Rhea FFA member vies for National FFA Agriscience Fair title

INDIANAPOLIS — Faith Hough of the Rhea County FFA Chapter at Rhea County High School in Evensville has been named a national finalist this year in the Plant Systems category in the 11th and 12th grade division of the competition.

Hough’s project was on the “Effects of Growing Media on Germination and Plant Growth of Bedding Plants”. Her experiment was conducted in the greenhouse at Rhea County High School in conjunction with her Agriculture Teacher and FFA Advisor, Scott Shaver.

The National FFA Agriscience Fair is a key competition that is part of the annual National FFA Convention & Expo, Oct. 23-26, 2024, in Indianapolis. To qualify, FFA members working as individuals or teams in grades 7-12 are required to conduct a scientific research project pertaining to the agriculture industries and win their state’s FFA agriscience fair.

Individuals or teams compete in one of six categories — animal systems; environmental services/natural resource systems; food products and processing systems; plant systems; power, structural and technical systems; or social science — in six divisions — individuals in grades 7-8, teams grades 7-8, individuals grades 9-10, teams grades 9-10, individuals in grades 11-12, and teams grades 11-12.

First-place winners in each state have qualified for the national pre-qualifying judging. The panel of judges reviewed entries and selected a maximum of 10 in each category and division to move on to the national competition.

The National FFA Organization is a school-based national youth leadership development organization of more than 1,027,200 student members as part of 9,235 local FFA chapters in all 50 states and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.