* Ag. Science *

rainbowtrout · 30-10-2010 11:48am

wayhey wrote: »

Slightly random, but do cattle eat daisies? Or buttercups?

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=3

It's so hard to know what sites to trust!

If there's nothing else to eat!

They will always go for the best quality grazing first, if you want to put something in about noxious weeds talk about ragwort and if you are looking for reliable sites perhaps start with Irish sites and start with www.teagasc.ie or www.agriculture.gov.ie

rainbowtrout · 01-11-2010 9:14pm

http://agscience.slss.ie/resources/c/1920/Ag%20Science%20Magazine%20Issue%201.pdf

This has been produced by the Irish Ag Science Teachers Association and the Second Level Support Services (for teachers). It outlines the project breakdown etc etc, some of you might find it useful

rainbowtrout · 01-11-2010 11:20pm

The Dept of Ed has finally got its arse in gear and started producing resources for Ag Science. It's still in its infancy and is aimed at teachers.... however if you go through the links on the menu you will find some stuff in there that will be of use to you, particularly under the link for Teaching Resources, powerpoints, exam questions grouped by topic etc etc...

http://agscience.slss.ie/

I wanted to get involved last year but my school wouldn't release me to do it.

rainbowtrout · 21-11-2010 6:33pm

fewtinsoffroth wrote: »

Hi, i'm considering Ag science, i'm also in fifth year. I'm sure i could find an ag science teacher to grade my project, but exactly how much supervision does the teacher have to do?

Well by grading you and signing off on your project they are confirming that the project is your own work, so really you would want to have done the experiments with them. They are supposed to be teaching you the subject - otherwise you could hand them a project which is A standard and they wouldn't know if it was your work or not because they hadn't taught you.

I get handed projects every now and again from my own students and they might be D students and hand in this amazing project which I know they copied/ didn't do by themselves

rainbowtrout · 30-11-2010 6:50pm

doctorg wrote: »

Hey I just have a quick question
Do the Experiments have to written up or can you just type them?
Thanks!

I've seen a couple of students type them, I don't think it's an issue. You should probably leave space to draw in your diagrams so it doesn't look like you copied it from the internet.

rainbowtrout · 30-11-2010 6:53pm

johnfarmer wrote: »

Hi all,
I'm interested in becoming an Agricultural Science teacher. DOes anybody know how to go about doing this? Any information provided would be great

You could do the Ag Science degree in UCD followed by the PGDE or you could do the BSc Science Education (I think it's official name on the CAO is BSc Biological Science with Teacher Education) where you would be qualified to teach Ag Science, Biology and Chemistry or Physics. Teacher training is part of the course.

You will need another subject with Ag Science. While numbers are rising doing the subject and qualified teachers in the subject are needed there are still only 6000 students doing it, so it is still a minority subject.

Aslo - there are little or no teaching jobs out there at the moment and it's going to get a whole lot worse in the next couple of years.

if you go into it, go in with your eyes open.

If you choose the UL degree, you will be qualified to teach, that is the point of the course. If you choose the UCD degree you could branch into other areas of agriculture other than teaching but you will still have to get into the PGDE

paperplane93 · 03-01-2011 3:05pm

Just wondering if I have to include any information on milking parlours in the project? Only I cant seem to find anything on it in the big old brown book. I included lactation yields and drew a lactation curve but i'm not sure weather I need to know anything about milking parlours. .

Thanks

rainbowtrout · 03-01-2011 8:22pm

paperplane93 wrote: »

Just wondering if I have to include any information on milking parlours in the project? Only I cant seem to find anything on it in the big old brown book. I included lactation yields and drew a lactation curve but i'm not sure weather I need to know anything about milking parlours. .
Thanks

Well it depends on whether or not you are doing your project on dairy farm. The textbook isn't the only resource you can use to do research. You could visit a dairy farm.

paperplane93 · 03-01-2011 8:34pm

Thanks for your reply rainbowtrout,
I'm doing dairy farming but didnt put anything about parlours. Our class visited 2 dairy farms last year but I don't remember much emphasis on the types of milking parlours. Sooo what I'm trying to say is: will I lose out on marks if I don't put anything in about them in the project? Can the examiner examine students on them even if there not in my project?
Thanks for your help

rainbowtrout · 04-01-2011 1:15am

paperplane93 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply rainbowtrout,
I'm doing dairy farming but didnt put anything about parlours. Our class visited 2 dairy farms last year but I don't remember much emphasis on the types of milking parlours. Sooo what I'm trying to say is: will I lose out on marks if I don't put anything in about them in the project? Can the examiner examine students on them even if there not in my project?
Thanks for your help

Well I can't say if you will lose marks as it's your teacher that's grading it. I would be inclined to put something in about milking parlours (not necessarily the different types - rotational, herringbone etc) as they are an integral part of dairy farming. There's nothing to say that an examiner can't ask you about them, if you are being interviewed about a dairy project, I wouldn't consider it unfair to ask if you've ever been to a dairy farm and seen a milking parlour and take it from there depending on your response. The whole point of the project is that you are supposed to have had practical experience of it.

rainbowtrout · 06-01-2011 12:24am

mulner92 wrote: »

I did the exam last year, it was hard but i got on fine thankfully. Never liked the biological things, just the farming bits. Rainbowtrout, do you know what a burdizzo is? it was asked on the 2010 paper. I didn't know and i come from an agricultural background and my dad was unsure too, though he has been a farmer all his life

It's a tool used to castrate bulls. I bet your dad calls it the squeezer or something similar

Dave_Kilkenny · 07-01-2011 1:01am

rainbowtrout wrote: »

It's a tool used to castrate bulls. I bet your dad calls it the squeezer or something similar

Our teacher noted to us that there was some controversy over that question as a Burdizzo is simply a popular brand name.

rainbowtrout · 08-01-2011 8:33pm

Kitten88 wrote: »

Just a quick question Ive taken I look through the thread and couldnt spot the answer I was looking for but it might be there so apologise if Im asking a repeat question. With regard the exam paper and answering 6 questions out of a possible 10 (including the two options given for question 3) are any of them compulsory or is it completely random and does anyone have any advice on which ones to try and avoid and which are the best for picking up marks???

None are compulsory but Q1 is worth 60 marks and all other questions are worth 48

60 + (5 x 48) = 300. But you can choose to do any 6 questions, so you could leave out Q1 and do another 48 mark question instead, but you would be dropping 12 marks automatically as you are still marked out of 300. On average I correct 400 papers every year and if I see even 1 paper that doesn't have question 1 attempted, I'd say that's about the most. Almost everyone does it.

Q2 is always a full question on soil, Q4 is always 4 experiments to do 2, so there's a good choice within it, Q7 is always genetics, and Q9 is always scientific explanations with 5 statements to explain 4, however anything can come up in this question.

You cannot answer both options from Q3 and you cannot pick and choose parts from each option eg. You cannot do parts A and B from Option 1 and part C from Option 2. If you choose to do both options for Q3 both will be marked and you will be given the higher mark of the two.

There are a few students who answer both as part of their 6 questions every year and as a result only end up with the marks for 5 questions. Be careful.

RovinPirate · 18-01-2011 5:43pm

Rainbow trout, i would like to ask a question about my Ag science project!
I am repeating this year and doing Ag science in a year, i did very well in biology and its really helping with a lot of the course

Question is, Is chicken (Laying commercial) acceptable as livestock?
Our teacher makes us do two livestock, and ive already done dairy and poultry (nearly 30 pages in dairy its ridiculous!) but my teacher has turned around and said poultry might not be accepted and she wants me to do sheep/pigs or beef as well!! I put an awful lot of work into my poultry section, its alot harder to do than a dairy section!! The farm i visited has both Dairy and Egg production. Basically i just want to know is the hours i spent on poultry gone to waste?

(My Ag. teacher is new to the course and isnt sure about a few things)

rainbowtrout · 18-01-2011 5:46pm

RovinPirate wrote: »

Rainbow trout, i would like to ask a question about my Ag science project!
I am repeating this year and doing Ag science in a year, i did very well in biology and its really helping with a lot of the course

Question is, Is chicken (Laying commercial) acceptable as livestock?
Our teacher makes us do two livestock, and ive already done dairy and poultry (nearly 30 pages in dairy its ridiculous!) but my teacher has turned around and said poultry might not be accepted and she wants me to do sheep/pigs or beef as well!! I put an awful lot of work into my poultry section, its alot harder to do than a dairy section!! The farm i visited has both Dairy and Egg production. Basically i just want to know is the hours i spent on poultry gone to waste?

(My Ag. teacher is new to the course and isnt sure about a few things)

Yes poultry is perfectly fine. No problem there at all. You only need one livestock project so you're well covered having two done.

Make sure you have 2 crop projects from grass/potatoes/cereal though. That's where most people get caught out.

dean27 · 18-01-2011 10:00pm

Hi rainbowtrout ,

Basically after reading some of your posts im starting to worry that my teacher may be incompetent. I am doing my Leaving cert this year , I am one of the only students in the class opting to take Ag science in honours due to the difficulty of the paper and the general crowd of my class being wasters.

I am not worried about the notes of the course , her notes seem to be fine , to me atleast (although i bought hermann giessel's book , which to be perfectly honest i find fairly untidy and non student friendly).
My main point of concern is what i have read about the project write ups.

To date i have completed around 8 experiments , written them up and are in my teachers possesion as is a page i wrote up on ringworm in cattle (The remainder of the class did a page on their assigned topic). I am currently doing my "farm write up". I read some things on here where students have gone to a farm on different occasions on a weekly , monthly basis or whatever it may be. All we done was visit a small time dairy farm here in Donegal , asked general questions about the farm I.e acreage , no of cattle , info on milking sheds + parlour and housing so on so forth.
We have logged this data on a sheet and are now expected to write it up in essay form i believe. Is this the correct format and even project we are doing?

Also i see people mentioning about projects on livestock or a crop etc , to date i have heard nothing about this , is this a fundemental part of the project?

Sorry for so many questions and i would really appreciate it if you would take some time out of what im sure is a busy schedule to answer these questions. Thanks.

rainbowtrout · 19-01-2011 12:31am

dean27 wrote: »

Hi rainbowtrout ,

Basically after reading some of your posts im starting to worry that my teacher may be incompetent. I am doing my Leaving cert this year , I am one of the only students in the class opting to take Ag science in honours due to the difficulty of the paper and the general crowd of my class being wasters.

I am not worried about the notes of the course , her notes seem to be fine , to me atleast (although i bought hermann giessel's book , which to be perfectly honest i find fairly untidy and non student friendly).
My main point of concern is what i have read about the project write ups.

To date i have completed around 8 experiments , written them up and are in my teachers possesion as is a page i wrote up on ringworm in cattle (The remainder of the class did a page on their assigned topic). I am currently doing my "farm write up". I read some things on here where students have gone to a farm on different occasions on a weekly , monthly basis or whatever it may be. All we done was visit a small time dairy farm here in Donegal , asked general questions about the farm I.e acreage , no of cattle , info on milking sheds + parlour and housing so on so forth.
We have logged this data on a sheet and are now expected to write it up in essay form i believe. Is this the correct format and even project we are doing?

Also i see people mentioning about projects on livestock or a crop etc , to date i have heard nothing about this , is this a fundemental part of the project?

Sorry for so many questions and i would really appreciate it if you would take some time out of what im sure is a busy schedule to answer these questions. Thanks.

Visiting a small farm is fine. It's the write up that matters. I would say you would need more than a page though. Is the subject new to your school? I've examined in Donegal before and all the schools up there were usually pretty on the ball with project work.

I would say aim for about 15 pages - before there is a flood of posts going 'is that the minimum/maximum I should write/I only have 5 pages/ I have 95 pages etc etc etc' I'm suggesting this as something reasonable and see how you get on from there.

Start with a couple of pictures of the breeds of cattle you saw on the farm. Let's say the farmer had Friesians, Holsteins and Jerseys for arguments sake. Go and get some pictures of these breeds. Stick them on a page and do some research on each breed and write it up beside each photo.

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/

This is quite a good website to get started in terms of breed info.

Then you mentioned milking parlour and housing. Get some pictures of milking parlours, eg herringbone or rotary, again write up some information on each of these. You can then comment on whatever set up the farmer had on his farm.

Cattle are usually housed in the winter, so maybe you could take some photos of slatted sheds and talk about them and you could also talk about when the herd goes in for the winter, dosing them before going in to prevent disease.

Talk about the feed they are given indoors - dairy nuts, silage, hay, get some photos of each or if you can get a small sample of any of the them (nuts in particular) put them in a small plastic ziplock bag and tape it into your project. Visit the local co-op, you might get some stuff there.

Farmer probably has calves. Talk about calving, what happens during calving, use of calving jacks etc. Talk about how to care for calves after they're born - feeding colostrum , dipping navel in iodine etc.

Grazing methods used on the farm - paddock, strip, block.

Disease control - mention the different diseases that cattle can get and how they can be prevented. You can get photos of cattle with diseases, you can also cut ads from the farmers journal or get info at your local teagasc office on commercial products used to treat illness and disease e.g. Ivomec pour on etc . Put pics of these in your project.

That should give you loads to write about.

Rather than me writing an essay about the rest of the project, take some time and read through this thread from the start. I've outlined what needs to be done in great detail in a lot of the earlier posts and that should help you put the project together.

What I will say is that you need to have done projects on two crops as well : two from 1. Grass/2.Potatoes or another root crop/3. Cereals

PM if you want to know anything more specific.

ritak10 · 29-01-2011 9:33pm

Hi
My son is hoping to start ag science next week He is in 5th year. Hopefully he will be able to catch up.
He will have access to a farm that has crops and horses. Will that be ok?
Its so refreshing to see a teacher giving so much of their time to help.Well done Rainbowtrout!

rainbowtrout · 29-01-2011 10:18pm

ritak10 wrote: »

Hi
My son is hoping to start ag science next week He is in 5th year. Hopefully he will be able to catch up.
He will have access to a farm that has crops and horses. Will that be ok?
Its so refreshing to see a teacher giving so much of their time to help.Well done Rainbowtrout!

Hi Rita,

Yes he should have plenty of time. Will he be in a class at school or is he taking it with a teacher outside school? That farm sounds perfect. I would suggest that you encourage him to visit there on a regular basis, once a month is plenty and take photos of what is going on. Perhaps if land is being ploughed, crops being sown, fertilized, harvested during the year, cutting grass for silage or hay, and if they have any foals on the farm he could take photos if he chooses to do his animal project on horses of course.

Also perhaps start buying him the farmer's journal. It's out every Thursday and there are a lot of useful articles in it. This weeks is particularly good for grass and grazing. Also during the school year there is a two page supplement each week on a topic on the leaving cert ag science course which he might find useful.

rainbowtrout · 23-02-2011 6:00pm

Henrib wrote: »

Firstly huge thanks to rainbow trout, I printed off the first part of this thread and used it as a helpful project guideline. So all done now and just getting the project together and pics stuck in, I have written up about 10 experiments so far which according to this thread seems sufficient however our teacher is insisting on 30! Anyone heard of this? Is 30 not excessive?

You're welcome. You have to have experiments on each of the 6 sections I outlined earlier in the thread.

Also because Q4 on the exam is four experiments to do two, it's good revision. I normally get my class to do about 30 experiments over the two years. It's not excessive.

thompson309 · 13-03-2011 5:50pm

What is the average herd replacement rate? Is it different for dairy and beef herds?

I thought it was 20% on all farms but one of my friends who's doing ag also said that its 10%.

Thanks

rainbowtrout · 13-03-2011 9:26pm

thompson309 wrote: »

What is the average herd replacement rate? Is it different for dairy and beef herds?

I thought it was 20% on all farms but one of my friends who's doing ag also said that its 10%.

Thanks

10% is quite low. 20% is about normal. There was a question on the 2010 paper about it and 20% was accepted.

NotExactly · 14-03-2011 12:37am

I'm abit confused as to how the marking scheme works.
It says 45 marks for investigation, so if I have one lab or field investigation from each of the categories written up I get 45 out of 45? or how does it work. Also for section one if I name five common plants and their family and three common food producing animals and 7 other animals related to Ag their bodily characteristics and their importance I get 20 out of 20? Also should I name extra plants and animals to ensure full marks? and how many experiments should I have written up? Thanks.

rainbowtrout · 14-03-2011 9:07am

NotExactly wrote: »

I'm abit confused as to how the marking scheme works.
It says 45 marks for investigation, so if I have one lab or field investigation from each of the categories written up I get 45 out of 45? or how does it work. Also for section one if I name five common plants and their family and three common food producing animals and 7 other animals related to Ag their bodily characteristics and their importance I get 20 out of 20? Also should I name extra plants and animals to ensure full marks? and how many experiments should I have written up? Thanks.

First the plants and animal identification. Your teacher should probably test you here to see can you identify them or not. If you can identify the correct number as you said, you get the marks. If the examiner picks you on the day though they will have a lot more than 5 plants on display and realistically you should be able to name more than five. It's viewed very poorly if you can name the bare five as it's quite obvious that this is all you have learned, and rote learned at that.

The experiments. Again you only need one from each section to meet requirements, but you should know more and have done more. You cannot get full marks just by writing up 6 experiments. Any idiot can do that. You should be able to explain the experiment and understand it, again I would expect you to know more than the bare 6. You should be able to tell me why that experiment is relevant to agriculture.

Eg. You tell me that you did an experiment to show drainage in different soils. At the very least you should be able to explain how the experiment worked. You should be able to tell me the result (sandy is better than clay ) and I would probably ask you why this is important to agriculture. You should be able to tell me that drainage is needed for good crop growth etc. That's not exactly stretching yourself.

rainbowtrout · 15-03-2011 9:43pm

jimcorbet wrote: »

Hey ,
I was wondering if anyone can give me a list of all the crops we can pick from for the crop part of the project and which 2 are the easiest. Thanks!

You must do two of the three following crops

1. Grassland
2. Cereals
3. Potatoes or a root crop

If you choose cereals as one of your crops you could do barley, wheat, oats or maize for example.

Most people choose to do grassland and potatoes. Grassland because it fits in nicely with the livestock project and potatoes are easy to grow and get practical experience with.

rainbowtrout · 20-03-2011 4:53pm

norwegianwood wrote: »

For the experiment section I have the main 52 experiments on the course done, but I have them in a hardback copy, not as part of the project. Just want to clarify, is it ok to hand up the copy with my project? Beause I really dont want to write them all out again!

That's fine. Hand up the copy. That's what most students do.

rainbowtrout · 23-03-2011 11:41pm

screwed4the mocks wrote: »

was finishing off the plants component of my project went to get my plants and it turned out my dad has thrown them out, im stressing out big time because i have to get new ones, what plants would be acceptable that i could get now and how many do i need?

It doesn't matter once they are from five different plant families.

Eg. Some sort of grass - Leguminosae
Dock Leaf - Polygonaceae
Dandelions, daisies, thistles,ragwort - Compositae
Buttercup - Ranunculaceae

http://www.teagasc.ie/publications/2010/55/55_Guide_to_Identifying_Tillage_Weeds.pdf

It's not compulsory to have plants in your project. You only have to be able to identify them on the day.

rainbowtrout · 25-03-2011 9:46pm

fewtinsoffroth wrote: »

I was told that on 2fm the other day there was an agricultural science teacher or something discussing how relevant the subject has become again apparently he produces a podcast of sorts?

I gave it a google, and a search on itunes but couldn't find anything. Does anybody know anything about such a podcast?

It's probably either Donal Power from the Institute of Education if you google him and ag science you'll get his tips for the programmes 2FM do each night of the Leaving Cert. The programme that's called 4-0-6 or 8-0-6 or whatever the date is this year.

Or possibly Humphrey Jones, frogblog.ie Don't know if he does podcasts but he blogs about ag science every now and again.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://blog.sccscience.com/2010/05/frogcast-3-preparing-for-leaving.html

This is one he did last year.

randylonghorn · 09-04-2011 10:13pm

Bubbleope wrote: »

Are there any other Ag Science books that would be helpful?

Apparently there's a brand new textbook for LC Ag Sci out in the last few weeks ... "Breaking Ground" by Cronin and Tiernan, published by Edco.

Might be worth a look.

rainbowtrout · 09-04-2011 10:21pm

Bubbleope wrote: »

I remember the question now.. or questions. :P
I was wondering if there are any good books/ revision books with all the experiments? My teacher has done none of the experiments with us yet.. and 5th year is almost over. All he has done is talked about them and drew diagrams on the board. I took down the diagrams and some notes.. but in fairness. . . I don't see how he expects us all to know them!? He has only done like 10. /: And none of the students in his class have them written up.. because well, we don't know what to write! O:
It's really frustrating, expecially because I want to get a good grade.
So would that Breen and Mullen book that has been mentioned earlier be of any use? I have the greyish one by Hermann thingy. It's good for some notes I think.. but the experiments in it.. really badly done in my opinion. S:
Would Rapid Revision have the 52 experiments in it? XD Ah, I'd love if it would!
Are there any other Ag Science books that would be helpful?

Oh! Also, Crops. . We only got grassland. xD So would I have to plant some potatoes out the back garden myself..? Would that be okay? I don't even know how to and when to plant potatoes.. O:

Sorry for all these questions!! I'm probably a pain in the ass.. sorry!
But thanks in advance. (:

by the way.. rainbowtrout, you should totally write a book on ag science! I WOULD SO BUY THAT! Probably the whole of the country doing Agricultural Science would buy that!

Hmmm... I might copy this post to randylonghorn, he usually mods this thread. Don't want to be banned for advertising etc

The Breen and Mullen books is the one most schools currently use, it's by Folens.
Ag Science by Hermann Geissel is the other one you are talking about. It's published by crsbooks.net. Sadly Hermann Geissel died 2 weeks ago, so i'm not sure how the publication of that is going to go as he self published.

Folens also have a Rapid Revision by Elaine Buckley Murphy. It has most of the experiments you need, but it doesn't have diagrams for them.

Edco released Breaking Ground only two weeks ago. It's a new Ag Science book and I am biased towards it because I'm one of the authors.

But to answer your question, we have done all the experiments out in it.

And your other question - planting potatoes is fine out your back garden, it's perfect to show you have experience of the crop. It's what I get my students to do.

rainbowtrout · 09-04-2011 10:25pm

randylonghorn wrote: »

Apparently there's a brand new textbook for LC Ag Sci out in the last few weeks ... "Breaking Ground" by Cronin and Tiernan, published by Edco.

Might be worth a look.

:pac::pac::pac::pac::D

randylonghorn · 09-04-2011 10:26pm

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Hmmm... I might copy this post to randylonghorn, he usually mods this thread.
...

Edco released Breaking Ground only two weeks ago. It's a new Ag Science book and I am biased towards it because I'm one of the authors.

Omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, that's me! :cool:

rainbowtrout · 09-04-2011 10:54pm

randylonghorn wrote: »

Omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, that's me! :cool:

Well only a person with those qualities should be allowed mod the Ag Science thread :pac:

rainbowtrout · 14-04-2011 9:36am

lellskells wrote: »

Q for rainbowtrout...where can i get the stats of the number of students studying ag science in secondary school over a period of years if possible? thanks:)

Go into www.education.ie

On the right hand side of the homepage there is a menu and one of the links is Education Statistics Database. Click on that.

Now choose Second Level and Further Education from list

Choose last link on list 'Leaving Cert Programme Subject Provision..'

In the table provided choose 'Second level institutions funded by Dept of Ed' (first option), in second list choose 'Ag Science' in third list choose all years and in fourth list scroll down and choose 'All pupils taking subject' and click Get Data

rainbowtrout · 14-04-2011 5:14pm

doctorg wrote: »

Can I ask, how much is this new book? I might want to buy one also.
And how big is the book? ie. number of pages.

I think it's €36.95 and it's about 412 pages. There is a sample chapter on edcodigital.ie if you want to have a look.

Westsa · 14-04-2011 5:50pm

Sorry, re. above post, I should have said the new book Breaking Ground - thanks

Hey I'm feeling a little left out rainbow trout:D

Actually I think I need a quick lesson on how to post on boards. Maybe that should also be included in the book

rainbowtrout · 14-04-2011 5:58pm

Westsa wrote: »

Sorry, re. above post, I should have said the new book Breaking Ground - thanks

Hey I'm feeling a little left out rainbow trout:D

Actually I think I need a quick lesson on how to post on boards. Maybe that should also be included in the book

Everyone, welcome Westsa to the thread. Westsa is my partner in crime and all things agricultural - the other author of Breaking Ground!!

Here to help me answer everything about ag science!!! :pac:

lellskells · 14-04-2011 9:14pm

Westsa wrote: »

Ok i'm a novice at posting but I think I'll get the hang of it soon enough

Welcome westa! I am new to this ag science board but already I am hooked. I am a UCD Ag (and female LOL!!) from 1996 but plan to do to the hdip next year after 12 years in my current job, scientific publishing (could have proof read it for you:p)! I have always wanted to teach ag and I even to plan to snap up 'breaking ground', Anna Coffey in NUIG recommended it to me. Good luck with the book, I loved the sample on Ed co.
tks rainbowtrout, those stats were interesting today
ps thought you were male until today:eek:

Westsa · 14-04-2011 9:45pm

lellskells wrote: »

Welcome westa! I am new to this ag science board but already I am hooked. I am a UCD Ag (and female LOL!!) from 1996 but plan to do to the hdip next year after 12 years in my current job, scientific publishing (could have proof read it for you:p)! I have always wanted to teach ag and I even to plan to snap up 'breaking ground', Anna Coffey in NUIG recommended it to me. Good luck with the book, I loved the sample on Ed co.
tks rainbowtrout, those stats were interesting today
ps thought you were male until today:eek:

Funny that myself and rainbow trout got a bit of stick being female too!!! Best of luck with the agri science teaching plan. Personally I love teaching Agri Science, it's just so different to all the other Science subjects. Be warned that you might need to broaden you teaching scope as it helps to be able to teach Biology and Science or some other subject during these tough recessionary times. If you need any help give us a shout. Good to hear that other people are recommending the book. I could have done with your help, grammar and spelling not my strong point.

rainbowtrout · 19-04-2011 4:33pm

NotExactly wrote: »

Can anybody send me or does anybody no where I can get the exam papers for Ag that go back further than 1996. I have all the question 1's complete and want to do different ones.

Thanks!

There's a company in Tipperary who used to do a set of exam papers called Agricutural Science by Topic. The set I have I bought back in 2002 and they go back to 1988, however it's my only copy so it won't be going anywhere.

Rather than lay out the papers like a normal set they have them divided by topic so all the grassland together, all the genetics together etc.

I don't know if they still publish ag science papers but I have included the link with their contact number below so you could ring them and find out, or maybe they would have old stock and could send you a set of papers

EDIT: The link I had is no longer working and I've left my papers in school. Will put it up when I find it.

To be honest, you don't really need papers from pre-1995. Agriculture has changed even over the last 20 years and small changes in the exam paper reflect this. You are unlikely to see anything on your exam paper this year that hasn't been examined since before 1995

EDIT: The company are called EEC Publishing and are based in Toomevara, Tipperary. However every link I click on in Google is broken so I wonder if they are still in business. The links were working less than 2 months ago.

EDIT NUMBER 3!!: http://www.ppds.ie/pcsparchive/science/sciencesuppliers.pdf

They are the fourth one down on this list

agei · 20-04-2011 8:38pm

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Ag Science by Hermann Geissel is the other one you are talking about. It's published by crsbooks.net. Sadly Hermann Geissel died 2 weeks ago, so i'm not sure how the publication of that is going to go as he self published.

Thank you for the mention of Leaving Certificate Agricultural Science by Hermann Geissel. CRS Publications (www.crsbooks.net; also www.agscience.ie) continues to trade, and I have taken over the business since Jan 2011.

At the risk of too much self-promotion, we're offering a 10% discount on copies purchased on the site before 1st May 2011 - perhaps as an appropriate second reference book?

We're also running a feedback survey at the moment, and welcome your input - visit www.agscience.ie. As a small reward, your response will be entered into a draw for a €25 iTunes voucher.

Many thanks for all your support, wishes and business over the past 30 years, and also over the past month since Hermann's death.

Adrian Geissel

agei · 20-04-2011 8:39pm

ERaftery wrote: »

Im new to this site so i don't know if im even doing this right, but anywho.. I'm in 5th year and a bit confused in terms of the formatting of the project. i'm trying to start it at the moment and really just don't know what headings to use, to use an index and am just lost in general!
It would be great if you could forward me on an example or maybe a link to what one should look like.
it would really help if i could see an example!!!
Thank you!!

Hi,

We have, with permission, published a student project on www.agscience.ie - hopefully that might help.

Adrian

rainbowtrout · 27-04-2011 6:23pm

I've been prompted to post here by a PM I got about the project.

I've been replying to queries about Ag Science on this thread for over two years. I don't mind doing it, I do it of my own free will and I do realise the problems and lack of information/ misinformation that exist within the subject - However:

I am getting an increasing number of PMs in the last while from people asking me what to put in their project, which essentially boil down to 'Please spoonfeed me my project'. All of the answers I have put up here, I've put up in my free time. They are detailed and cover every aspect of the project. I have no problem with PMs about the subject, but I will not entertain PMs about the project which are of the type:

What topics will I put in my project?
What photos will I take for my project?
Outline how I should do the crop project?
Give me a list of experiments that I should have in my project?

I have gone into great detail answering all of these queries and more in this thread and I'm not about to waste an hour of my time retyping answers to all of these questions and more for people who are simply too damn lazy to read the thread and get the answer themselves.

Also I will not entertain any requests seeking sample projects from me. That leads to plagiarism which a teacher I do not condone, nor would I want any of my current or former students worked copied.

I have no problem answering questions on thread or by PM, but please read the thread first to see if your question has already been answered because 99% of the time, it already has.

rainbowtrout · 29-04-2011 8:55pm

fewtinsoffroth wrote: »

Sorry if this has already been asked but i'm uncertain how to define cation exchange and cation exchange capacity. From reading through the textbook I couldn't really pick out a suitable definition and I didn't see it in the revision book, this has been asked in question 2 twice in the last five years and for some reason I couldn't download the marking schemes when i tried. Has anybody been given a definition of this from their teacher? Thanks.

Cation Exchange: The ability of soil particles (clay and humus) to attract, retain and release cations

Cation Exchange Capacity: The quantity of cations a soil adsorbs OR the capacity of a soil to exchange cations between the soil surface and soil solution

richieffff · 06-05-2011 7:46pm

Hello all, I am unable to identify a few of my plants and any help is welcome.

What I need is the Family and Plant name.
Thank you!

First Plant

Second Plant

Third Plant

Fourth Plant

Fifth Plant

Thanks again and are sticky-backs cleavers?

rainbowtrout · 07-05-2011 3:32pm

The first one looks like it might be Charlock (Brassica - Cruciferae) or mustard, would have to see it up close.
The second is creeping buttercup (Ranunculaceae)
The third looks like it's Ribwort Plantain (Narrow Leaf Plantain) - Plantaginaceae - it's not that clear as the photo shows the back of the leaves - if they are stripey they are plantain.
The fourth one looks like Lady's Smock(Cuckoo flower) - Brassica
The fifth is Wild Celery I'd say or maybe Hogweed, I'd have to see the whole plant

This is a great website for indentifying plants

http://www.irishwildflowers.ie/this-month/may.html

rainbowtrout · 07-05-2011 10:07pm

richieffff wrote: »

Thanks again and are sticky-backs cleavers?

Only just spotted this now, yes sticky backs are cleavers, they are also known as goose grass and robin-run-the-hedge

NotExactly · 12-05-2011 8:27pm

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Were you picked for interview? It might be useful to other posters here to share your experience if you were.

Yes I had it today. We had loads of pictures of plants,insects and animals laid out. She began with the identification. We could identify the ones we wanted and their family/characteristics. Then moved on to the experiments we had 6 set up one from each section (except a picture of a cross of incomplete dominance for genetics) she asked basic enough questions about the experiments e.g what percentage is the organic matter in soil,what bacteria is in the milk,what die did you use in the experiment to determine the bacterial quality of milk,how does osmosis work,give an example of how a farmer could use genetics on their farm etc.Then she went through the project stamping a page every now and again, asking me questions on the milking process and what type of farm it is etc. I was in there for around 25 minutes and it honestly felt like 5 minutes.I'm glad it went well:D

Do you think it's fair that some people get interviewed and others don't? Is it better to get picked for an interview if you can back up the information in your folder? & is it and advantage for a weak student who has a good folder to not get interviewed?

rainbowtrout · 12-05-2011 8:35pm

I don't think it would be possible to interview everyone that does Ag Science. There wouldn't be enough examiners in the country to do it.

Also your teacher has graded you already and the vast majority of teachers do a very good job. The external examiners really are only there to make sure that teachers are grading fairly.

It doesn't really matter if the student is very good or very weak going into the interview. If they have been graded fairly by their teacher they should achieve that standard. It's not a case that say a D standard student is suddenly going to give an A standard interview on the day. It doesn't usually happen.

Some students can feel that their grade is depending on the performance a class mate gives on the day and that might feel a little unfair. For the most part it's fair - if the teacher has graded fairly.

rainbowtrout · 13-05-2011 8:29pm

CTYIgirl wrote: »

Hi, I've read through the thread, but I was wondering a few things. Would you be able to pick up ag in 6th year and do decently in it? I do 8, but I'm dropping History and I need 560 points for my first choice course, with two pass subjects. My school offers it, and the teacher said he wouldn't have a problem with me joining, but I'm worried I wouldn't be able to do the course well enough?

OK. Well the hard part is over, you have access to a class and a teacher. You've read the thread so you know what is involved.

Next thing to do: Go to examinations.ie and have a look at some of the exam papers and get a feel for the subject. If you are doing Biology or Geography there will be some overlap.

After that if you decide to do the project let your school know you are changing over. Ask the ag science teacher what project work he has already assigned and get on top of it over the summer. Get a book. Ask him what sections of the course he has done and start doing some work on them so you are up to speed as much as possible when you come back in September.

A lot of people do ag science in one year. It's a favourite in grind schools (although I'm not a big fan of the grind school system). Even if you got the biology side of things out of the way and revised over the summer you would have a good bit done (plant physiology, animal physiology, genetics, microbiology, ecology, soil science).

If you are not from a farming background, sort out where you are going to go to get the experience and information needed for your practical project.

Buy a grow bag and some seed potatoes this week and plant them. Take photos and continue to do so over the summer.

* Ag. Science *

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