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Student LEAP Now Being Offered Students enrolled in agricultural education programs will have the opportunity to participate in a cutting-edge curriculum that integrates animal sciences with environmental, ecological and agronomic sciences as a student version of the Livestock Environmental Assurance Program (LEAP) has been created by Ohio State University’s (OSU) departments of Animal Sciences, Human and Community Resource Development, and Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering. "The primary goal of the new student version of LEAP is to produce a new generation of highly qualified individuals who can work in fields that interface production agriculture with the environment, specifically, manure management, air, and water quality issues while linking environmental assurance with agriculture, food production systems and public health," said David White, executive director of the Ohio Livestock Coalition (OLC). According to White, the student version of the program’s curriculum matches-up with agricultural education standards for plant science, animal science, business operations and environmental science. Twenty-nine benchmarks in the areas of care and management, contaminates, plant nutrition, water, air, land, waste management, emergency response and issue identification/discussion are identified in each of the program’s 13 chapters. The program’s spiral bound notebook features quiz questions for ag education instructors to consider using, as well as a supplemental CD that includes an electronic version of each chapter, power point presentations, a supplemental photo set to aid in classroom discussion and a supplemental DVD for selected chapters. Since its inception seven years ago, more than 5,900 livestock farmers have participated in the adult version of LEAP through local training sessions -- hosted primarily by OSU Extension, soil and water conservation districts and the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) – that have provided beef, sheep, dairy, pork and poultry producers with the opportunity to economically address environmental challenges. "Youth enrolled in agricultural education programs should be provided with a similar opportunity as an overwhelming majority of the current agricultural education curriculum that is animal science-based focuses on managing animal inputs, such as feed, nutrition, digestion, utilization, and absorption," said White. "A very small portion focuses on an equally important component – managing animal output, or more specifically, manure that can be utilized as valuable nutrients and associated waste products, such as egg or milking center waste waters." Providing leadership at OSU in developing the program have been Steve Boyles, Jon Rausch and Wes Budke. Ag education instructors/FFA advisors Wendi Stachler, London, and Nevin Taylor, Fairbanks, have provided valuable service as program development contributors and reviewers, with both noting that Student LEAP is easy to incorporate into an agricultural education program’s curriculum. |
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the Student LEAP Curriculum Summary Curriculum Includes the Following Tools/Aids:
To obtain Student LEAP curriculum materials, contact:
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Electronic
format of each Student LEAP Chapter.