<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2CAJs6_0vtSPHHh00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2CAJs6_0vtSPHHh00" width="1200" height="998" ><figcaption>Tiffany Palmer with EBM Manufacturing talks to Norfolk FFA members Carson Lingenfelter, Colten Neemeyer and Klayton Lingenfelter about industrial grain processing to connect&nbsp;their Exploratory SAE with classroom&nbsp;literacy.&nbsp; Submitted photo</figcaption></figure><p>Norfolk FFA members jumped right into this new school year. The members started the year with a “Welcome Night.” The FFA officers planned an agenda, made motions to get the year’s Program of Activities going and coordinated the perennial water slide kickball match.</p><p>The Nebraska State Fair sprung up next and brought a variety of experiences. Some FFA members gave up their Labor Day weekend to compete at the State Dairy Evaluation. They earned fourth place as a team and brought home three individual ribbons.</p><p>A big change to the chapter happened this fall when the chapter transitioned to an Affiliation Chapter. This means that all agriculture students are not only in the classroom as part of Agriculture Education, but the students are also all FFA members and have a Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE). The chapter went from 30 FFA members to 70 members – each needing FFA and SAE opportunities.</p><p>The Nebraska State Fair continues to be under great leadership, and they welcomed the Norfolk FFA Chapter to bring Exploratory SAE projects. Students collected different crops from the local farmers, or they grew crops at the school. Students harvested, sorted, cleaned and wrapped the crops, which included corn, wheat and cotton. They tagged and showed the crops to earn ribbons and recognition at the state fair.</p><h2>People are also reading…</h2><p>Students then took the projects back from the fair to use in their educational SAE and classroom projects, including making floriculture creations, grinding wheat into flour, feeding chickens and more. During and after the projects, students recorded the hours they worked on the projects to learn about the FFA’s AET (Agricultural Education Tracker) record book system.</p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1hOwOE_0vtSPHHh00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1hOwOE_0vtSPHHh00" width="1639" height="1265" ><figcaption>Kaitlyn Koenig, front, Brooklyn Frank, Natalee Thompson, and Aiden Menke help harvest rice and cotton from the garden at Norfolk Public Schools. The plants were sorted, wrapped and then shown at the Nebraska State Fair.&nbsp; &nbsp; Submitted photo</figcaption></figure><p>A fun extension of the Fair Exploratory SAE was when many students received their premium checks. The members donated the money to the FFA chapter to purchase Salvation Army Angel Tree gifts during the holiday season.</p><p>After a busy fair season has been a busy start to the school year. Students traveled to Husker Harvest Days (HHD). A busload of FFA members collected 191 pounds of non-perishable foods to donate to the Heartland Food Bank for free access into HHD. The FFA members then saw the educational, commercial and informational experts throughout the event grounds. Members learned about cover crops, new technologies in application methods and even a dog training lesson. These sights and sounds are entertaining and, with a little push in the classroom, can spark new thoughts about the many different careers in agriculture.</p><p>The year is just getting started, and the rest of fall will bring more dairy evaluations, Farm Bureau Connecting Chapters, Land Evaluations, Poster Sales, Lion’s Day Parade, Nebraska Department of Agriculture’s Crunch Off, NECC (Northeast Community College) AgCeptional Conference, Pumpkin Carving and other events that just pop up.</p><p>With the changes to affiliation membership, more and more activities are open to all of the agriculture students Hopefully some of the students who are “on the fence” will take advantage of the opportunities in the classroom and incorporate them into their SAEs and / or experience them in an FFA activity.</p></div></body>

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Norfolk FFA becomes Affiliation Chapter

Norfolk FFA members jumped right into this new school year. The members started the year with a “Welcome Night.” The FFA officers planned an agenda, made motions to get the year’s Program of Activities going and coordinated the perennial water slide kickball match. The Nebraska State Fair...

Norfolk FFA becomes Affiliation Chapter

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