instruction, they should strive to develop expertise in both theory and practice in relevant specializations. Because teachers are the subject matter experts, decisions about course content will be more correct and instruction will be more relevant when teachers concisely strive to be knowledgeable about their content.

Knowledgeable of Community

Agricultural organizations provide educational opportunities in their communities by bringing knowledgeable resource people into the community to present lectures on current information. Teachers of agriculture have a unique opportunity to give local clientele a more rich experience than these visiting lecturers because they can become thoroughly acquainted with the specific type of agriculture and the special problems of students in the local area. Agriculture teachers, therefore, can use their expertise in the subject matter and in education to develop a sound program of instruction to meet community needs.

In some communities students may have a rich tradition in sheep production, or maybe they operate a livestock cooperative. In other communities students may have experience with a pheasant raise-n-release program, or a rich history of ag-science fair winners. The teacher can use these interests in selecting what to teach. A tradition of trout catch-n-release in a community can serve as the basis for excellent instruction in stream water management. The teacher should be willing to adjust the curriculum in response to real and expressed interests of students. The teacher should also provide for individualized, supervised study to allow students to explore and prepare themselves in areas of interests.

Adapting Instruction for Needs

Teachers in the local schools are the ones who must adapt instruction to meet the needs of the students in their classes. A state curriculum guide may be available to provide a framework to plan a local course; however, the specific agricultural situation of the community and other factors influencing decisions about course content suggest the course of study should be a responsibility of the local school and its teachers. A course of study should never be prepared by an individual or by a committee that is removed from the local situation. Instead, a local course of study must be tailor-made by the teacher to suit the individual teaching situation.

FACTORS INFLUENCING DECISIONS ABOUT CONTENT

How does one decide what will be taught in a course? The answer to this question reveals that there are many factors that must be considered in arriving at a course content.

Educational Philosophy

Every teacher has an educational philosophy. In many cases, it has not been set forth in written form. A philosophy reflects the principles that govern the way humans behave. A philosophy furnishes the direction for a type of education. Most schools have developed and adopted a statement of philosophy. In general these statements relate to the transmission of culture, improvement of the social structure and environment, and provision for individual needs.

Teachers of agriculture should develop a philosophy by which their local programs will be guided. The statement might be brief or detailed. An example of a brief but comprehensive statement adopted by a local school is given in the Principles for Agriculture Programs. Philosophy may also be reflected in statements of principles. An example statement of principles is shown in the box below.

The philosophy by which one selects instructional content may have some influence on whether skills are viewed as an end or a means to an end, whether one believes students should prepare intensively for an occupation or explore a number of related occupations, whether it is preparation for postsecondary education, whether one believes agricultural education is preparation for an entry-level skilled or semiskilled occupation, or whether it is preparation for careers in agriculture regardless of level. The educational philosophy, stated or unstated, of the school and agricultural education department will have a major influence on the determination of objectives and selection of course content.

Program Objectives

Each agricultural education program should have stated objectives that relate to or flow out of the program philosophy. These, like statements of philosophy, provide direction in planning course content. Objectives are more specific than philosophy. They should indicate what students are expected to be able to know or do on completion of a course or program. They are much more general than instructional objectives. Instruction should be planned so as to accomplish the program objectives. An example set of objectives appears below.

Teacher Expertise

There are those who question the extent the expertise of the teacher should influence the content of the curriculum. Some say that the content should be based on the knowledge and skills needed by employees in agribusinesses in the community. If teachers lack expertise in certain areas, they should use resource people or other methods to ensure the essential content is learned.

Others would argue that the special expertise of a teacher is important. Teachers are often more enthusiastic and thorough in teaching units in which they are confident of the material. Therefore, they would recommend more emphasis on these units.

The beginning teacher should logically be expected to give additional emphasis to areas of special expertise. This teacher should, however, through study and practice, develop the necessary knowledge and skills to teach the entire range of subject matter that should be included in the course of study. Teachers should not use “student interests” as an excuse for giving either extraordinary emphasis or no emphasis to an area of instruction. Often student interest is provided as the rationale for a curriculum decision when teacher expertise may be the more appropriate reason. For example, teachers who are excellent livestock judges may devote too much time to this topic, whereas teachers who are not capable in this area may choose not to teach it at all. Neither student interest nor teacher expertise should be overemphasized in selecting course content.

Educational Facilities and Equipment

Agricultural knowledge and skills must be taught, regardless of the adequacy of facilities and equipment. When inadequate facilities and equipment exist, the teacher should still instruct students in these areas by using community resources, field trips, simulations, distance education, and other methods.

Teachers should attempt to provide students with needed knowledge and skills. They can do this by making maximum use of existing facilities and equipment and of community resources. The emphasis given to the various content areas, however, may be partially determined by the adequacy of resources that are available to instruct the units in those areas.

Community Resources

The availability of an agricultural business or industry or a person with special expertise in a community may suggest that advantage should be taken of the opportunity for them to instruct students in unique areas. A beekeeper may teach students much about the interrelationship of plant and animal life or about the opportunity for a supervised agricultural experience program in beekeeping. The existence of food science research firms may enable students to learn much about nutrition and research. Teachers should use the resources available in their communities.

Articulation

Articulation is a term used to describe how the content of a course relates to other courses and programs. A teacher should build on rather than replicate content previously experienced by students. For example, if ninth-grade students have taken industrial technical education, the teacher will find that instruction relating to tool usage can begin at a higher level than if students had not taken industrial technical education.

The curriculum should also be articulated with other courses students take. For example, in the biology course taken by agriculture students, plant growth and reproduction topics were taught. The agriculture teacher can, therefore, plan instruction with the assumption that these concepts have been learned in biology class and can now be applied in agriculture class. This critical application of the science principles and concepts from biology can be made in agricultural education programs.

Articulation should also be planned with postsecondary agricultural education programs. Some content of a more advanced nature can be left for later instruction after students graduate from high school.

Two curriculum patterns for agricultural education programs are shown in Figure 3-1. The patterns were designed for a one-teacher department. With additional teachers, additional options can be added for offering courses in agricultural mechanics, horticulture, forestry, or other instructional program areas. A teacher planning for the agribusiness option for grade eleven would need to be aware of what was taught in grades nine and ten. A teacher planning for grade nine would need to be aware of the content of the preagricultural instruction.

INFORMATION INFLUENCING CONTENT

Is there information that might assist the teacher in deciding what to teach? Information about the community, about occupations available to students, and about curriculum guides is useful in making content decisions.

Community Surveys

Community surveys can be planned and conducted by teachers or others to gather more information to help in program development. The results of such surveys may provide information about the types of employment opportunities that might be available to graduates. A quick survey of the yellow pages in the telephone directory will often provide useful information about the number and types of agricultural businesses in a community. Students can assist teachers in identifying and obtaining information about agriculturally related businesses. Useful information would include the number of employees in each job classification, the number of workers hired annually, educational requirements by job classification, and desired qualifications of entry-level employees. This information will help the teacher structure course content so students are prepared for career opportunities.

Teachers of agriculture may use the results of a survey that has already been conducted in their communities. The USDA National Ag Statistics Service has data available for each county. These data can be found on the Internet or in published forms at the local county extension office. Data include number of farms, land use, farm income and sales, marketed value of products sold, total cash receipts, livestock cash receipts by type of crop, livestock numbers, crop acreage, and number of full- and part-time farmers. Such information can be used to plan instruction in keeping with the agriculture of a community. For example, if it was found that the community planted large soybean acreage, this information would suggest that soybean production is an important topic in the course of study.

Science Underlying Problem Areas

Basic principles of science underlie many of the problem areas within the broad field of agriculture. For example, an understanding of the principles of plant growth and reproduction is essential for a student who wants to develop expertise in horticulture, production agriculture, agricultural science, natural resources, and so on. Understanding the principles of animal nutrition enables students to plan better livestock feeding programs for efficient and rapid rates of gain. Understanding cellular biology is required for students who wish to learn about genetic engineering in an agricultural science course. In addition, many physics principles underlie instruction in agricultural mechanics. As mentioned in earlier chapters, the teacher should plan to teach, emphasize, or review these principles at the moment in the unit of instruction when understanding is essential for students to achieve competence. To teach the principles alone without applying them will result in instruction perceived by students as lacking meaning. Therefore, teachers should plan to work back and forth between basic principles of science and applied subject matter content.

Competencies Needed

Once the job classifications have been identified for which agricultural employees are to be prepared by the agricultural education program, the essential entry-level competencies should be identified. Many agricultural educators claim the major decisions about what is to be taught should be determined by agribusiness skill requirements. The rationale is that one should find out what these competencies are and then prepare students to perform them.

Many studies have been conducted to identify the essential competencies performed in agricultural occupations. The USDA web site and its links are resources for teachers who are seeking agricultural skills information. Figure 3-2 provides a sample of the kind of information available in a competency study. This is a valuable source of information in planning what knowledge and skills might be taught in a course.

Teachers can conduct their own competency studies by observing workers and recording the things they do and the things they must know. This record, when developed for many of the agricultural occupations in a community, will provide a basis for selecting course content that will serve to prepare competent employees.

Input by Advisory Committees

An advisory committee is a group of citizens from the community who are interested in the local school’s agriculture department. Representatives are usually selected for three-year terms on a rotating basis so some of the members’ terms expire each year. The committee is often made up of members who are farmers or ranchers, representatives of agricultural business, representatives from county agencies such as the fish and game commission, parents, and former and current students.

Teachers should obtain the assistance of the advisory committee in planning the content of the course of study. Advisory committees should be knowledgeable about agricultural occupations and interested in the educational program of the school. Many teachers annually meet with an advisory committee to review the course of study. The committee members may review competencies they desire students to be able to perform and the units of instruction to make recommendations about the relevancy of subject matter. Teachers could prepare a master list of competencies representing the agricultural opportunities of the community. They then have their advisory committee rate each competency concerning its importance in the curriculum. Others have the advisory committee discuss the relative importance of preparing students in each area of competence. Involving an advisory committee results in a more relevant course of study and a spirit of community involvement and interest in the instructional program.

Curriculum Guides

In deciding what should be taught, the teacher should consider the content that has been recommended by experts in the field of agriculture. These recommendations are sometimes in the form of curriculum guides or state core curricula. Teachers must also consider how the experts have recommended the subject matter be organized into courses. For example, should teachers plan semester courses on each subject or should they integrate various subjects into the course of study for each semester?

Numerous curriculum guides have been prepared by committees of teachers that outline suggested content for various courses in agriculture. These guides can be a useful reference for the teacher in planning what to teach. The teacher will, however, want to add and subtract material to make the content more relevant in a local community. Some guides have been prepared for teachers in a particular state to use in preparing their local courses of study. Other guides have been prepared for use in a specific local agriculture program. A source of information about available curriculum guides is the ERIC Clearinghouse, Ohio State University, 1900 Kenny Road, Columbus, Ohio 43210. Many state departments of education also provide this information through their Internet addresses.

THE COURSE OF STUDY

A course of study generally contains an introductory statement or situation specifying some background information about the community, school, and department and also introducing the main concepts of the course. This is where statements concerning philosophy, purpose, and objectives are placed. The intended grade level of students is usually specified. Often the teacher outlines expectations of students who participate in the agricultural education program. Some teachers place policies in the introduction to the course of study relating to the laboratory, supervised agricultural experience program, student discipline, FFA participation, and grading. The introductory material serves as an orientation to the course.

In a single-teacher agriculture department, the teacher is responsible for developing the content of all courses. She or he can independently determine the content of each course. However, in a multiple-teacher department, the teachers need to articulate jointly the content across courses. The total content for the course of study in a local school should be a joint decision of all involved instructors. Decisions need to be made about the instructional areas that will be offered and in which course(s) the content will be taught. The courses to be offered should also be periodically reviewed.

The expertise of the teacher can help in deciding in which course certain material is to be taught. Grouping items that fit a particular teacher’s expertise will help in assigning the most technically competent instructor to each course.

Problem Areas

The major determinant of problem areas for a course is the competence needed by students to enter and advance in agricultural careers. Traditionally, a great deal of emphasis has also been placed on the leadership and personal development of students. The FFA organization serves as an intracurricular laboratory for this area of instruction. Another problem area often included relates to the need for informing students of career opportunities in agriculture and related fields.

Some problem areas require emphasis in every course offered. The use of records in decision making is an example of a problem area needing continual emphasis. Other problem areas may be taught in only one course.

A list of problem areas for each course should be prepared. The problem areas should be organized by instructional area. Figure 3-3 shows a partial list of problem areas for a general course in production agriculture. Figure 3-4 shows a partial list for horticulture.

The relevancy of the list of problem areas should be evaluated against the occupational needs of the community and the student potential to apply instruction in the area. Instruction may be applied in the laboratory, in student supervised agricultural experience programs, or in FFA activities. A problem area on orientation and one or more relating to supervised agricultural experience programs should be included in each course. Other problem areas should relate to the planned content for the particular course. Most problem areas should require one to four days of instructional time.

Time Allocation

An essential part of a course of study is the estimate of time for each unit and problem area. The time distribution is important because it gives the teacher a guide for preparing lesson plans. Without the allotment of time, teachers often approach the end of a school year with essential units not taught. Sometimes an inexperienced teacher may find material is being taught too quickly. The time allotment simply provides a guide to follow. The teacher should later feel free to make adjustments, within reason, as needed. There should be sufficient flexibility to consider unanticipated problems that need attention.

The time should be assigned for each problem area within a course. The instructor should ensure that the total time approximates that which is available. Some allowance needs to be made for unanticipated events during the school year, which reduce the actual time available for teaching and learning of the planned problem areas. The plan can be developed with days or hours as the unit of measure. Figures 3-3 and 3-4 show partial time allocation (see the “Total” column) for production agriculture and horticulture examples, respectively.

Sequencing of Instruction

How does one choose an appropriate order in which to teach the problem areas that have been selected for a course? What are some principles or concepts that influence sequencing decisions? The order for the course content is quite important. This order is influenced by the following factors.

Seasonal Sequencing. Problem solving in teaching and learning is best used when problems are realistic and meaningful. In most areas of agriculture the problems are seasonal in nature. Crop harvesting methods are best taught just prior to and during the harvesting season. Dendrology is best taught prior to leaf drop in the autumn. Controlling weeds in lawns is best taught when a weedy lawn can be used as a laboratory, possibly early spring. Because the school year generally extends from August/September through May/June, autumn and spring often are excellent times to schedule seasonal events. Although some seasonal activities occur in winter months, especially with livestock and in the southern regions of the country, this time of year may have more time available for problem areas that are less seasonal in nature such as cooperative ways of doing business, MIG/TIG welding, or leadership education.

Logical Sequencing. Instruction should be logically sequenced. More basic or prerequisite skills should be taught prior to the more complex skills. Teachers should develop an order that is as educationally sound as possible. For example, the planning of a cropping system for a farm should follow a study of soil surveys and land capability classifications. The budgeting of an aquaculture enterprise should follow a study of fish and aquatic life nutrition. The spraying of a greenhouse crop for insects should follow a study of the safe use of chemicals.

Calendar of Activities. A teaching calendar that lists major academic and intracurricular activities by date should be developed. Included on the calendar might be such events as fairs, career development events (CDEs), skills competitions, FFA meetings, the recognition banquet, FFA fundraising activities, schoolwide career shadowing, dates reports are due, and FFA conventions. In horticulture, important holidays related to floral retail work should be listed. The purpose of developing the calendar is to plan instruction that is relevant at the time when related activities provide opportunity for real-life application, thus student (and teacher) motivation.

Laboratory Schedule. In today’s agricultural instruction programs, school laboratories include, but are not limited to, greenhouses, farms, agribusinesses, school wetlands, nature trails, agriculture mechanics labs, floral retail shops, computer labs, aquaculture labs, biotechnology labs, and research labs. It is wise to develop a laboratory use schedule to prevent underutilization of the laboratory during part of the year and overutilization at other times. Different teachers in multiple-teacher departments may have access to the laboratory at different times of the year. In some schools students in different classes share the laboratory. Horticulture teachers with greenhouse facilities should develop a cropping schedule or plan. This plan will assist in deciding when certain problem areas should be taught. For example, classes on germinating seeds should be scheduled for February so that bedding plants are ready for Mother’s Day sales. Teachers who use this type of facility should also develop land laboratory schedules. For example, school farms and nature trails can have target dates and deadlines that guide effective instruction. The laboratory schedule will partially determine when certain problem areas are taught. It will also dictate that some problem areas not needing a laboratory be taught at times other than when the laboratory is scheduled. The laboratory schedule should be flexible enough to allow for some adjustments as necessary to take advantage of “teachable moments.”

Planning for Variability. Teachers should plan for variability, that is, using the rich and varied content in agriculture to stimulate and motivate students and their interests. The content or subject matter being studied should be varied. It is usually recommended that a specific topic of study should not last for more than one week. If students are in the laboratory, then they may desire up to three weeks on a single topic.

There are several reasons for planning for variability of instructional content. One important reason is that the interest span of students often does not expand over a long period of instruction. Their interest may be greater if the same instructional content is taught in several shorter time periods.

Another feature of a course of study related to the variability issue is that topics of high interest to students should be interspersed throughout the year. If all items of high interest are taught together and all items that are less interesting are taught together, students are not likely to respond as well as when there is variety.

Scope and Sequence Charts. Scope and sequence charts are useful as worksheets when a teacher plans the instructional sequence of a course. One example of such a chart for production agriculture is shown in Figure 3-3. The horticulture example is Figure 3-4. An instructor would use several such sheets for one course. The problem areas are listed at the left side of the sheet. The hours for each problem area are listed at the right in the Total column. As the decision is made to teach a certain problem area, it is recorded in the month column(s). Be careful not to plan for more hours than are available in any one month because school calendar hours fluctuate with holidays and teacher in-service hours.

In using the form, the instructor should first fill in the hours needed each month for problem areas having to do with supervised agricultural experience program records (possibly plan for one hour at the end of each month), FFA committee work (possibly one hour each month close to an FFA meeting date), and other continuing routine items. The teaching calendar, laboratory schedule, and list of seasonal topics should then be used to schedule problem areas by month. Principles of logical sequencing and variability should be applied in scheduling remaining problem areas. Teachers should expect some trial and error in organizing and scheduling topics by month.

Sequenced Course Outline

The sequence chart can serve as a sequenced course outline, providing the teacher with a list of problem areas, the approximate time of the school year in which each will be taught, and the time allocated to each problem area.

Another format for a sequenced course outline is shown in Figure 3-5. It is for a senior course in agricultural business. The date for each week is listed at the left side of the outline. For each week, special events from the teaching calendar are recorded. Note, for example, that the National FFA Convention in October is a field trip that must be taken into consideration when planning the sequenced course outline. Problem areas in this example are listed by week. The sequenced course outline that you create may be placed on a bulletin board in the classroom or in the office, so that teachers, students, parents, and others who are interested in the course of study can view it.

After preparing the sequenced course outline, the teacher has a usable “road map” or organization of instructional content. The major remaining planning activity is the development of units of instruction, daily plans, and the continual updating of the course of study. The development of daily plans is discussed in Chapter 5.

Figure 3-5: Sequenced course outline for agribusiness.

UPDATING THE COURSE OF STUDY

The course of study, which, again, organizes the entire agricultural education program for a given school district, must be viewed as a plan that will be continually updated. The student population changes from year to year, community conditions sometimes change, and information becomes available that an instructor will incorporate into the course of study.

A Dynamic Document

Instructors should plan for at least an annual review and revision of the course of study for each class. This review should be an agenda item for the advisory committee to the agricultural education program. Although drastic revisions are usually not necessary, some adjustment is often desirable.

Most agricultural education programs face formal evaluations at least once every five years. These reviews may be for accreditation or for the purpose of approving the program for state and federal technical education funds. The course of study is usually reviewed as a part of these evaluations. The agriculture teachers should implement recommendations resulting from these processes.

Revision

As the course is taught, notes concerning needed changes should be made directly on the course outline. Often a teacher will find a different time allocation is needed, or that the time of year is wrong for a topic. Perhaps a reordering is needed to enhance the learning sequence. These ideas, if not noted at the time, are often lost until the subject matter is again taught the next year.

Time should be scheduled during the summer months for a period of concentrated work on revising the course of study. Development and revision is best done when other matters are not allowed to interrupt the process. During the time that has been scheduled, therefore, the teacher should make this work the number one priority.

SUMMARY

A course of study is necessary for the teacher. It provides the outline of content that serves as a basis for further planning of instruction. The process of preparing a course of study enables teachers to think through many important questions related to the process of teaching and learning. Teachers should commit themselves to course of study development as an essential function of their work.

FOR FURTHER STUDY

1. Obtain the course of study for a local agriculture program. Analyze it with the following in mind:
   1. Key concepts present in the philosophy
   2. Three examples of logical sequencing
   3. Three examples of seasonal sequencing
   4. The time allocation for problem areas
   5. The laboratory schedule
   6. The teaching calendar
   7. Variability of content
2. Prepare U.S. Census of Agriculture information that is relevant for course planning for the county in which you want to teach.
3. Using the yellow pages of the telephone directory, prepare a list of agriculturally related businesses for a local community and then list the entry-level skills a student graduating from your program might need in order to be hired by one of the agribusinesses selected.

Figure Descriptions

Figure 3.1A: Prior to program entry, prevocational instruction/counseling occurs. Then students make decisions. In grades 9-10, core competency agriculture instruction occurs. Then students make decisions. In grades 11-12, agribusiness or production agriculture options are presented. Then students make decisions. After program completion, students either enter occupation for which trained or continue education.

Figure 3.1B: Agricultural education encompasses Grades 9-12. Principles of agriculture are taught in grades 9-10. Specialized areas are reserved for grades 11-12. Grade 9: animal science, leadership, 2 semester credits, business interest. Grade 10: natural resources and plant sciences, 2 semester credits, science interest. Grade 11: ag business, management, 2 semester credits. Grades 11 and 12: horticulture, 1 semester credit, 3rd and 4th quarters. Grade 12: ag marketing, 2 semester credits or prospective classes including landscaping and ag mechanics.