CiCis!

The first Cici’s Pizza night in December went really well. About 50 people came out to support the Natural Science Technology Center and included students and their families. We’re hoping that the next one on January includes students, their families and lots of NSTC supporters! It’s an easy way to support your favorite school and you don’t have to make dinner!

Food Drive!

The students at NSTC held a friendly competition to see which class could bring in the most non-perishable food items to donate to the Northwest Ohio Food Bank and the Pet Food Bank at Humane Ohio. The students collected over 300 pounds of food in a 2 week period. Both the Junior and Senior animal management classes tied for first place averaging 5 cans per student.

Natural Resources Update by Macie Zeller

During this time period if you walk by our class we would be doing Taxidermy. Taxidermy is the process of taking the insides out of mammals and stuffing them with cotton after all the fat and skin is cleaned out. This quarter we also learned about skulls. We learned how to age and tell the difference of the animal. We saw the skulls of various mammals such as deer, dogs, cats, minks, squirrels, eastern chipmunks and various different wildlife animals. Another thing we did is work on our home wildlife plan. In this plan we did a power point on animal census and planning for how we can get animals attracted to our yards. We pretended that we had all the money in the world to do this plan and most of our plans are coming out very well. We also studied very hard to get our greenhand and chapter degrees. It was hard work but everybody in Natural Resources received a degree. It was a fun period of the school year and we look forward to moving on in the year with more fun and lots of activities.

Landscape and Turf Teams With the Andersons

The Landscape and Turf program at NSTC is teaming up with The Andersons Research and Development Department, to conduct a very significant study of turf weed control products. The Andersons is in the process of developing a new weed control formulation, and requested the help of the Landscape and Turf program, as well as the Floriculture program.
The two programs at NSTC transplanted 1500 turf weeds into greenhouse containers, and have cared for them in the greenhouses for more than a month now. From here, the Andersons R&D personnel will come in and apply the experimental herbicide. They will be back to monitor the effectiveness of their product over the next 5-6 weeks.
This is a very exciting experiment because if this product does as well as intended, it will change the way that golf courses, landscapers and farmers apply pesticides, making it safer for all. This will most definitely grab the attention of the biggest pesticide companies and become a global product that was tested with the help of our Toledo Public Schools students. Watch for future articles about this exciting experiment.

Dog Obedience Graduation

Four students and their canine companions graduated from a 7-week dog obedience course offered to them after school hours. The purpose of this class is for students to learn techniques involving luring, positive and negative reinforcement in order to teach a dog to respond to basic obedience commands. Students also chose a fun trick to have their dog perform on the night of graduation. Anna the Yorkie gave an enthusiastic high-five. Bailey the Cocker did an army crawl through a tunnel fashioned out of a cardboard box. Willow this terrier mix jumped through a hoop. Most impressive was Poppy, the balloon popping Bichon who had to jump in a box to be rewarded with balloons to pop! This class is offered free of charge to the students. Tuition at other dog training schools is usually $120.00 for a similar program. All students received a graduation certificate indicating their level of competencies achieved.

Floriculture Update by Krista Woodruff

The month of December we really worked hard in Floriculture class! We took business tours of Lehmann’s Greenhouse and Pawlaczyk’s Holiday Wreaths ‘N Such because they are holiday vendors of ours. Lehmann’s was really cool because it was a big greenhouse where they had a lot of plants everywhere and they were mostly poinsettias. When we went to Pawlaczyk’s Holiday Wreaths N’ Such we saw how the workers made wreaths, grave blankets and grave pillows. Everyone couldn’t believe how fast they could make everything. The class had a fun time on these tours and learned a lot.
For the past month we have also been so busy completing orders and making the customers happy. We even designed the flowers for a wedding! The flower of the month was a 6 inch poinsettias and we delivered them to our Flower of the Month Club members. The month was eventful, it flew by so fast!

Sub District and District Job Interview by Shaniece Langston

The Job Interview Career Development Event is a great experience. The contest prepares you for the future. It takes a lot of preparation for the contest but in the end it’s all worth it. The knowledge that is gained from the CDE can really be used when thinking about a career for your future. I’ve participated in the contest for 2 years now and I’ve shown a lot of progress from when I first started. It’s much easier for me because I know what to expect and I know what is expected from me. I’ve talked to a lot of my peers that have participated in the CDE and I’ve gotten the same feedback to share. They’ve all said that they were nervous before the interview, but afterwards they realized it wasn’t as hard as they anticipated. Participating in the Job Interview CDE has been one of the best things that I could do to better myself.

The SubDistrict Interview CDE was hosted by NSTC on December 1st and from Floriculture Tami Crockett, Tyrena Depp and Krista Woodruff earned a spot to move on to Districts on December 15th. From Natural Resources, Shaniece Langston, Shanise Howie and Macie Zeller earned a spot to compete at Districts. Congratulations!

Thank you to our interviewers: Greg Genzman, retired Park Ranger for Wood County Parks, Marilyn Dufour, Environmental Specialist for Toledo Division of Environmental Services, Heather Norris, Programs Director for Toledo Area Metroparks, Matt Shanahan, Senior District Executive for Erie Shores Council Boy Scouts of America, Tim Birthisel, Technology Development Manager for The Andersons, Inc.
A special thanks to: Jacqueline Turner, retired TPS Teacher, Adrienne Mullens, Stable Manager for Forestview Stables, Yvonne King, Director of Industrial and Engineering Technology and Natalie Cook, NSTC Small Animal Management Instructor for their help as room monitors in scoring applications and follow up letters.

Landscape and Turf Goes to Districts by Derek Fuller

The Landscape and Turf students tested their knowledge this month at District Contest. The career development event was held December 5th at Penta Career Center. The students faired well, as they had studied long and hard for this opportunity.
Leading the way for NSTC’s Landscape and Turf team was Bobby Ramirez. Bobby is a senior from Start High School. He placed 11 overall in the district with 105 points. He was closely followed by Rogers High School senior, Derek Fuller, with a score of 99.

The NSTC team ended up in 5th place, and was less than 40 points out of 3rd place. Mr. Weiss said, “I am very proud of all the students who competed, and hope to have an even better showing at the State Competition on January 27th in Columbus”.

Congratulations! by Sara Padgett

From the beginning of the school year we have been learning and explaining the FFA motto and creed and learning about the FFA emblem and the FFA salute. We also learned the FFA colors, FFA official dress as well as the proper use of the FFA jacket, the meaning of the emblem, and the FFA Code of Ethics. We also had to learn where the officers sat and what their symbol was. After mastering everything, the first year agriculture students took a test so we could prove we knew the information in order to earn our Greenhand degree. Once we received an 85% or higher on the test then we were able to receive a certificate and a bronze Greenhand pin at the Degree Ceremony which was held December 9th during class. The Greenhand pin will be worn on our official jacket to special events. At the ceremony forty-two first year students were called up in front of the school to receive their degree and get our picture taken. After the ceremony was over we had cake and ice cream to celebrate.Three second-year Natural Resources students earned their Chapter Degree. This is the second tier of the FFA Degree System. These students have already earned their Greenhand Degree, completed 180 hours of agriculture education, have earned $150 through their Supervised Agriculture Experience, have helped conduct three official FFA functions, lead a group for 15 minutes or more, and demonstrated five parliamentary procedures. Congratulations to Jordan Enis, Rob Giles and Shaniece Langston for earning the Chapter Degree and silver Chapter Degree pin!