- Hello and welcome to Farm Connections.

I'm your host, Dan Hoffman.

On today's program, we host a panel of guests from around Minnesota to discuss the current state of education in the time of COVID.

Distance learning, equitable education and mental health are all covered in our conversation.

We also have a new Best Practices segment from the University of Minnesota all today on Farm Connections.

(upbeat country music) - [Narrator] Welcome to Farm Connections with your host, Dan Hoffman.

- [Narrator] Farm Connections made possible in part by.

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The Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, collaborating with businesses and entrepreneurs to foster longterm economic benefit for Minnesota through value added agricultural products.

You can learn more at auri.org.

- A very exciting topic this morning, distance learning in the context of what's happening with coronavirus and other issues.

So with me today, Isaac Rain.

Isaac comes to us from Chatfield High School, a student.

Val Arsvold, the Executive Director for the Minnesota FFA Foundation, Stacy Fritz from Chatfield High School, FFA advisor and instructor.

We also have Ethan Dado from Mankato area public schools, and with us is also Brynne Bolke from the Mankato West High School.

Welcome everybody.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, it's a pleasure to be here.

- Well, Val you're the Executive Director of the Minnesota FFA Foundation.

So maybe you led me to some of these great people to talk a little bit about distance learning.

Tell me from the 30 thousand foot view, what are we seeing in Minnesota education in particular agriculture with distance learning?

- What I think was really exciting this Spring is that we saw 270 plus high school agriculture teachers step up and meet the challenge of distance learning.

We saw them give themselves, their time and energy, to make sure their students, even though this content was being delivered at a distance, still at a high level.

And they did it through so many creative ways that students didn't miss as many opportunities, as many areas would have thought they would have.

And so we were excited to know that agriculture teachers always have been innovative, but they met this challenge as well.

And we pride ourselves on AG education as being very hands on learning.

So our teachers had an even bigger challenge to overcome, but as you'll hear from the advisors that we have with today and the students, they not only did a job of presenting content that they rose to that challenge and I think we really saw some very creative things that will be part of our programs moving forward, hopefully.

Even after we get back to being in the same space in the same classrooms.

- Stacy, thanks for joining us by Zoom.

We usually do this a little bit differently, but we've had to adapt a little bit at KSMQ as well.

So all of a sudden you're used to doing hands on and labs and lectures and things in the classroom and also the shop and laboratory.

You're all of a sudden thrust into a new teaching environment.

What were your thoughts and how did you react?

- Well, it was quite different.

It definitely was the opposite of what we normally do.

We had to change pretty rapidly and so we, I know for my labs, I had a food chemistry class.

I gave them a lot of choices at home.

I didn't necessarily have time to do, get materials together for everybody as quickly as that happens so I just basically made sure that the kids had choices.

So when they did food labs, like fats and you know, how fats affect baking products and cookies and things of that nature, I gave them a choice to do their own recipe with what they had at home and then encourage them to take pictures with their final project and send them to me so that we could converse back and forth and keep that relationship going.

So that was one of the things that I did.

- Awesome.

Isaac, how did you respond to this new learning environment?

- So it took a while, but in the end, I think it was very beneficial to do a you know, virtual online class, but you'll still get the same experiences we would as well.

So I think the adjustment was slow, but it was good.

- Ethan, what happened in Mankato when you were told, "Hey students, aren't going to file into your classroom like they did in the past."

- Thanks Dan, for having us on today to represent Mankato.

We are a brand new agricultural education program.

Mankato hasn't had agricultural education in over 30 years.

And so we have had to just adapt this entire year and try to meet students where they were at, but also try to build this program from where we started.

- Stacy, as you went through trying to develop leadership programming, deliver FFA meetings, do projects within the organization of FFA, what challenges did you find using distance learning?

- Some of the biggest challenges were how to communicate and keep those relationships open with students.

One of my biggest things is that I'm in person in the classroom, I can tell how a kid is feeling that day, or if they're studying or practicing for CDE, I can, I can gauge where they're at and you can't do that when you're distance learning.

It's much harder.

I mean, you can, but a kid has to be able to open up to you.

And that's not always the case for a lot of these students, a lot of them struggled and so I actually put more of a focus on mental health check ins with a lot of them and, and some self care activities that were put in there that I felt were a little bit more important than meeting some of the standards that I wanted to cover by the end of the school year.

So we did adjust for some of that, but it was a lot of more time reaching out to people individually by email, messenger, anything.

So anything I could do to reach them.

- Okay, thank you very much.

Ethan, when I think of FFA and agriculture, I think of you and Stacy and Val and the other instructors inside of this wonderful network, as people that look holistically at education, it's not just reading, it's not just writing, but it's incorporating all of those things in a business setting, an economic setting, a community development.

How are you able to use distance learning to continue that and to develop the region of around you where you teach?

- In agricultural education we focus a lot on career and college readiness, but also premiere leadership, personal growth and career success.

And I'm not going to lie or sugarcoat it.

It was difficult to really focus on those career success skills and career ready skills in a virtual setting.

But I think there were some ways we were able to address this and really focusing on some of those essential skills that I talked about earlier.

Emailing, virtual communication is huge in the modern day as I'm sure you know, Dan.

And so we focused on some of those skills, but then I also incorporated some, I talked about a germination lab.

And so rather than us going through the actual lab, I actually did a fake simulation of the lab and created some data.

And my students then had to interpret that data and report back what that data actually meant.

And I think in a world that we're overwhelmed with data and information, data analysis is a hugely important skill that are for young people to possess.

And so this gave me an opportunity to, yes apply this to germination, but this is a skill that can be used, whether we're scrolling through Facebook or Instagram, having a conversation with Grandma Sue or, you know, in any aspect where we're able to receive data and information, we have heightened abilities now to interpret that data, analyze it, and really get the meaning out of it that it's intended for.

And so that was one lab that I really focused on and put a lot of effort into writing that and something that I'll continue to use in the future, whether in person or a socially distance learning.

And so I felt like that was a crucial lesson that we were able to do that normally I probably wouldn't have thought of.

- Well, as we think about the economy, jobs, many of them have shifted also to being virtual or distance.

So you're really preparing the students for what is not what was.

- Exactly, exactly.

- Can we get an example, do you think, could you pull something up an example of how you might teach something in animal science or plant science?

- Yeah, happy to Dan.

So this here actually is my Animal Welfare unit, Animal Welfare lesson.

So I know animal welfare rights commonly gets confused, especially among our younger population.

And so we began the lesson by defining these two words and recognizing the difference between those.

So the students had to guess their definitions and then we revealed it.

We then went on to learn about the five freedoms of animal welfare, as you can see here on the screen and the importance of us, as production agriculturists to meet those freedoms for our animals.

So this was the first day of this sub unit.

After that they actually, the students actually had an opportunity to take a virtual field trip up North to my family's dairy farm, where I showed them how my family works to meet these five freedoms for about our 500 dairy cattle on my family's dairy farm.

So while they were doing this, they had to fill out a worksheet that highlighted methods to meet animal's needs and their five freedoms through my family's dairy farm.

Finally, the last two days of the unit were actually spent, the students had to take what they have learned and build their own animal housing.

The catch is the animal housing had to meet all five freedoms.

Then they had to write a quick paragraph about how the housing they built, met all five freedoms.

And so a great hands-on lesson that they were able to, first of all, experienced some sort of lecture like they normally might in the classroom, but then that moved to a virtual field trip that we could do a in-person field trip, but we were able to travel a little bit farther this way and then finally make it hands-on by building something in their home.

And so this is how I went about trying to still create some real life experiences for our students during distance learning.

- Wow, what a tremendous program and very interactive.

And I can just imagine inside of households around your community, parents and siblings were learning some things about animal welfare and care as well.

- I sure hope so and hope we can balance that line between that animal rights and that animal welfare, which I know is a common misconception and one of the main objectives of this lesson.

- We'll come right back to this topic after we visit with the University of Minnesota extension about invest management practice.

- [Narrator] Farm Connections Best Practices brought to you by.

- Hello, I'm Seth Naeve.

I'm Extension Soybean Agronomist at the University of Minnesota and this is today's Best Practices segment.

So today we're in a field near Stewart, Minnesota, there was a large hail event that went through this area about five days ago.

So we're here with farmers inspecting this field, identifying what they should do to maintain this field and take this out to harvest so they can manage, manage the field and get the best yields out of this field as they possibly can.

There's a few things that farmers will need to know, but I think the first thing that's really critical to know is that farmer, that soybeans are very, very flexible and are able to compensate very well for decreased stands and leaf loss.

So farmers are always amazed at the yield, the yields that they receive on these fields at harvest after these extreme hail events.

So we'll take a look at these particular soybeans here.

And you can see that these were probably knee-high soybeans five days ago, they've basically been mowed down.

We've lost two thirds or more of the leaves, and we have a lot of stem damage in these fields.

So farmers will want to identify the population of, of plants that are left in the fields first.

So measure off one, one thousandth of an acre of 17 feet, five inches in a 30 inch row and count plants and identify how many plants they have per acre, viable plants.

Look at the leaf loss, and this will give them a pretty good estimate on what they have for yield potential in this field.

This potential, this particular field was hailed about, they are three stage and we'll still have probably a good 50% of our yield potential will be here yet.

It's really important to look for damaged stems and identify how many of those soybean plants will make it to harvest.

Those soybeans that have really significantly damaged stems have an opportunity to topple over before harvest.

And we'll lose that yield that did put on those on those particular plants.

But as long as we have 50 thousand healthy plants out there, not very much bruised stems, some leaf material there, we are going to have a crop to harvest.

So farmers should manage it carefully with herbicides and insecticides as needed to make sure they can man maintain high yields.

So with that, this has been Seth Naeve and I'm Soybean Extension Agronomist at the University of Minnesota and this has been today's Best Practices segment.

- You know, we hear a lot about broadband and technology and internet connections, but some people take it for granted, other people don't have access.

Val, you have a global view as far as Minnesota and our rural communities.

Were there any special challenges when all of a sudden we needed to rely on broadband and internet connections to carry forth our educational mission?

- It certainly became evident that it is not equal coverage across the state, equal access.

And so, as we looked at what teachers were trying to navigate through, they certainly wanted to provide some as much connection as they could and we think of that being the internet and the broadband, but some of our schools had to create physical packets to go home with students because the internet connection was just not strong enough.

And so teachers became very creative, but it really does represent the inequality that's happening with broadband coverage in our state.

This also played into our FFA world, not only our classroom instruction, but also FFA.

We had very robust discussions on whether our crew development events and leadership development events could happen virtually.

And it became evident that that would not be an equal opportunity for our students.

And so, you know, initially in these conversations, I just didn't fathom the challenges we'd have, but I did work with a training where we brought together about 15 students from across the state of Minnesota and within the first five minutes, I recognized the incredible challenges we have with people's internet service just not being consistent.

And we really didn't want to have students be at a disability in competing or to being, participating in activities based on something they couldn't control and that was the lack of the broadband service in their part of the state.

So we adapted our classroom instruction as I mentioned, teachers had to provide some physical things for students to have at home, but we also then made changes in the FFA.

And this was the first year that I know that we didn't compete as far as career development events or leadership development events on a statewide level.

We flat out decided that if we were going to treat all members equally, we had to take a year off and regroup and figure out how we could support those types of opportunities in the future if we continue to have to operate with distance learning.

- Some very important decisions, and of course, some very important needs around the state.

We also think about the economy.

If we don't have the infrastructure to connect via internet and be productive, we're really holding our entire state and our region back.

Stacy, did you find any examples where technology was a bottleneck in your area or your community around Chatfield?

- Yes.

If you're doing Zoom, I mean I had struggles in my own house.

I had to upgrade the internet because Zoom requires an awful lot of broadband.

And rurally, you just don't have it.

I mean, I was using our cell phone hotspot and it wasn't enough so that became a real issue.

I know my district before we left, actually did some surveys with the kids, trying to make sure that each one them had a device, each one of them had internet access, but it still definitely wasn't perfect.

Just simply because out in rural areas, it's harder to get that.

And I know there was programs for people to get it paid for if they were free and reduced lunch in a district, they could get their broadband for free for a certain number of months, but it definitely is not perfect for everybody, so.

- Our world changed a lot with the pandemic and also pressure socially from some things that are happening really around the world.

And with that, maybe there's a feeling of isolation or maybe there's a feeling of being disconnected.

Val, can you talk a little bit about, you know, what's happened really in terms of changes and how people are responding in terms of rural mental health?

- Certainly.

I think one of the things that really stands out about our educators through all of this are the challenges and the changes that happened this Spring into this summer, is people go into teaching because they love being by people and suddenly that part was, was absent.

And so I think what really made our profession stand out was our willingness to support each other and we all recognized that there was something missing for each one of us.

We wanted to be with our peers and our colleagues, and we put so much of our attention as educators into our students.

But by the same token, we also have needs as professionals to connect and to be supported.

And I think that's where our profession really shined.

I think within a day or two of Governor Walls's decision that schools were going to have to move to distance learning, right away the agricultural educators communicated with each other and set up some times to connect through Zoom and share ideas.

But I think even beyond the curriculum that was shared, it was that overall message of supports and health and wellbeing.

A few phone calls came our way here, as people said, "Oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm going to do."

And we tried to reassure them with a calming voice like, "We're all in this together, so if you feel stressed right now, that's normal, but here's what we want to offer you to help you navigate it through."

And our profession went so far as to even include the rural mental health specialist, Monica McConkey, who did a fabulous job of bringing it all back to what's important to that person and how, what can they control and what can they not control?

And I think that message spoke to all of us in a way that helped us better serve our students.

And so again, I think the way that I listened to, to Ethan and Stacy talk about their program, they gave so much to their students, but I'm hopeful that we supported them enough, that they equally felt like someone was looking out for their health and wellbeing.

- It is so important to be connected and so important to be heard.

And again, people are social people for the most part and they're forced into something different, it caused stress.

And I think about teachers and I think about the students as they, as they're competing in contests normally that puts up a level of anxiety sometimes.

So it is important, we must deliver, we must be productive.

Well, it's a new time.

So Ethan, there might've been events that didn't happen because of the pandemic, maybe a faculty picnic, maybe a faculty meeting, maybe a training session or in the FFA.

How did you adapt to that?

- I think we have this conversation about rural mental health frequently, which is essential, it's crucial, but I want to call to the surface that mental health is not just a rural issue.

It's a pandemic we're facing across the United States.

We as agricultural education teachers sit at this weird intersection of supporting the agricultural industry while supporting students as well.

And whether it was that pig farmer having to euthanize hogs during this pandemic and the meat markets closed down, we hear those pig farmers in struggles they go through.

All of agriculture faced extreme lows and commodity prices, which caused financial stress leading to mental health issues.

We hear these farmers were, we struggle with these farmers.

But then at the same time, we have students that aren't receiving the same check-ins from the teachers they normally do.

And there are so many students that come to school as a safe haven.

And when school went to distance learning, they lost that safe haven.

It was up to us as educators, as agricultural educators to support those students, try to support all of agriculturists.

But like Val mentioned, we had great support in doing that, whether that be that rural mental health specialist, whether it be support from within our district, whether it be from the Minnesota Farm Bureau, I want to give a shout out to them in providing some support through their listserv.

And so we weren't alone with that.

But Dan, getting back to your question, there were definitely staff events that were canceled, but I also would give a shout out to my administration for adjusting, being adaptable, to continue providing that support, to ensure that our mental health was being met, but also giving grace to our students because relationships are really the foundation of social and emotional learning.

And through these relationships that we were hopefully able to establish before we went to distance learning, we were able to support that social and emotional wellbeing of our students.

And so I think this is a huge issue that we were facing, COVID made it more difficult, but luckily through our support, we were able to rise to the challenge for the most part, but not to minimize the experience of our students and of our agriculturists.

- Great comments, Ethan and you bring up a good point in how interconnected our economy, our rural communities, our schools, our students, and our farm people are.

They're producing food, fuel, feed, and fiber.

And imagine your heart is in raising livestock or crops and it had to perhaps be destroyed because the market was disrupted.

How do you reach out to a farmer who, his heart and soul is into producing food to feed people and say, "I'm so sorry for what's going on."

How do you approach that even?

- My number one priority is my students and I have a couple of students that were aspiring farmers down here in Southern Minnesota and so reaching out to them ensuring they're supported and feel heard from another caring adult.

And so that's, that's where my priority was.

But then also utilizing these other connections and these other support groups, whether that be the corn growers, the pork producers, the Minnesota Farm Bureau or Farmers Union, there's a lot of great avenues.

And so utilizing social media platforms and sharing that message got out there, forwarding emails as necessary.

But then also just making those connections with the folks that I already have relationships with is pretty essential to ensure that, but also making sure those resources are broadcasted and promoted on a wider basis.

- Brynne, can you tell us about your needs and your classmates needs in terms of mental health?

- This times has been very hard on just being able to cope with not having that social life that you used to have.

And I found it very helpful and inspiring when teachers would reach out and just check on you.

Cause it really gave me an uplift in attitude and motivation towards your work and everything you were doing in life.

So I really appreciated that from teachers and kind of understood that they were also going through a hard time and trying to keep that in mind and try and support them as best as I could as well.

So that's kinda my take on this.

- Thank you for sharing, and to the entire panel thank you for helping tell the story of agriculture and in particular mental health.

Like most farming seasons, living in these unprecedented times requires flexibility, adaptability, and out of the box thinking.

In addition, as we found out from today's guests, we have to stay connected to our friends and neighbors and be sure to pitch in when they need our help.

I'm Dan Hoffman, thanks for watching Farm Connections.

(upbeat country music) (upbeat country music) (upbeat music)