Aledo FFA students among nation’s best at solving problems in challenging world
When it comes to working to make the world a better place agriculturally, some students at Aledo High School are winning.
When the school’s Future Farmers of America program decided in 2018 to enter national agriscience competition, they saw immediate successful results — including back-to-back national championships by Dylan Sweatt (2018, Division 1, Social Systems) and Cole Bohnen (2019, Division 3, Structural and Technical Systems).
In all, over two seasons, the program has taken five projects to the National FFA Convention, this past one being in Indianapolis, and had four top-three finishes.
Also, sophomore Gabby Schultz competed in Division 3 and received a gold rating. In 2018, then freshmen Corbin Haber and Glenn Seay teamed to place third in Division 2 (Social Systems).
“Research and the Agriscience Fair has been a passion of mine since I had the opportunity to help with the contest while in graduate school. When I started teaching at Aledo, I knew it was a contest I wanted our students to have the opportunity to compete in,” said Krysti Kelley, Aledo Animal Science Teacher and FFA Advisor.
Under Kelley and Career and Technical Education Director Mary Elizabeth Smith, the program has blossomed. In the past two years they’ve taken 10 projects to the state contest, with half of those advancing to nationals.
The Aledo FFA program had not previously qualified for a national contest before her arrival.
“To me, Agriscience Fair is one of the most powerful FFA opportunities we can offer our students. It empowers them to become problem-solvers and create solutions independently,” Kelley said. “Through this contest, students are learning academic writing and gaining connections with academic researchers from across the state and nation.
“Universities are wanting to work with our students because of the quality of their work. Our students are earning scholarship money they can use to further their education. To have all of this success with their projects is just icing on the cake to me.”
Also, in the spring of 2019, the school’s horse judging team won the Texas FFA state contest and qualified for national competition, earning a gold rating and eighth overall. In the summer of 2018, Daeleigh Patridge, now a freshman at Weatherford College, won the Lone Star Cup in Horse Judging, being the highest-ranked judging student in Texas.
In order to qualify for nationals in agriscience, students designed a research project, wrote a scientific report, presented a speech, displayed, and answered questions about their project from a panel of judges. The top 12 projects from across the nation in each division received invitations to National FFA Convention late in the year to compete for the title.
Bohnen, a sophomore, created a way to explore distortion when using a CNC plasma table. A CNC plasma table is plasma cutting, a process where metal is cut using a plasma arc.
“A CNC plasma table is an extremely useful tool for getting quick, accurate, and clean cuts that a normal cutting torch can often not provide,” Bohnen said. “However, a common problem can occur — distortion. I used multiple thicknesses of metal and levels of water in order to expand the data.”
Kelley stressed the importance of agriscience in society today because of the challenges agriculture is facing.
“The world population is expected to reach nine billion people by 2050, and agriculturalists are going to be faced with feeding this population with less land than ever before,” she said. “Agriscience is teaching students to find problems and use research to help solve them.”
BIG YEAR FOR BOHNEN
In addition to winning a national championship in agriscience, Bohnen finished second in state competition in December in creed speaking at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. He had to present the FFA creed using his speaking skills, along with movement patterns, gesticulation, and even facial expressions. He also had to answer several questions about the FFA creed.
“Creed speaking is likely part of the reason that I was able to win nationals for my agriscience project. It has taught me so many skills related to speaking and critical thinking,” he said. “I have been practicing creed speaking for three years now, so I’ve definitely said the creed a lot of times.”
Bohnen had previously advanced to state in agricultural sales twice. It’s a career development event that tests one’s sales knowledge through an exam, a scenario where competitors must determine how to sell to a customer, and an actual sales call.
Bohnen said he would like to someday own a business in the real estate industry. He also wants to become a member of Congress when he’s old enough. He is currently president of the Aledo FFA Chapter. He’d also like to join his older brother at Cornell University.
This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 7:00 AM.