COVINGTON — Each year the Department of Agricultural Communication, Education and Leadership (ACEL) at The Ohio State University sends students to high schools around the state for 12 weeks to gain real world experience in the classroom.
This year, the agricultural education program at Covington High School welcomed student teacher and Ansonia High School graduate Megan Berman, a senior in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) and an agriscience education major.
While student teaching at Covington High School, Bergman is under the guidance of agriculture teacher and FFA advisor Jessica Helsinger.
“Student teaching plays a key role in preparing our students to lead their own classrooms,” said Dr. Scott Scheer, professor and interim chair of the Department of Agricultural Communication, Education, and Leadership (ACEL). “Throughout the spring semester, our student teachers experience life as an agriculture teacher and FFA advisor. In addition to the important and engaging work in their classrooms, agriculture teachers also have many responsibilities outside of the classroom, attending meetings, conducting SAE visits, advising the FFA chapter and coaching career development event teams. These valuable hands-on activities within the student teaching experience create a real-world atmosphere that cannot be duplicated in the college classroom. All of this not only benefits our students, but the high school students they will be teaching in the future.”
Upon completion of her student teaching experience, Bergman will earn a bachelor of science in agriculture with a major in agriscience education and minor in production agriculture.
Agriscience education is one of three undergraduate majors within ACEL. This major prepares students to acquire a license to teach agricultural science in secondary high schools through extensive training in agriculture science, educational psychology, instructional methods and youth development. For additional information on the agriscience education major or how you can make a financial contribution to student scholarships, visit acel.osu.edu.
