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Agricultural Education

Career Program Area

Goals:

The purpose of The Agricultural Education Career Program area is to involve participants in preparing and delivering a lesson plan relevant to the field of agriculture.

The Agricultural Education Career Program Area is designed:

  1.   To encourage students to pursue a career in agricultural education.
  2.   To develop students' ability to prepare a lesson plan.
  3.   To develop students' abilities to teach for effective learning.
  4.   To develop students' abilities to assess for student learning.

 

General Rules:

Though not required, each individual is highly encouraged to write a general unsealed thank you letter to the career program area sponsor of the Agricultural Education event area. Thank you letters should be submitted to the Agricultural Education coordinators at the beginning of the competition. If possible, write thank you letters on local or state PAS stationary. Therefore, participants will be responsible for their own thank you stationery and their own writing utensils.

Any participant who achieves 1st Place High Individual in the Agricultural Education career program area in Iowa will not be eligible to participate in this program area in the coming years.

Event Format: The CPA Event consists of four phases:

  1.   PHASE I       Participants organize, prepare, and write a lesson plan.
  2.   PHASE II       Participants teach their lesson to a panel of judges.
  3.   PHASE III     Participants assess judges for learning.
  4.   PHASE IV     Judges are allowed to ask the participant questions related to the lesson.

 

Agricultural Education Specific Rules:

Time limits:

Each lesson shall be a minimum of 10 minutes in length and maximum of 15 minutes. Each participant will be allowed two minutes additional time in which he or she will assess the judges for learning and another three minutes to be asked questions by judges relating to his or her lesson. Participants are to be penalized 10 points per minute on each judges’ score sheet for being under 10 minutes or over 15 minutes.

One timekeeper shall be designated who will record the time used by each participant, noting under-time or over-time, if any, for which deductions should be made. The time keeper will signal the participant at the 10, 13, 14, and 15 minute marks.

Career Program Procedures

1. Each participant's lesson plan will be the result of the student's own efforts. Facts and working data may be secured from any source. Participants will develop a lesson covering a technical agriculture area found in one of the pathways found in the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Career Cluster, http://www.careerclusters.org/clusters/16cc.php?cluster=ag .
  1.   Agribusiness Management & Marketing Systems (non-Retail)
  2.   Animal Systems
  3.               Ruminant
  4.               Non-Ruminant
  5. Horticulture, Environmental & Natural Resource Systems
  6. Plant Systems
  7. Power, Structural, & Technical Systems
  8. Retail Agribusiness Systems
  9. Agricultural Processing and Biotechnology

 

*Official judges of the Agricultural Education career program event shall disqualify a participant if he or she teaches a topic outside of the content areas listed above.

  1. The lesson plan MUST include: anticipatory set (an introduction to learning), one objective, content (presentation, demonstration, distribution of materials, etc.), teaching strategies, checking for understanding (questions used to provoke thought immediately after objective is taught), closure (recap of lesson), an assessment tool (five written quiz questions), and bibliography of information sources. A minimum of three different media types must be used during the lesson (i.e. PowerPoint, worksheet, information sheet). Participants are encouraged to use strategies that promote learning such as a discussion, demonstration, guided practice or group work.
  2. Each participant must bring their own instructional tools and materials (i.e., handouts, posters, flipchart, visual aids, etc.). Only a laptop computer, digital projector and demonstration table will be provided in the presentation room.
  3. For competitive purposes, the assumption is the lesson will be taught in a formal classroom setting, not a laboratory. Members are advised to wear professional dress.
  4. Three competent and impartial persons with agricultural education backgrounds will be selected to judge the Agricultural Education Career Program Area.
  5. Prior to the national event, a typewritten copy of each participant’s lesson plan in electronic Adobe PDF format must be received by the Agricultural Education career program area coordinator by the close of business on March 1st of that year (or the following Monday if the date falls on a Saturday or Sunday). Failure to submit the electronic copy of the lesson plan by the due date/time may lead to disqualification for the national event. Judges will be furnished with copies of the participants' lesson plans prior to the event, which they will read and grade on content and procedures, recording their judgment on a score sheet (copy attached).
  6. The teaching performance component of the event will be scored by each judge as per the Scoring Guide for Teaching Performance (copy attached).
  7. Each judge shall formulate and ask questions. Questions shall pertain directly to the participant’s subject. Judges will score each participant on the ability to answer all questions asked by all judges.
  8. Judges shall meet prior to the Agricultural Education Career Program Area to prepare and clarify the questions to be asked.
  9. Iowa may certify one participant to participate at the national conference.
  10. The lesson plan must be the work of the participant, and certification form must accompany the lesson plan. Please include the following statement on the lesson plan “I hereby certify that this manuscript is the work of (student name).” and signed by the student and the advisor.