Waking up cheerfully to the sun and following it through the day, the field of sunflowers planted by Jacob Jones, a junior at Wellington High School, is a sight to behold. "It looks great," said John Wells, agricultural education instructor and Future Farmers of America (FFA) advisor. "So many people are commenting on it. I want to ask him to plant some next year because everyone loves them." Planted last summer, the field looks close to full maturity and will be harvested this fall. Driving behind the school, parents and students can admire the field of flowers as a forefront to the city’s skyline. Jones decided to farm the high school's land as part of his FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE), where students independently work on an agricultural project outside of class. He had help from his uncle, Jeff Schmidt. "The purpose is so students can apply the knowledge they learn in the classroom to a project they work on outside of the classroom," Wells said. "Some will work in a greenhouse, mow yards and perform upkeep, or one student helps his family doing repairs on rentals." There are no requirements as to the amount of time a student spends on their project. "Some spend only a couple of hours and some are quite lengthy," Wells said. Jones spent approximately ten hours discing and cultivating, 4-5 hours planting, a few hours checking to make sure the field isn't getting eaten by insects and he will spend approximately ni ...
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Waking up cheerfully to the sun and following it through the day, the field of sunflowers planted by Jacob Jones, a junior at Wellington High School, is a sight to behold. "It looks great," said John Wells, agricultural education instructor and Future Farmers of America (FFA) advisor. "So many people are commenting on it. I want to ask him to plant some next year because everyone loves them." Planted last summer, the field looks close to full maturity and will be harvested this fall. Driving behind the school, parents and students can admire the field of flowers as a forefront to the city’s skyline. Jones decided to farm the high school's land as part of his FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE), where students independently work on an agricultural project outside of class. He had help from his uncle, Jeff Schmidt. "The purpose is so students can apply the knowledge they learn in the classroom to a project they work on outside of the classroom," Wells said. "Some will work in a greenhouse, mow yards and perform upkeep, or one student helps his family doing repairs on rentals." There are no requirements as to the amount of time a student spends on their project. "Some spend only a couple of hours and some are quite lengthy," Wells said. Jones spent approximately ten hours discing and cultivating, 4-5 hours planting, a few hours checking to make sure the field isn't getting eaten by insects and he will spend approximately ni ...