Instilling passion: FFA students give back on Agriculture Day

Nov. 20—Eighth-graders Reese Howell and Parker Moody remember their first FFA Agriculture Day at the Stillwater FFA agriculture buildings on 128 S. Drury St.

"We came out here in fourth grade," Howell said. "I remember taking a bus."

Moody chimed in.

"I remember I walked over from Highland Park Elementary," Moody said.

Highland Park is just down the street from the Stillwater FFA education buildings, greenhouse and barn. Earlier this month, more than 450 fourth-graders from six elementary schools descended on the FFA buildings for Fourth Grade Agriculture Day.

Howell attended Westwood Elementary, but today, she and her partner Moody are leading other fourth-graders through the Agriculture Day. It's a full-circle moment for them.

At Agriculture Day, students learned about agriculture through activities such as making a seed necklace, handling animals, bee-keeping and even egg handling. Six separate stations were directed by eighth-graders like Moody and Howell.

Moody and Howell — along with fellow classmates — were in the greenhouse teaching fourth-graders about plants and aquaponics, specifically. Howell shared how the aquaponics system worked.

Tilapia fish live in one tank, and the waste they produce goes into three different tanks that filter out the waste. The water ends up in another tank filled with soil-less plants, and the plants use the filtered water to sprout — and in return, provide fresh water for the fish (called hydroponics).

Moody had never heard of the aquaponics system until she visited the Stillwater agriculture education buildings.

"We came out here for seventh-grade night, to see if we wanted to do agriculture in eighth grade," Moody said. "I remember them talking about this."

The Stillwater FFA won top awards at the 96th FFA National Convention, including the 2023 Model of Excellence award and the Premier Chapter award for Building Communities. Stillwater Public Schools is the first school in Oklahoma to win the coveted 2023 Model of Excellence award.

All nine Stillwater FFA officers attended the convention — and 24 students who traveled to Indianapolis presented their projects and won awards.

But on Agriculture Day, it was back to business as usual — where leadership and excellence rule the day and where new agriculture students begin to hone their skills.

"Ag is one of my favorite classes," Howell said. "This is really fun to me to teach the other kids about it, so that maybe one day, they could be in the same position as we are and get to do all this fun stuff."

Moody's parents were involved in FFA — her dad was president and her mom was secretary. Howell's grandpa was an agriculture educator, and her cousin is the Morrison FFA Chaplain.

"(FFA) teaches us leadership stuff — it's not all just about the ag stuff, because they are trying to make us better humans," Howell said. "(Today's activity) is like a leadership thing, because we're having to lead these kids and teach them about this stuff."

Students interested in FFA can take Intro to Agriculture, a required course for all FFA students. Students interested in FFA must begin in the eighth grade, but they don't have to come from a farmer or rancher's home to find a home at FFA.

Trinity Blosch, Stillwater FFA secretary, has been an FFA officer for three years, and she was one of the chapter representatives who attended the National Convention in Indianapolis.

"We definitely want that hands-on exposure for these fourth-graders to learn about these different techniques that these agriculturalists are using, and really advocate for them and their practices that they're using," Blosch said.

She pointed out that a popular movie about bees portrays farmers and their practice of "smoking" the bees — a practice used to inspect the hives — in a negative light, and the movie is being directed to age groups such as the fourth-graders attending Field Day.

"(It's) really going against what we're trying to do today ... advocate for those farmers and ranchers," Blosch said. "They're just taking everything that we're doing and saying, 'No, this is bad,' ... and we're trying to say, 'No, this is beneficial.'"