News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A Pickett County High School teacher has earned her Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education certification (CASE).
Agriculture Instructor Tracy Smith said the certification helps her teach students using a more inquiry and lab-based curriculum. She said it helps to create a bridge between hands-on work and the science behind it.
“My ag kids they know physics because they’ve built electric fences, they know physics but they don’t call it that, they geometry but they don’t call it that,” Smith said. “It’s just kind of forming those connections so that they have more confidence when they go to college, when they have lab work, they’re more familiar with lab equipment.”
Smith became certified over the summer through a rigorous program where she learned the curriculum and figured out how to best teach it to her students. She said she’s been slowly implementing the new curriculum since school started.
While it’s been an adjustment, it’s helped make kids more engaged than she’s seen previously. Smith said students work in groups to encourage each other and work out labs and projects together.
