The third week has been primarily focused on our research projects; we’ve had a lot of deadlines. Groups are working hard on finishing up research, designing brochures and laying out posters. We also started our major classes and our first week of electives. Some classes have been visiting farms, going on tours, and even making hamburgers!        Everyone seems to be looking forward to the weekend because of the tubing and IHOP trip! IHOP is Friday night at 11, so we’ll be out past bed checks woo! Tubing is Saturday afternoon; hopefully it won’t be cancelled for bad weather. There will also surely be lots of sand volleyball like always, cards, and catching up on sleep. Everyone seems to be getting closer to one another and having fun every day.

Sustainable Energy: Alex Lord, Tess Kendrick, Lydia Smith, Grace Wheaton, Jimmy Zhao

The day started off with another class of Strengths and Leadership, where we discussed strengths as related to teamwork.  Then we split off into elective classes, some of which participated in exciting opportunities such as touring the veterinary school (VMRCVM) in the Medication Across the Species elective, or dissecting a pig uterus in the Animal Reproduction class.  After lunch, we again divided into our major classes. Ag Engineering learned about satellite imaging, Plant Science discussed different types of soil, and Ag Economics learned about world population, malnutrition, and their professor’s travels to Ecuador. At Food Science and Technology labs, the Food Science majors worked on cooking hamburgers and experimenting with different fat contents and cooking temperatures.  Finally, the Animal Science majors took a field trip to the VT cattle barns, where they were able to view the use of an ultrasound on a steer to determine the marketability of its meat.  All in all, we managed to come full circle in the day as we aimed to exercise our strengths in our respective classes, and we’re looking forward to an excellent rest of the week!

Jackie Ko, William Gent, Madeleine Miles, Maeve Curtin, Koby Arndt

Today, the students continued working in their major classes and electives! The agricultural engineering major learned how to use Multispec which uses internet satellite imagery to track changing landscapes over time.  The Multispec program takes satellite images and allows the user to crop the portion of the land desired and change the bands (colors).  The three bands included red, green and blue which combined to form what is called false coloring.  This false coloring can be changed accordingly to highlight different changes over time. In the food science class, the students went to the meat center and made hamburgers. They practiced food safety methods using thermometers to make sure they were cooked correctly. Unfortunately, they didn’t get to eat their hamburgers! During the plant science class, students learned about different soils and turf grass. Students in the agricultural economics class talked about food security and impoverished countries. They learned about how a large population of people are living hungry and/or earning less than one dollar a day. Next, the animal science majors got to visit the beef cattle center and watch an ultrasound performed on two different cows. They learned about what marbling and backfat looked like in cows of different ages. It was a very interesting day and these students can’t believe that week 3 is already halfway over!  They will definitely enjoy the rest of their time here!

K. R. Eckler, E. E. Kim, L. F. O’Hara,  A. S. Ronkainen, P. Shankar

After a weekend of fun activities, the students returned to the classroom for morning classes. The day began with a strengths and leadership class, and for the first time this month, the students split into different electives. They performed dissections in a Animal Reproduction class, learned about proper care for domesticated animals, and discussed critical thinking skills. The last classes of the day were designated for specific majors. The plant science major learned about the wondrous world of turf grass or “plastic grass.”  At the equestrian center, the animal science major observed the process of artificial insemination, viewed sperm through a light microscope, and visited the foaling barns. During food science, the students played a bingo game exposing them to the thirty technologies for a hamburger. Exploring the campus with GPS’s, the Agricultural engineering students mapped and tracked their routes using Google Maps. In their afternoon class, the agricultural economics students discussed varying marketing tactics including direct marketing and target marketing. Overall, it was a great start to the first week of individualized classes!

David Adams, WonSouk Choi, Megan Thomas, Truc Bui, Carlene Uzel