Photo of a banana with subcutaneous (blue) and intramuscular (red) injection sites (Photo by Catherine Beckhorn)

This week we have been writing our rough drafts for the research papers and began new classes. Our first class every morning is “Plant Propagation”. So far we have learned about the different methods botanists use to reproduce plants. Our second class of the day is called “Not Your Grandfather’s Farm”. It has covered a variety of topics from hormone use in livestock and its effects to different types of injections. Today we got the chance to try some of the injections ourselves on bananas – intramuscular and subcutaneous. It was certainly a nice break from all the lectures in Smyth Hall! This week has also seen us working in “Problem Solving” class as well as “Communicating in the Scientific World,” led by Dr. Friedel and one of the librarians from Newman.

On a very different note, the food at Dietrick has magically improved with the onslaught of newcomers for orientation. Now we can take advantage of some stations that weren’t open before (like meat carving) and enjoy things that mysteriously just taste better. Today some highlights were chocolate cake (coconut was yesterday), a beef roast with bleu cheese crust, and chicken tikka – Yum! But on the flip side, the lines at D2 now stretch out both doors, and with parents having to pay instead of use meal cards, they don’t move quickly either. Through necessity, we have developed the skill of predicting when we should go to meals in order to avoid the throng of orientation kids. It has also become increasingly difficult to find seats conveniently located to the desserts station, but that does have the benefit of getting us to sit with more people we don’t know.

Overall, it is shaping up to be an interesting experience at the Governor’s School for Agriculture, and we are eager to see what the next few weeks have in store for us (as long as it’s not another 10 page research paper!).

Jordan Rothwell, Lana Vaillancourt, Catherine Beckhorn, McKenzie York, Lydia Harrison