Walter Biddle Saul Agriculture High School Visit

This past week I visited Ms. Olivia Murphy-Sweet at Walter Biddle Saul Agricultural High School.  It was great to do a little traveling and visit with another cohort member.  The day started early to try and beat some of the Monday morning traffic I might encounter on my way to Philadelphia.  Luckily, traffic wasn’t too intense and I made it for the entirety of Ms. Sweet’s first period class! 

I had never been to W.B. Saul, but had heard about the awesome things their program did on the outskirts of Philadelphia.  W.B. Saul has over 15 agriculture instructors and four pathways students can choose to take if they are accepted into the school at the end of their eighth grade year. 

The morning began with me observing Ms. Sweet’s vet science class.  They were going over diseases and Ms. Sweet did an awesome interest approach with them using a black light and having one of the student’s be “infected”.  The students really took to this interest approach and she had them hooked from the start of the period.  Ms. Sweet then went over with them about how the body fights diseases and infections.  The remainder of the class period was spent with the students working on their OSHA certification.  During this time I got to interact with some of the students and they showed me all the different types of animals they have in their vet science class.  These animals ranged from lizards, ferrets, mice, rats, guinea pigs, and even dogs! 

After Ms. Sweet’s first period class I got to take a tour of Saul.  As I said before students can choose a pathway at the beginning of their ninth grade year.  Saul offers horticulture, food science, animal science, and environmental science.  Their facilities were incredible.  With greenhouses and students working on floriculture designs to a meat science lab and students learning how to cut an animal down from whole hog to retail cuts.  Saul also has an operating dairy, horses, hogs, and sheep for the students to enhance their animal science skills.

The afternoon brought Ms. Sweet’s three hour environmental science class!  That’s correct you heard me right three hours of instruction.  Ms. Sweet did a phenomenal job with variability of instruction and keeping learners on task.  The lesson she was teaching while I was there was about different types of root systems.  After going over the day’s instruction the students spent the remainder of the class period presenting their environmental workshops to Ms. Sweet and me.  These workshops will later be conducted to middle school students at their environmental field day.  The last half hour of class I got to take a tour of their community garden and honeybees they recently reestablished.

My visit to Saul was more than I ever could have imagined.  In the heart of one of Pennsylvania’s largest cities agriculture education is thriving.