A FUTURE AGRONOMIST SPROUTS
Granton student learns from project
By Cheyenne Thomas
What do you want to be when you grow up? It’s a question often asked to children at various stages of their lives, and more often than not, the child’s answer will change a great deal the older they get.
For Jordan Berg, however, the answer to that question has remained the same ever since sixth grade. A recent Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE) project has helped her learn more about her future dream career.
The soon-to-be freshman from Granton recently completed an unusual SAE project that gave her more of an understanding of what she will need to learn to become an agronomist. That’s been her dream ever since she started middle school, and the dream has only gotten stronger as the years have gone by.
“She’s always wanted to be an agronomist,” said Katie Reider, the Granton High School agriculture teacher and FFA advisor. “She told me that in sixth grade, and unlike other kids, she’s stuck with it.”
When asked about why she chose agronomy, Berg said she can’t quite recall what made her fall in love with the idea of agronomy as a future career. As her family owns a farm, she said she’s always been around plants and, quite like a plant, it must have grown from there.
“I’ve always had an interest in agronomy,” she said. “I like to help my family with growing their plants. We like to talk about crops and it just stuck with me.”
While Berg has always had this love of plants and thought a future career as an agronomist would be perfect for her, she had never really been given the chance
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GRANTON GREENTHUMB - Jordan Berg, a soon-to-be freshman at Granton High School, displays some of the plants she experimented with as part of a recently completed Supervised Agricutlure Experience. SAE
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to see if it would actually be something she’d enjoy. That changed this past fall when she got the opportunity to complete an SAE project for class.
As part of their agriculture lessons, every agriculture student at Granton is required to complete one SAE project each year. While most students go after simple projects to complete the minimum requirements of the assignment, Berg said she didn’t want to go that route. She wanted her project to mean something, and on discussing it with her teacher, agronomy was the way to go.
“I was thinking about starting an SAE to do with agronomy and Mrs. Reider suggested that I do an agriscience project as my SAE,” said Berg. “We sat down and came up with a list of ideas. We talked about store-bought versus homegrown plants and went off on this.”
For her project, Berg decided to conduct an experiment to see how different types of soil and fertilizer affect plant growth, with a goal to increase crop yields. For her project, she would test three different types of soil and fertilizer on several different types of plants to see what effects it would have on growth rate and eventual crop size.
“I did some research about different types of fertilizer and plants with a 30day growth rate, mainly vegetables,” she said on starting up her project. “I decided to go with agurula, tomatoes, radishes, beans, peas and lettuce for crops. The soil was just plain soil, but I would fertilize some with natural organic fertilizer like worm casings, inorganic fertilizer like Miracle Grow and synthetic organic fertilizer.”
Since it was such an ambitious project that would require a lot of materials to get started — from pots to plants — Reider suggested that she fill out an application for a SAE Project Start-up grant to help fund the experiment. She was awarded a $1,000 grant in February to help her get started on the project.
“One or two students apply for the grant every year (from Granton),” said Reider. “It depends on the project, but at least one student tends to get the grant. There’s a lot of success with start-up grants.”
Once she was able to get all of her materials, Berg was able to get started on her project. Throughout the process, she said there were a lot of variables that affected the progress of her experiment. From temperature differences to soil pH levels, there were a lot of initial unknowns, giving Berg a real learning experience.
“There were lots of variables,” she said. “I did have one type of synthetic fertilizer that worked but the inorganic fertilizer had problems with pH. It burnt the soil and eventually burnt the plants too.”
In the end, just like any experiment, Berg said her initial goals of increasing crop yields were not quite met. However, she said there was still a lot she learned about crop production and fertilizers. This information will be useful if she decides to take up the project again next year.
“The variables messed with (the project) a bit,” she said. “But I found that the natural fertilizers made the plants grow faster and better. (If I were to do the project again) I would try to keep the plants away from the heaters here in the greenhouse. They did not grow so well there. I would see if I can find a better fertilizer or soil. I hope that I will be able to build off of this initial experiment and use it to help organize future research projects that I will conduct when I am in high school.”
Helping her in that future endeavor will be the grant funds she received to start up her project. Reider said the first year of starting an SAE project is often the most expensive for a student due to the amount of materials they need to purchase to get started. But with the grant funds, Berg was not only able to complete a project that would have otherwise been impossible for her, she’ll also be able to continue in the same vein next year with the same materials.
“I wouldn’t have had this opportunity without that grant,” Berg said. “Without additional financial assistance, I would have been unable to afford these resources on my own. If I could not afford them, I would have been forced to either alter my science experiment plan or to use cheaper materials.”
The project has also helped Berg gain more knowledge on agronomy and has solidified her desire to become an agronomist in the future. When she enters high school this fall, Berg said she already has some plans laid out on what classes she plans to take to help her get a jump-start on her agronomy studies and has even begun to think about life after high school.
“I definitely will be taking science and agriculture classes,” she said. “They’re very important in the field of agronomy. When I graduate from high school, I plan to attend UW-River Falls where I will major in agronomy with a minor in agricultural communications … Upon graduation from college, I hope to be an advocate for the agriculture community by serving as Alice in Dairyland. The field of agriculture needs more support now than ever and I want to be that voice.”
The SAE project Berg completed also had effects beyond experimentation and her own future career plans.
Reider said Berg’s work and dedication toward her project will help inspire other agriculture students to seriously consider their own SAE project in the future and what it could teach them about a future career.
“I think it’s awesome” she said. “She’s our first student who completed an agriscience project as an SAE. It was her idea, she met the needs and she just ran with it from there. She has been in here every other day since February to take care of her plants. There was a lot of commitment and drive. I hope it will give the other students a little more motivation with their projects.”
