* Ag. Science *

Cove.Throne · 20-01-2009 7:33pm #1

Basically im thinking of picking up Ag.Science for the Leaving.Im in 5th year now.I heard there was a project you had to do just wondering would anyone know how to go about doing the project if you were not in a class?
Is Ag.Science a managable enough subject?I persume it would not be to intense to start it at this stage if you were willing to work?

Thanks.

Threads amalgamated.

See very useful post by rainbow trout below

rainbowtrout · 20-01-2009 11:50pm

Right, I teach Ag Science and this is how it's broken down.

What I can't stress enough is that your teacher grades your project and signs off on the paperwork to say you completed the practical work under their supervision so if there is an Ag teacher in your school, talk to them, if not it might be worth talking to your biology teacher.

You can't just sign up for ag and send in the project.

You are only in fifth year, you have plenty of time to get the course covered.

Project is worth 25% (100 marks) and is broken down as follows:

Plant Identification - 10
Animal Identification - 10

Livestock - 15
Crops - 15
Farm Plan - 5

Experiments:
Soil - 10
Ecology - 10
Animal Physiology - 10
Plant Physiology - 5
Genetics - 5
Microbiology - 5

Total 100

Plant Identification:

Anyway you are expected to be able to identify a number(5) of common plants and the families (Latin names) they come from.

Animal Identification:

You are then expected to be able to identify common breeds of cattle pigs and sheep. You are also expected to be able to identify/know something about other animal families, liverfluke, earthworm, greenfly etc

Livestock: Depending on what you decide to do for a livestock project you should probably include the following headings
Breeds, Housing, Feeding, Disease Prevention, Rearing lambs, Mating. If you get the gree Ag Science book (Breen and Mullen) that most of the country have, the headings in that are good enough.

Crops:
You MUST have two crops. Grass is acceptable as a crop, then a root crop or cereal for the other, you could do root and cereal and not bother about grass but it's more hassle. So Grass and Potatoes or Barley for example

Farm Plan: This is a diagram (aerial view) of the layout of a farm. It does not have to be a work of art. A rectangle is fine to represent a shed/house etc once it's labelled. It must be minimum A4 size. I find A3 is easiest to work with and not as cramped. Drawing the layout of your own farm (if you have one) is easiest, you are supposed to be able to justify it if asked. i.e. slurry pit is not beside the dwelling house. silage pit near winter housing for easy access to feed for animals. Shelter belts, round bales in fields far from the farm etc.

Experiments:

Experiments are worth 45/100 marks on offer. You need to have a minimum of 1 experiment in each section I named above but the more the better, preferably ones you have done and it will stand to you for the written exam.

Eg:

Soil - pH, amount of air in soil, sedimentation, water in soil
Ecology - field study using quadrat
Animal physiology - heart dissection is the most common one
Plant physiology - transpiration, photosynthesis, phototropism, geotropism
Microbiology - silage making, resazurin test for milk quality
Genetics - no experiment really here, i usually do a survey of traits within the class and they do up the results in a table and decide what's most likely to be dominant or recessive eg left/right hand, eye colour, hair colour, colour blind, double joints etc... doing it outside school you could do survey on family and friends

You don't need biology to do well in ag science, but it can be an advantage

Duffman'05 · 30-08-2009 12:46am

Can anyone give me useful information this subject? Rather than ''it was easy'' or ''different'', could people who have done it before maybe relate to some of these questions for me?

Quantity - manageable in one year (repeat) ?

What kind of study is involved?

-Hardcore learning much like biology?
-More understanding required like chemistry?

Any ''projects'' or extra exam requirements to be done during the year?

Any constructive info or advice on this subject would be greatly appreciated!:o

Calum196 · 31-08-2009 6:17pm

Ag. Science is more of a biological science. Its about 95% learning 5% understanding.

The course is easily covered in a year but dont underestimate the difficulty of the subject. Loads of people assume that general waffle on a topic will get you marks - it wont. The marking scheme is can be horribly specific and while your points may be relevant and true they may not be on the marking scheme.

The project is worth 100 of the 400 marks (25%). It needs plenty of detail and should be started on as soon as possible.

If you have biology and geography you have a good chunk of the course covered. An exam paper usually go's along these lines.

Q1. Short Questions..........based on geog, bio and ag.
Q2. Soil Science..........a good bit of geog in this
Q3. Different parts of the Ag. course
Q4. Experiments..........a fair chunk of biology here
Q5/6 Parts of the Ag. course again
Q7. Genetics.......... biology pretty much covers this
Q8. An option question can contain biology questions
Q9. Scientific explanations

phlegms · 31-08-2009 6:19pm

It isn't particularly easy but the course is very short which gives you a chance to go over it a couple of times during the year. And on top of that the papers are generally very fair.

randylonghorn · 31-08-2009 9:27pm

Threads amalgamated.

See very useful post by rainbowtrout above

dizzysally · 17-09-2009 6:30pm

Im doing an experiment in ag science called an experiement to culture bacteria with milk under the following headings :

Pasturised Milk
Unpasturised milk
Sour pasturised milk
Boiled pasturised milk (control)

I need a good method but i cant seem to find one anywhere and this is for my project.. and its due tomorrow!

someone please help!!

rainbowtrout · 17-09-2009 6:56pm

dizzysally wrote: »

Im doing an experiment in ag science called an experiement to culture bacteria with milk under the following headings :

Pasturised Milk
Unpasturised milk
Sour pasturised milk
Boiled pasturised milk (control)

I need a good method but i cant seem to find one anywhere and this is for my project.. and its due tomorrow!

someone please help!!

It's on the last page of the dairy chapter in the green Ag Science book by Breen and Mullen (Folens). It's called To assess the hygienic quality of milk' or more commonly called the Resazurin Test because that's the chemical used in the experiment.

Pinksocks · 23-09-2009 9:06pm

Hi thanks for the reply...
Ah just wonering now do you need a contents page, introduction etc.
for plant idenification will grassland do and what will i say about it?
or do you just need 5 plants and their families, like is there anything else?

And livestock my farm only has cattle so should on do calfs and stuff or just leave it out?
And one final thing how long should my project be without the experments???
thanks so much....:P

rainbowtrout · 23-09-2009 9:44pm

Pinksocks wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply...
Ah just wonering now do you need a contents page, introduction etc.

if you want, but no. it won't get you any extra marks

Pinksocks wrote: »

for plant idenification will grassland do and what will i say about it?
or do you just need 5 plants and their families, like is there anything else?

grassland comes under the crops section as I outlined above. Plant identification is separate, different plants, eg. Perennial ryegrass, Gramineae. Daisy, Dandelion, Thistle, Compositae. Cow Parsley, Umbelliferae. Dock Leaf, Polygonaceae. Clover, Leguminosae you must have 5 separate families. Daisy, Dandelion, Thistle are all Compositae only counts as one family. You will be expected to be able to identify a selection of plants on the day of assessment if you are called for interview by the external examiner. It might be a good idea for yourself to learn them and maybe put samples on labelled sheets and stick them on with that clear sticky plastic used for covering books.

Pinksocks wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply...
And livestock my farm only has cattle so should on do calfs and stuff or just leave it out?
And one final thing how long should my project be without the experments???
thanks so much....:P

The breeds you keep and photos of them if possible. Their housing, feeding requirements, grazing, calves and calving, rearing of calves. Diseases of both. AI if used

ClareH · 10-11-2009 3:43pm

Dear Rainbowtrout,

I'm contacting you to see if you have help point me in the right direction with this year's Leaving Cert Ag. Science project. I'm trying to ensure that my nephew is on the right course with this and covering all aspects required, What are the main focus points for the project and how are the points allocated. My nephew is choosing the cow as the animal but I want to ensure that he is being specific enough in what he covers. Any tips?

Clare

notsosure! · 10-11-2009 10:49pm

rainbowtrout, i see you are an ag science teacher and was wondering if you could steer me in the right direction as to where to start with the project?
i have taken the subject up since mid term and i really dont know where to even begin with it!
under each of the headings you have written in an earlier post, what kind of information should be included?i know its quality not quantity, but generally how much should be written for each section?
with regards to the farm diary how many visits to the farm should be documented?if going for a week say at xmas should each day be done or is it just on a specific day to repersent winter and then say another in march to reperesent spring and soforth or should the week in spring andweek in december be described?
any help would be very much appreciated.

rainbowtrout · 10-11-2009 11:29pm

Right I sent this to someone else who requested it last year, so forgive some of the references, they may be in reply to questions I was asked.

Project is worth 25% (100 marks) and is broken down as follows:

Yep, first I'll give you the marking scheme

Plant Identification - 10
Animal Identification - 10

Livestock - 15
Crops - 15
Farm Plan - 5

Experiments:
Soil - 10
Ecology - 10
Animal Physiology - 10
Plant Physiology - 5
Genetics - 5
Microbiology - 5

Total 100

Ok, you may or may not know this but your teacher is responsible for grading the projects, an external examiner like me then comes to the school and picks 4(usually, depends on size of class) students at random and interviews them about their project. They will ask about each of the sections listed above and give a mark based on what you have in your project and your ability to answer their questions.

Plant Identification:

Anyway you are expected to be able to identify a number(5) of common plants and the families they come from. I would suggest while it wouldn't be compulsory to have them in your folder would be to get some common plants - daisy, dandelion, clover, grasses, etc and stick them onto A4 sheets and put their names and their families beside them. Get some of that clear contact plastic to stick them down with if you don't want bits of dried flowers all over the place.

Animal Identification:

You are then expected to be able to identify common breeds of cattle pigs and sheep. Most examiners will stick with the pictures from Oklahoma State Uni website. http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/ You are also expected to be able to identify/know something about other animal families, liverfluke, earthworm, greenfly etc, so again like the plants, it would be no harm to have a small section with drawings or pictures of different animals and label them as above.

Livestock:

You have your choice here, any farm livestock is acceptable but as you have a sheep farm stick with it, I would suggest the following headings: Breeds, Housing, Feeding, Disease Prevention, Rearing lambs, Mating. I assume you have the green Ag Science book that most of the country have, the headings in that are good enough.

For example you could do the following, if you have a creep feeder, take a picture of it, stick it onto a page in your feeding section, explain what it is and how its used. It's a lot more original than just copying stuff off the internet. You can add to your own farm experience, with the stuff you got from teagasc etc but your own experience is the best. so work it in, in each section,

You could start with an intro describing the farm, no. of hectares, breeds you have on the farm, reasons you have particular breeds (prolifiacy, good weight gain etc) numbers of sheep, I assume it's lambing season for ye at the moment, have a bit on that. One of my students this year has put a section into his (cattle) project on tagging animals which you won't find in the books, all original stuff, he also took some photos of their calving jack and burdizzo for castrating males. All relevant and showing he did the work himself.

If you wanted you could cut the labels off feeding bags, Ivomec containers etc and tape them in and explain what they are and what they are used for on the farm. I think you probably get the idea.

The best source of information would be your father. He can tell you how many sheep he has, how many rams, ewes, lambs, do ye use sychronised breeding or not, and why he does/does not use it. how he looks after new borns, problems with illness and disease, how he decides when to sell lambs for market, price of a lamb - best source of information possible.

Crops:
You MUST have two crops. Grass is acceptable as a crop, then a root crop or cereal for the other, you could do root and cereal and not bother about grass but it's more hassle. I'll deal with grass first

Grass - Again similar to Livestock above, different types of grass, how it can be sown, the machinery used, grazing systems used, including the methods you use on your farm, and of course making silage, if you have a pit or round bales go out and take a few pictures of them, and the baler and write a bit about them underneath

Other Crop: I usually do potatoes with my class, I get them to plant some potatoes at home, whether they are in a ridge or a bucket, watch them grow and take some photos. They can tie this in with stuff they get from books/internet/ teagasc as their personal experience. Again it may be late in the year to start growing potatoes, but if you have some at home, great, if not improvise, there may be someone in the area growing some crop. There's nothing to stop you cutting the front off the bag of roosters in the kitchen taping it into your project and explaining that they are a maincrop potato, yield etc. Or take a photo of a bucket of spuds, same idea.

Whatever crop you do the following headings should be fine: Soil conditions, method of cultivation, varieties (if applicable), time of sowing, disease/weeds and prevention. time of harvest, machines used, yield/storage.

I know I keep mentioning photos but it does prove you were on a farm and got some practical experience.

Farm Plan: This is a diagram (aerial view) of the layout of a farm. It does not have to be a work of art. A rectangle is fine to represent a shed/house etc once it's labelled. It must be minimum A4 size. I find A3 is easiest to work with and not as cramped. Drawing the layout of your own farm is easiest, you are supposed to be able to justify it if asked. i.e. slurry pit is not beside the dwelling house. silage pit near winter housing for easy access to feed for animals. Shelter belts, round bales in fields far from the farm etc. Not worth many marks but worth doing and they all add up

Experiments:

Experiments are worth 45/100 marks on offer. You need to have a minimum of 1 experiment in each section I named above but the more the better, preferably ones you have done and it will stand to you for the written exam.

Eg:

Soil - pH, amount of air in soil, sedimentation, water in soil
Ecology - field study using quadrat
Animal physiology - heart dissection is the most common one
Plant physiology - transpiration, photosynthesis, phototropism, geotropism
Microbiology - silage making, resazurin test for milk quality
Genetics - no experiment really here, i usually do a survey of traits within the class and they do up the results in a table and decide what's most likely to be dominant or recessive eg left/right hand, eye colour, hair colour, colour blind, double joints etc... doing it outside school you could do survey on family and friends

You may already have your experiments in some sort of copy from doing them in class, that's fine that can be submitted with your project, or you could write them out on separate sheets and put them in with your project.

I don't want to be stepping any teachers toes if your teachers doesn't do things the way I do them, or may not have done stuff yet because they're not finished the course. This is the way I do things and it means all parts of the practical are covered. For example if you do only one crop eg. grass but no root or cereal I am perfectly within my rights as an examiner to dock you and the rest of your classmates marks for only doing one crop when the project brief specifically says two. I'm not suggesting that this would happen, i'm just saying cover your ass.

At least having all of these sections means you meet the basic requirements, after that it's the quality of your work

handwritten work is just as acceptable as typed (no marks gained or lost for either) just make it legible if you write it, and at least it shows you wrote it out yourself and didn't copy and paste everything.

rainbowtrout · 10-11-2009 11:40pm

notsosure! wrote: »

with regards to the farm diary how many visits to the farm should be documented?if going for a week say at xmas should each day be done or is it just on a specific day to repersent winter and then say another in march to reperesent spring and soforth or should the week in spring andweek in december be described?
any help would be very much appreciated.

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Farm Diaries:

Some teachers ask their students to keep a farm diary.

Advantages:
1. Proves student has farm experience
2. Makes them document their experience and visit the farm regularly
3. Allows student to see all aspects of farming right throughout the year
4. It's an easy way to cover project requirements regarding livestock and crops (see previous post)

Disadvantages (in my opinion)

1. Not all students are farmers
2. Not all students have access to farms
3. Some students will not write much - quality depends on student
4. Students will repeat information in diary without back up information

(I have seen diaries of this nature)
Sample entry : April 1: Moved cattle to grazing field today
April 3: Moved cattle to another field, fixed hole in fence.

Now this is all fine and some teachers love this sort of stuff, but as I said, unless you have regular access to a farm, it's hard to keep on top of it.

I would personally prefer to see some back up to that information.

'Cattle were moved to grazing field today'

leading to... Rotational grazing is used to graze cattle on my farm. The farm is divided into 20 paddocks, each 1 acre in size. Cattle are moved every 2 days to a fresh pasture (diagrams and photos etc).

I'm not saying the farm diary is a bad idea, it's not. It's great, and there are plenty of students who are able to add lots of information to their diary orally when I interview them. I just think it needs a back up of some sort.

There is no set number of times you have to visit a farm. Once you have farm experience, produce (written, photographic) evidence of it and can talk about it, you'll be fine. In case anyone doubts this I point you in the direction of the grind schools which are located in cities and have massive uptake of ag science every year. You can bet those students are not visiting farms every week.

rainbowtrout · 10-11-2009 11:55pm

It doesn't really matter whether you go every day for a week or visit in spring or winter or visit once a month. It's more of a quality over quantity argument.

I usually bring my students to Mountbellew Ag College during the open day. Lots of ag classes go as their farm experience and get the tour of all the housing and animal units (cattle and sheep, no pigs there anymore), the dairy, grain store, machinery and machinery sheds etc etc

Visiting a farm:

If you are not from a farm and are visiting a private farm/neighbour/relation it's a lot easier.

Have your questions ready. Have a vague notion of what type of farm you're visiting so you know what questions to prepare. Same can be said of trips to ag colleges. All too many times I have brought classes there and the tutors that work on the farm give excellent talks in the sheds with all the relevent information, nobody asks questions, we leave the shed and I'm bombarded with questions..... ag colleges tend to have some handouts as well. Open days in ag colleges are also generally open to any student so if your class is not going, get a parent to bring you or find some way of getting there yourself.

Take lots of photos!!! Perfect evidence of a farm visit.

Eg. You're going to visit a local dairy farmer (this is what I did last year with my leaving certs).

Questions you will need to/could ask: Start with the basics

Size of farm : hectares/acres

What type of enterprise: cattle(dairy or beef, sheep, pigs, poultry, crops, mixed farm enterprise)

Depending on what type of farm it is you can ask more questions (I'm going to stick with dairy for this example)

Breeds of cattle used?
Why use those breeds?
Why not use other breeds?
Size of herd?
Milking regime? how often, how many at a time? how long does it take? what happens milk after milking? how is it stored? how often is it collected? what type of milking parlour does the farmer have?

Housing for animals? Slatted sheds? When are they brought in for winter? What are they fed? Why feed nuts/silage/hay?

How does the farmer prevent /treat disease? Has there been any disease on farm previously (judge this one on the person you're talking to, some farmers may not like the insinuation that their animals are not healthy)

Calving? When does it take place? Do they use calving jacks - ask to see one. When are the cows got in calf? Is it all synchronsied as much as possible or are there calvings throughout the year? What are the advantages to this method?
How long does it take? How do they look after new calves? Calves kept with mothers? Given vaccinations? Which ones and why?

AI? Is it used on farm or does the farmer keep a bull? If so in either case, why and why not use the other method? If bull is a different breed from cows (as is often the case) why?

Grazing on farms? any particular system used? why?

Silage or hay making? Probably silage because of our weather. Round bales or pit silage? Why? Ask to see the silage, you should be able to assess if it's good or bad. Don't say it's bad.

Have a look at the machinery, tractors, rotovators, plough, harrow, smaller tools for calving, castration. What are the machines used for?

Ask about bringing animals to mart? What age? What weight for slaughter? Some farmers deal only in weanlings, some sell off the calves early, some keep them to finishing. Find out if there's a reason.

Bring a notebook, you won't remember all the information!

rainbowtrout · 12-01-2010 4:27pm

a2dolan wrote: »

thanks. also our teacher is doing no experiments at all. find this a bit worrying and think i should start to look at them myself. any idea how to go about this?

did your teacher do the experiments in fifth year when you weren't in the class? I do a lot of the experiments in the first year of the course. Find out from the teacher or your class. If s/he hasn't done any, well strictly they're supposed to although I know of some teachers who take short cuts and read them out of the book. Do the write up yourself. You can easily do some of them at home yourself if you want to see how some of them work. Have a look at the list of experiments in the Rapid Revision Ag Science book (Folens). It's pretty good and has most of the experiments listed that you should know. There's a whole question on experiments on the written paper every year and it's straightforward in terms of picking up marks if you know them

Eg.

Phototropism - a plant's response to light

Take a shoe box, divide into three compartments, cut a hole in the side of one compartment, in the top of the second and none in the third, put a dish of seeds in each (water, cotton wool etc) and leave them to germinate for a week. The first ones grow to the side, the second grow up, the third don't grow properly.

You could get a sheep's heart from your local butcher and dissect it at home. Most butcher's sell hearts for eating, although you might have to put the order in a week in advance.

And so on... if nothing else it would help you learn the experiments.

Yahooaccount · 28-01-2010 4:27pm

Hi,
Could anyone please help me with the following Agricultural Science questions?

Do you have to write up the whole project under the supervision of a teacher?

What questions do they ask in the oral? If they ask about plants and show you different plants, would you have already learned them from the book?

Would it take long to write up the project?

Does anyone have a sample project which they could post up here so I could see what the project would be like?

Also, is there any other book other than the green one? Would this book be the same standard as the green one?

I'm in fifth year and I know of a class who are doing grinds and they started last November, would it be too late to join them? ( They are in fifth year but there are a couple of sixth years with them too and they're repeating the course next year again).

Do you have to do the experiments under the supervision of a teacher?

Thank you very much!

( I tried pming rainbowtrout but I don't think you got it because I found out that I must have at least 25 posts to pm! You might be able to help me!

)

I also want to do Veterinary, so would this subject be very helpful?

rainbowtrout · 29-01-2010 7:56pm

Yahooaccount wrote: »

Hi,
Could anyone please help me with the following Agricultural Science questions?

yes, but you should read the whole thread, i've gone into great detail in several posts about the project, how it's marked, how the interviews are conducted, and what the project should contain.

Yahooaccount wrote: »

Do you have to write up the whole project under the supervision of a teacher?

Yes, the teacher grades the project

Yahooaccount wrote: »

What questions do they ask in the oral? If they ask about plants and show you different plants, would you have already learned them from the book?

see previous posts by me. your teacher is responsible for teaching you the different plants and laying out a selection of those plants for the interview, if s/he does not provide plants on the day, the examiner will provide a selection of common plants.

Yahooaccount wrote: »

Would it take long to write up the project?

not being smart, but how long is a piece of string? depends on how much detail you want to put into it. I've see some students write it up over a weekend and it's been a poor effort, and others who do it section by section over the year (and some in fifth year) and it makes the workload more manageable (and generally the grade better).

Yahooaccount wrote: »

Does anyone have a sample project which they could post up here so I could see what the project would be like?

lots of students handwrite their project so wouldn't be able to post it up. for those that type it, they would still be missing all the photos and extra stuff they put it. putting a project up here might lead to plagiarism. There are only a small number of ag examiners. I don't want to go into a school in May and see the project I saw posted on boards in January.

Yahooaccount wrote: »

Also, is there any other book other than the green one? Would this book be the same standard as the green one?

Yep, there's one by Hermann Geisel
http://www.crsbooks.net/personal/publications.html

Personally I'm not a fan of the book and I don't know anyone that uses it. You will find that exam questions for the most part can be answered with the green book. Also Rapid Revision Ag Science (Folens) by Elaine Buckly Murphy is good. A lot of my students prefer it to the green book (Breen and Mullen).

Yahooaccount wrote: »

I'm in fifth year and I know of a class who are doing grinds and they started last November, would it be too late to join them? ( They are in fifth year but there are a couple of sixth years with them too and they're repeating the course next year again).

No, plenty of time, if you start now you will have covered plenty of stuff by the end of fifth year and won't have to absorb lots of new information in leaving cert. Also it will help you if you want to start your project this year.

Yahooaccount wrote: »

Do you have to do the experiments under the supervision of a teacher?

Yes, you should, your teacher is grading you and signing off to say you did the experiments under their supervision

Yahooaccount wrote: »

( I tried pming rainbowtrout but I don't think you got it because I found out that I must have at least 25 posts to pm! You might be able to help me! )

And I got your message but I have a full time teaching job so I don't spend all my time on boards. I have plenty of other stuff to be at.

Yahooaccount wrote: »

I also want to do Veterinary, so would this subject be very helpful?

To a certain extent but you would be fine without it, if you had biology I would imagine.

MaighEoAbu · 30-01-2010 12:50pm

Hi guys,

Just like to thank rainbow for all the help! It's a great help!

I was going 2 ask u about the ag. science book. I saw in a previous post that you aren't a fan of the newish one. I bought that one yesterday! Oops! The shopkeeper told me to buy it because it was far more popular. They sold 68 of that book last year and only 24 of the green one. My friend who does ag. science has the green book but was going to get this new one, but we were unsure of the quality! Is the green one better quality and does it contain more information or something?

Also, I saw a question a user asked about teacher supervision when doing the project. Does that mean you have to write your whole project in class, or can you not write it at home?

Thank you very much! I really appreciate it, it's great to have someone to clear up anything a student's unsure about!

MaighEoAbu · 30-01-2010 12:53pm

Oh, sorry just another question!

On the day of the exam in June, is that when the interview is on as well? Also, can they ask you ANYTHING about your project and if you don't know they'll dock you marks? So, in other words, will I have to study my project?!

Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rainbowtrout · 30-01-2010 3:47pm

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

Hi guys,

Just like to thank rainbow for all the help! It's a great help!

I was going 2 ask u about the ag. science book. I saw in a previous post that you aren't a fan of the newish one. I bought that one yesterday! Oops! The shopkeeper told me to buy it because it was far more popular. They sold 68 of that book last year and only 24 of the green one. My friend who does ag. science has the green book but was going to get this new one, but we were unsure of the quality! Is the green one better quality and does it contain more information or something?

Also, I saw a question a user asked about teacher supervision when doing the project. Does that mean you have to write your whole project in class, or can you not write it at home?

Thank you very much! I really appreciate it, it's great to have someone to clear up anything a student's unsure about!

To be honest I don't like either book but find the green one is the best of a bad lot. It was written 20 years ago for a syllabus that was written in 1969!! I give my own notes and really only use the book for reference. I don't use the Hermann Geissel one and I don't know of any school in this part of the country that does but obviously some schools are using it otherwise it wouldn't be in print. It does some stuff better than the green one.

You write up the project in your own time, your teacher may allow class time for it, but really it's not practical if students have to get stuff off the internet or out of newspapers or wherever. The idea that it's teacher supervised is that you carry out practical investigations and experiments under their supervision, ie in class time and they grade all your work at the end.

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

Oh, sorry just another question!

On the day of the exam in June, is that when the interview is on as well? Also, can they ask you ANYTHING about your project and if you don't know they'll dock you marks? So, in other words, will I have to study my project?!

Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The interviews always take place the first two weeks of May starting the week of the Bank Holiday Monday. It's the time when the LCVP written exam and the Art, Engineering and Construction Studies practicals take place so it's busy enough for a lot of students as many have that kind of combination. The examiner is not there to catch you out, they want to find out what you do know, not what you don't know.

looksee · 31-01-2010 12:26am

Thank goodness for MaighEoAbu, I read through the thread with increasing disbelief at the lack of appreciation for Rainbowtrout's informative posts. Finally a response saying 'thank you'.

randylonghorn · 31-01-2010 2:40am

In fairness, I've been periodically tidying out this thread to keep it short as a resource on AgSci, otherwise it would be about 5 times as long by now ... others have said "thank you" along the way!

rainbowtrout · 31-01-2010 1:42pm

randylonghorn wrote: »

In fairness, I've been periodically tidying out this thread to keep it short as a resource on AgSci, otherwise it would be about 5 times as long by now ... others have said "thank you" along the way!

+1 .. yes they have, and I've gotten a good few PMs along the way too in response to something I've posted here.

rainbowtrout · 31-01-2010 1:46pm

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

Thank you so much again!!!!!

I'm going to change that ag. science book for the green one!

Thanks again!

It's not the end of the world if you have the Geissel book, have a look through the other one in the shop before you consider changing it and see which you get a feel for. The exam had a tendancy to match the headings from the green book far more neatly than Geissel's but not for everything.

Also if you go onto www.examinations.ie and download the past papers and marking schemes you will find them useful. The marking scheme can be really specific at times and it will give you a feel for what kind of answers are required.

heffelump · 02-02-2010 5:34pm

I could really do with some help urgently. I have most of my agri science project done thank god but I dont know how good it is. My teacher wants me to hand it up to grade it for the mocks and i dont want to give it to her yet if its not good enough. I havent gotten to see any samle projects because Im a repeat and i really dont want to do bad coz my parents will kill me after last year. Is there any1 out there that could send me a sample project. I did mine on grass, barley and beef cattle. I have most of my farm diary done too.....just nervouse i got the whole idea of the project wrong and i wont get a good mark

rainbowtrout · 02-02-2010 9:16pm

heffelump wrote: »

I could really do with some help urgently. I have most of my agri science project done thank god but I dont know how good it is. My teacher wants me to hand it up to grade it for the mocks and i dont want to give it to her yet if its not good enough. I havent gotten to see any samle projects because Im a repeat and i really dont want to do bad coz my parents will kill me after last year. Is there any1 out there that could send me a sample project. I did mine on grass, barley and beef cattle. I have most of my farm diary done too.....just nervouse i got the whole idea of the project wrong and i wont get a good mark

It sounds like you're doing fine. Don't worry about it and hand it up. The official deadline is March 31st so it sounds like your teacher will be grading them for the mocks and maybe then will give you time to improve it afterwards. You could ask her if that's the plan. Also if she is including your project mark in your mock grade you won't get anything if you don't hand it up..

Again like some of the other posters here, have a read of the project guidelines i have posted (start at the beginning of the thread) and compare the headings I have given to see have you covered enough.

MaighEoAbu · 13-02-2010 5:16pm

Hi again!

I was wondering is it normal for an Agricultural Science teacher not to do the experiments at all. He has only done one so far. I'm getting lessons outside of school and was wondering should I just write out the experiments myself in my copy or do i?

Also, do you need to learn all the experiments in the book or are there compulsory ones?

Finally, do you need to write out experiments in Agricultural Science? Does an examiner check them?

Thank you very much!

rainbowtrout · 13-02-2010 6:11pm

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

Hi again!

I was wondering is it normal for an Agricultural Science teacher not to do the experiments at all. He has only done one so far. I'm getting lessons outside of school and was wondering should I just write out the experiments myself in my copy or do i?

I'm sure there are a few that don't bother, but it wouldn't be the norm. If you are from Mayo as your username suggests I have a fair idea which school you are in if that is the case.

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

lf so, do you need to learn all the experiments in the book or are there compulsory ones?

There are no compulsory experiments. You need to have experiments done in the following areas

1. Soil Science
2. Ecology
3. Animal Physiology
4. Plant Physiology
5. Genetics
6. Microbiology

Having said that, the more you know the better as Q4 on the written paper (higher level) is always four experiments to do two, so it's a handy, straightforward question with a good choice

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

Finally, do you need to write out experiments in Agricultural Science? Does an examiner check them?

Thank you very much!

Yes you do, your copy will be checked ( and stamped ) for written evidence of completing the investigations. It's one of the few things that is stressed in the examination guidelines. So it would be better for yourself from a project and written exam point of view even if your teacher says not to.

fionnuar · 15-02-2010 10:49pm

Firstly, I'd just like to thank rainbowtrout, you've been very informative! I'm just wondering, if you do the project outside school and there is no Agricultural Science teacher in your school, then is there any way you can get the project "signed off" or recognised as complete or whatever? Thanks in advance.

rainbowtrout · 24-02-2010 5:29pm

zej wrote: »

You said you can do grass and potatoes or barley, would it be bad to do potatoes and barley?

Not at all, it's a common combination. It's Grassland OR Cereal OR Root Crop(including potato as it's technically not a root crop). Any two of the three.

fionnuar wrote: »

Firstly, I'd just like to thank rainbowtrout, you've been very informative! I'm just wondering, if you do the project outside school and there is no Agricultural Science teacher in your school, then is there any way you can get the project "signed off" or recognised as complete or whatever? Thanks in advance.

No. It has to be signed off by an Ag teacher that is teaching Ag as they are grading your project. Otherwise you could conceivably have your mother sign off on it! If you are interested in doing Ag maybe ring around the schools near you and see if any of them do Ag Sci and have a chat with the teacher there. It's not just a case of someone signing off on the result, they are signing off to say that you completed the practical work under their supervision

zej wrote: »

When is the Ag Science project actually due?!

March 31st

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

Okay, I have a question about the experiment copy.

I am writing my experiments up under the headings: Title, date, apparatus and chemicals required, method and results.
Is this okay? I saw on the marking scheme that there should be aim, method, results and conclusion but do you have to do it that way?

Thank you!!

There should be a conclusion in them as well. ie what you have learned from the experiment/what does it prove

MaighEoAbu · 03-03-2010 10:31pm

Hi! Me again!

I was just wondering if there will be a problem with me handing up my project next year. I'm doing Agricultural Science outside school with a teacher. However, another student said that I'd have to get it signed off by my principal in my own school. Is she right?

Also, I am unsure of what to write for the whole project. As in structure, etc. The only info I have so far is from Rainbowtrout and it was excellent! The only thing is that I need to see stuff laid out so i know what I'm doing. Is there any example on the internet or does anyone have one of an A1 project so I know the lay-out? I'm planning on writing out the project in all my own language in great detail as well, but will examiners prefer the usual definitions, etc?

Thank you so much!

rainbowtrout · 04-03-2010 1:26am

Liveit wrote: »

Our teacher said that the requirements for the brief have totally changed this year and that the econtents are different. Is this right or is he only trying to panic us?
I see that you said earlier in this thread that you can type it out. Our teacher said you can't, i don't know who to believe.

Well first off, if there was any changes to the project brief, they have to give schools two years notice so that's out first of all.

You can type your work, nothing wrong there.

What might have happened last year is that your teacher was pulled aside by the examiner and told that they weren't doing a section correctly or to the guidelines set out so they've had to change it to bring the work up to scratch, the brief has not changed in donkey's years, like the syllabus.

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

Hi! Me again!

I was just wondering if there will be a problem with me handing up my project next year. I'm doing Agricultural Science outside school with a teacher. However, another student said that I'd have to get it signed off by my principal in my own school. Is she right?

Also, I am unsure of what to write for the whole project. As in structure, etc. The only info I have so far is from Rainbowtrout and it was excellent! The only thing is that I need to see stuff laid out so i know what I'm doing. Is there any example on the internet or does anyone have one of an A1 project so I know the lay-out? I'm planning on writing out the project in all my own language in great detail as well, but will examiners prefer the usual definitions, etc?

Thank you so much!

Yes that student is correct. A teacher must correct your project, and really your principal can't sign off on it as they are saying they've taught you ag science and graded your project. It's not just putting a signature to paper, that would be easy, they have to give you a mark between 0-100 for your work.

You won't find any projects on the internet. I posted a guide in this thread about how you would lay out the dairy project so you could take that approach for the livestock and grassland. The rest is just experiments and is fairly straightforward

XxXSarahXxX wrote: »

hey im a 5th year student... our school doesnt offer ag science but out biology teacher is offering to teach it after school in 6th year. he says he plans to have the project done this year. it is possible to cover the whole course in 6th year with just an hour and half a week?( im from a farming background)

Yes you should be able to do it in that time frame no bother

rainbowtrout · 04-03-2010 10:56am

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks very much for your reply!

I never realised I had to do that! Well, there is a principal in our grinds school. Would that count? I have a very good relationship with my principal and I know I would be trusted so do you think there would be any problem there if it couldn't be my grinds school principal signing off on it?

Thanks again!

I think you're missing the point, the person who is signing off has to be actively teaching ag science, how can your principal assess you fairly on the 10 or 11 different sections of your project... especially if he's not an ag science teacher?

MaighEoAbu · 04-03-2010 2:52pm

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I think you're missing the point, the person who is signing off has to be actively teaching ag science, how can your principal assess you fairly on the 10 or 11 different sections of your project... especially if he's not an ag science teacher?

No, my grinds teacher is actively teaching but the other student in my grinds class said that my principal in my own school has to sign off on it as well. Is that true?

rainbowtrout · 04-03-2010 5:13pm

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

No, my grinds teacher is actively teaching but the other student in my grinds class said that my principal in my own school has to sign off on it as well. Is that true?

You would be classed as an external student. There is a space on the form for the teacher to sign and for the principal to sign. So there are two options.

1. You do all your subjects except ag science in your regular school and you are registered as an external student in the school where your grinds teacher works for the purposes of the practical assessment. Their principal would sign the form. You would still sit the written in your own school.

2. You are registered in your own school, and your grinds teacher signs off and your principal signs off, but it raises the problem that your grinds teacher is not teaching in your school and your principal may not want to sign off on a teacher he has never met

theowen · 07-03-2010 10:00pm

Hey Rainbow trout, I've everything done in my project. I was just wondering what kind of pics they show you on the day, plants wise. In my project section A, I've basically a pic of every plant mentioned on the syllabus. Should it be a pic of the flower of the plant or?(this may sound stupid:p)

rainbowtrout · 07-03-2010 10:11pm

theowen wrote: »

Hey Rainbow trout, I've everything done in my project. I was just wondering what kind of pics they show you on the day, plants wise. In my project section A, I've basically a pic of every plant mentioned on the syllabus. Should it be a pic of the flower of the plant or?(this may sound stupid:p)

you'll be grand so, usually the teacher themselves leaves a selection of plants out for the examiner to use, that way their students know what to expect. if none are left out or available, the examiner will supply their own... keeping to the common ones, a couple of grasses, clover, daisies, dandelions, etc trying to cover the different families

rainbowtrout · 14-03-2010 3:49pm

zej wrote: »

Jeez RainbowTrout, you're great! Haha.. I'd be so lost if it wasnt for all this. There is one thing I'm still confused about though, experiments! Do you need to include them in your project? Our teacher never said anything about putting experiments into it!?

Thanks.

Yes you must write up your experiments, if you already have them in a copy from class during the year you can hand that up. No need to re-write them.

rainbowtrout · 17-03-2010 1:15pm

zej wrote: »

Ah right ya, that's grand! Thanks Another thing, I'm doing cattle as my livestock but do you have to be specific about whether it's dairy or beef? Or can it just be cattle in general?

It can be any of the above, realistically it would be hard to do a project on cattle without mentioning either dairy or beef. Eg, if you do a section on calves and calving, how calves are reared in the dairy herd is going to be different from the suckler herd.

theowen · 21-03-2010 3:29pm

rainbowtrout wrote: »

you do realise that plagiarism of projects is not allowed???? you have five days, plenty of time to get the diary written up. Official deadline is March 31st, so really you have 10 days.

Hey:rolleyes: How should you present the project? I've to have it it tomorrow for my teacher so would a ring binder with poly pockets be grand? Oh, and what percentage is the actual oral? And...would examiners ask questions outside of section A? I'm not sure if I should spend the rest of the day going back over my crops or to section A.

rainbowtrout · 21-03-2010 7:03pm

theowen wrote: »

Hey:rolleyes: How should you present the project? I've to have it it tomorrow for my teacher so would a ring binder with poly pockets be grand? Oh, and what percentage is the actual oral? And...would examiners ask questions outside of section A? I'm not sure if I should spend the rest of the day going back over my crops or to section A.

You don't get any marks for the oral. The external examiner conducts interviews to ensure that the class teacher gave each student a fair mark. so if your teacher gave you 90/100 you should be giving an A standard interview.

You will (if you are picked for interview) be asked questions on all the sections. So that's plants and animals, crops and livestock and the experiments.

rainbowtrout · 21-03-2010 11:50pm

theowen wrote: »

Would a teacher ask you to identify plants that arn't common? For instance, apple, pear, plum etc all look the exact same...

no, there's no point in asking you plants you haven't really done. most common are the grasses, clover (red/white), daisy, dandelion, dock leaf, buttercup, thistle etc

rainbowtrout · 22-03-2010 11:05am

jonny92 wrote: »

The majority of our class just copied and pasted info for our ag science project for the 2 crops sections. Their is about an average of 25% of our own work and info out of the revise wise. Could you lose the entire marks for plagiarism?

Can you back it up with your practical experience? It's a bit of a half assed effort in my opinion. I already own a copy of the revision book, i don't need 30 more copies. It's impossible to do the project without using the materials that are available but just copying straight out of a book is lazy.

rainbowtrout · 22-03-2010 7:52pm

mark182 wrote: »

can anyone let me know what the lenght of the project should be.... average lenght anyway?...

how long is a piece of string? Quality not quantity.

rainbowtrout · 24-03-2010 2:11pm

shakeyabonbon wrote: »

i was wondering how we are supposed to present our project. a bunch of girls i know are getting theirs binded but i was jus going to put mine in a folder like in poly pockets. is there any specific way or preferred way to do it?
the other thing is that i know others doing the project and they are doing it really differently to me. i have been told to do 10 plants and 10 animals for section a. and we are writing up like 45 experiments. is there a wrong way to do an ag sci project?
what do u need to do for the farm and land layout?

There is no set layout. Polypockets is grand, fancy binding won't get any marks. Your teacher is doing a good job doing all those experiments, it will stand to you in the written exam if you do Q4. You have to have a minimum of 1 experiment in each of the following sections : Soil/Ecology/Animal Physiology/Plant Physiology/Genetics/Microbiology. So technically 6 experiments would do, but it is frowned upon if you hand up a copy with only 6 in it.

The farm and land layout has to be minimum A4 size but I find a bigger drawing is easier to work with, it should show the layout of a farm, aerial view. So that's the buildings, fields, silage pit etc. If you have a farm, draw your own. You should be able to justify it, ie don't put the slurry pit beside the farm house, silage pit might be near the cattle shed for easy access to feed.

eddiej · 24-03-2010 9:01pm

To be honest wonder about this sometimes. Surely you do the best you can with the projects. I aim for my students to have about 30 pages including photos of type in their projects. This is a two year course and two years to do the project it is the easiest way to get marks before the exam and yet still students try to copy cheat and do a half baked attempt. DO YOUR BEST and put everything you can into it. If people spent more time on their project than time wondering about ways to fudge it the projects would be better.

RT is 100% right you must know your own project and believe me it is very easy to spot the cogged projects. These are easy marks to get so why waste the opportunity.

RE binding them why not it is not dear makes your project look good and you know be proud of it, it is not essential and if money is tight then dont but it only costs between 5-10 euro for this so if you can why not.

rainbowtrout · 24-03-2010 9:22pm

triedtwice wrote: »

There are 70 peo-ple inmy class - how many should be picked do u think? Also is it true that you have to pick an equal number of boys and girls from the one class cos there are very few girls!!

70? Grind school?? Or several classes in one year? Plenty more than 4 will be chosen then. Stop worrying about it, there's nothing you can do until the day. The examiner can pick whoever they want. They will pick at RANDOM. Gender does not come into it, but most examiners will try and pick boys and girls if there is a mix but it's not a given.

rainbowtrout · 25-03-2010 12:54pm

MaighEoAbu wrote: »

Hi Rainbowtrout,

I was just wondering, if you can, could you tell us all the range of questions that can be asked in the oral?

Thank you, and don't mind if I'm asking too much!

You will be asked about each of the different sections that marks are awarded for. So that's plant and animal identification. Your livestock project and crops and then each of the six sections in the experiments. It should take about 20 mins. It can take longer if it's hard to get information out of a student or conversely if a student wants to chat away sometimes they forget themselves. One of my students spent 45 mins :eek: in the interview a few years back, she got an A though and knew her stuff.

Before anyone freaks out at the length of the interview, there are 6 sections in the experiments, 2 crops, livestock, farm plan, and the plant and animal identification, if you broke it down that's barely a minute or two each. It goes very fast.

rainbowtrout · 27-03-2010 7:31pm

theowen wrote: »

Oh crap. I was just reading the above posts and realised I never wrote the sources I used in my project. Is there any marks for them?

no, no need for sources

a2dolan wrote: »

hey,
im doing a farm diary and not a project?
theres a big difference iv been told.
is the marking break down still the same?

breakdown of marks is in post #2

rainbowtrout · 01-04-2010 3:09pm

Dacentdee wrote: »

hey, just finishing off my project and i think i've all the right parts covered within crops , livestock, experiments etc. Saw some other people's projects who have samples of plants and packages put in. Will i still get marks for having necessary headings covered or be marked down for not having these extra bits put in? gettin quite nervous...

you don't have to have the samples of plants in your project. That can be assessed separately by your teacher. The other stuff which you have done has to have written evidence

* Ag. Science *

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