I strive to engage students with interactive learning activities, which include: speeches, presentations, laboratory exercises, group projects, field trips, and guest speakers.  Graded activities are evaluated using rubrics and scorecards rather than answer keys.  Clear instructions are always provided and examples of excellent student work are provided to ensure adequate understanding of expectations.

Use of Elizabethtown's extensive laboratory facilities allowed for numerous experiential and inquiry-based learning opportunities.  Students planned and implemented various projects and managed the laboratory facilities themselves to get a truly hands-on experience.  The labs truly became learning labs as student managers taught new students how to work and maintain the facilities.  Projects and labs included:

• Greenhouse: Forcing spring bulbs, growing corn for the high school musical, growing poinsettias for the high school holiday concerts, growing geraniums for graduation, growing hanging baskets for Agribusiness class
• Animal Science Lab: Raise gerbils, hamsters, rabbits, guinea pigs, turtles and fish
• Bear Creek Farm: Habitat restoration (brush piles), fruit tree pruning in orchard, ornamental tree pruning, landscaping and hardscaping, tractor driving

Elizabethtown Area High School required daily lesson plans to be written for each lesson.  Plans are outlined in LFS Best Practice Lesson Format.  Examples of my agricultural science-based daily lesson plans can be viewed below.

Over 200 students were enrolled in agricultural education courses at Elizabethtown during the 2009-2010 school year, a 25% increase from 2005.  We were seeing decreased enrollment in Agricultural Mechanics, yet increased enrollment in the Environmental, Plant and Animal Sciences.  Therefore, I proposed and wrote a new course in Animal Science and Management, designed to be a prerequisite for our rigorous Veterinary Science (Par-Vet) course.  The new course was approved and taught in 2009-2009 to more than 50 students.  Please see the curriculum below.

Bloomsburg Area High School requires daily lesson plans be written in the 5e Lesson Plan Format. Examples of environmental science-based lesson plans on Population Biology can be found below.