FFA participates in PBL Exhibition Night

On Dec. 7, Urbana High-School hosted a PBL exhibition night where students, parents and community could come in and present their projects for the quarter to their parents, teachers, and peers. The event was open to the community and was created as a way for students to get more comfortable with presenting as well as showcase their class work. Mrs. Zachrich’s first period Animal and Plant Science class presented their project from the beginning of the year; where they learned about animal nutrition, packaging and labeling and found a recipe for dog treats and then made them from scratch.

The class decided to make peanut butter and pumpkin dog treats. After finding the recipe, they created a label for the treat, listing the ingredients and giving their “product” a name, Bone Appetite. The treats took two class days to create and were given to dog owners at the Homecoming Parade back in September. For the PBL, they set out left over dog treats and explained the process of creating their product. They described the nutritional value that the treats had, regulations behind labeling and packaging and why the dogs enjoyed them.

Mr. Wilhelm’s AFNR classes also participated in the PBL night. They presented their Food Product Development project; in this project students were assigned to come up with a food product that they wanted to make. They then had to make a display panel, which consisted of a picture of the product, the product’s net weight, the calories, common name, product name, company name, and serving size. Students were required to create a nutrition label for their product as well. When presenting their project, students had to explain the process of coming up with their product and the nutrition label, and the importance of the nutrition label.

Project Based Learning has been a part of Urbana City Schools for several years and the positive affects of incorporating PBL at Urbana is showing through students abilities to present and the ownership of their projects and dedication to creating a well thought out and executed PBL.

Respectfully submitted,

Kianna Gsell

Urbana FFA Reporter