Flocking to the classroom: UGA's Avian Academy hosts ag and STEM teachers

On a Monday morning in late June, just over two dozen middle- and high-school teachers trickled into a classroom at the University of Georgia Poultry Research Center and took their seats in groups of two and three.

Some carried notebooks or scouted for outlets to plug in laptops, while others carried only cups of coffee or water bottles, resembling adult versions of the students who populate their classrooms during the school year.

Hailing from public schools around the state, the teachers were preparing for Avian Academy, a highly popular three-day program for agriculture and STEM teachers hosted annually by the Department of Poultry Science in UGA's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences(CAES).

While most who attend the summer program are agriculture teachers interested in incorporating poultry science into their curriculum, others teach related courses or work with agriculture programs in their home schools and districts. According to the Georgia Department of Education, there are 397 agricultural education programs in middle and high schools around the state, plus 57 agricultural programs in elementary schools.

The teachers spend three days learning from poultry science department faculty and staff, getting hands-on experience in what they will teach in their own classrooms during the school year. Modules include the history of Georgia's poultry industry; breed identification; alternative production systems like backyard flocks, embryology and incubation; food safety and more.

Brian Kiepper, an associate professor of poultry science and Avian Academy instructor, pointed out to the teachers that chickens are an ideal teaching species for both physiological and cultural reasons.

"Chickens have a very short gestation time. If I have a fertilized egg on day zero, I will have a chick in 21 days," Kiepper said. "Also, the story of our food and where it comes from is fascinating. When you combine it with history and culture and you find stories to tell - and there are a million of them - you'll blow your students' minds, and they'll remember it every day."

C.J. Pinson, an agriculture education teacher at South Effingham Middle School in Guyton, Georgia, attended Avian Academy to bolster his poultry knowledge after the school received a grant from the National FFA Organization to expand the poultry science curricula in middle and high school agriculture courses.

"Students in the agricultural education program are required to participate in FFA. We cover egg candling and evaluating layers for production, but I hope that this course will provide practical ideas we can bring into the classroom to increase the number of lessons we teach in poultry science," said Pinson, who earned his bachelor's degree in agricultural education from CAES in 2007.

Stonecrest, Georgia-based Arabia Mountain High School agriculture teacher Sabrina Davis said that incorporating poultry science for urban and suburban students generates citizens who are more connected to their food systems.

"It is easier to raise chickens in backyards and on school grounds than other animals, and it is a great way to bring the idea of agriculture full circle for these students," she said.