Olympia students may have been sent home before the end of the school year, but that didn’t stop many students from continuing to do agriculture related activities at home! Many students have decided to take a try at gardening in their extra time. Senior Elizabeth Davis started growing tomatoes, beans, and peas from seeds inside her shed when quarantine started. She placed the containers with the planted seeds in a windowsill, put a heat lamp above them, and would water when needed. She had seedlings emerge within a few days! Once the weather was warm enough outside, she transplanted the seedlings and is currently trying the method of growing tomato plants upside down in buckets. “I really enjoyed the planting process and learning how different plants grow and adapt to the greenhouse and outdoors,” stated Elizabeth.
Senior Josie Litwiller is participating in virtual career development events (CDE) that she normally would have competed in person. She is currently preparing for the prepared speech competition. She recently had to video herself saying her prepared speech for the district competition. The next step for her is a video call with the judges of the competition on Friday, May 29, to answer questions about her speech for five minutes. When asked about her experience with competing in this event from home, Josie said, “It’s weird having the contest online, but I am happy they didn’t cancel it!”
Mr. Hoffman assigned several on-line agriculture lessons during remote learning time. He also allowed students to choose an agriculture related project to work on while at home. The students chose various projects from doing a landscaping job, designing a garden plan, to taking a nature walk and documenting what they observed. From gardening to CDE competitions and everything in between, Olympia agriculture students are taking advantage of their time at home by trying opportunities in agriculture that they haven’t experienced before!
Carson Inselmann created floral design for her project.