The Anselmo-Merna agricultural education program received a Nebraska FFA Foundation 2020 grant to purchase lab equipment for the classroom that goes with the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE). Lonnie Koepke, Anselmo-Merna agriculture teacher, will be receiving more certifications in the CASE courses this summer, and plans to use the CASE resources and lab equipment in six courses during the 2021-22 school year.

He has already started implementing the lab materials used with the CASE curriculum. One of the recent activities he has used was a petunia project called life, death and pH. They use the LabQuest 2 units and a pH sensor to determine the cause of deaths to test the five soil samples, analyze the data and determine their theory of what caused the death of the plant through their research, according to Koepke. When asked about how the grant has impacted the Anselmo-Merna students, he said, “They are actively involved in class activities and are now able to do more hands-on activities than in the past. The level of engagement in agriculture and the future of the ag industry has increased through their involvement in their learning.”