Urban Agriculture School: WB Saul

Today, I had the opportunity to visit WB Saul in Philadelphia. When I was there, I learned how an urban agriculture program can run with multiple teachers. Having a large farm for educational use in the city of Philadelphia was very eye opening and I am so thankful to have visited!

At Saul, students have a choice of four tracts: animal science, plant science, food science, or environmental science. In their freshman year, students will take some classes in each of the different options. At the end of freshman year, students will pick which major they would like to pursue for the rest of their high school career. On my visit, I spent most of my time in the animal science field, but I got to work with one section of plant science and one of food science.

For 1st period, I was given a tour of the large animal facilities at the high school. Students have the responsibility of taking care of dairy cows, calves, sheep, horses, donkeys, and some beef cattle. I loved seeing how students truly cared for the animals that they were responsible for. As the students get higher in grades, they will eventually work with the smaller animals: dogs, gerbils, rabbits, mice, rats, and guinea pigs. Students were very excited to show me how their school worked and the different animals that they are responsible.

In 2nd period, the plant science class was preparing their display for next week's Philadelphia Flower Show. Their display was modeled after the French Riveria. Although Saul does not have an official agricultural mechanics major, many of the activities of the plant science major included carpentry. I loved seeing how each student did their individual part in creating the entire display as a team. It was awesome!

Period 3 took me to Ms. K's senior animal science class. In their final capstone class, students were learning about the digestive system of monogastrics. To wrap up all of the content knowledge, Ms. K gave students saliva, stomach acid, a PVC pipe, pantyhose, two ziploc baggies, and some tortilla chips. Using inquiry learning, students had to create a model of the digestive system to take their chips from their original form to a feces form. This was super interesting and a lab I plan to use when I teach digestion in the future.

The last period of the day was spent with first year teacher, Miss C. After completing her student teaching at Saul last year, Miss C decided to stay at Saul to continue her impact on students. She teaches a variety of classes from animal science, environmental science, and food science. Her freshman food science class was working on careers in food science. I really valued seeing a first year teacher.

My experience at Saul was amazing and I hope I can return another time. Students welcomed me into their school with open arms and even told me that I should come back as a teacher! I want to thank all of the staff at WB Saul for showing me around their programs, giving me resources to use throughout the remainder of my student teaching, and demonstrating how to make a positive impact on the lives of students.