100 Principles of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Your program does not need a special lab space to be hands-on classrooms are also great places to perform smaller scale agricultural science laboratory activities. FFA Activities FFA activities allow you to learn concepts in class and apply them through leadership development and career development events. The National FFA Organization is an intracurricular part of an agricultural education program. Through FFA, agriculture students are provided the opportunity to not only gain skills related to agriculture, but also skills that will make them better communicators, leaders, and citizens. Have you been to an FFA activity? Your local chapter has the opportunity to plan and conduct a wide variety of activities to help members develop leadership while doing service and having fun. Ask your agriculture teacher when the next FFA activity in your chapter is scheduled and how you can be a part of it. Consider getting involved and helping plan activities for the FFA members at your school. There are also activities at the area and state levels that will allow you to interact with other FFA members from around the country. Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs) Every student in an agricultural education program or class is required to have an SAE project or program. Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs) are personalized experiential learning programs made up of projects tailored to meet your needs and interests. SAEs are designed and conducted by students and supervised by agriculture teachers. Students choose an SAE based on their likes, interests, and talents. There are four guiding questions used to determine if something can be used as an SAE: „ Has the project been planned and developed based on student interests and resources? „ Does the student plan on documenting and recording the activities of the experience? „ Will the project be supervised and overseen by the agriculture teacher or FFA Advisor? „ Is the project based in agriculture, food, or natural resources? Courtesy of Jason McKibben Figure 3-2. There are many laboratory spaces available in a local agricultural education program. These students are working on developing their skills with electrical systems. What skills can you develop in the lab of your agricultural education program?