FFA students honored at National FFA Convention

Thermopolis Middle School students were honored with awards at the National FFA Convention on October 25-29 in Indianapolis, Indiana. There were over 66,000 students in attendance.

FFA Advisor for the Big Springs Chapter, Becky Martinez said that there were six students who qualified, but only three traveled to the convention. Those who attended are 8th graders Chloee Owsley, Haden Johnson and Alec Martinez. They are part of the top 10 in the nation and were welcomed onto the stage for the ceremony.

Martinez also said that 9th graders Jayssie Owsley, Gage Pittsley, and Cruz Mascorro did not go, but they still earned the privilege and the top ten placings.

Martinez described the awards ceremony and said, "They had their own special time that they got to go up on stage each individually. They were all teams of two. So in division two, they work with a partner and the group got to go up."

Gage and Cruz were honored for their efforts. They competed in environmental and natural resources, placing fifth in the nation, earning a gold medal and gold pin for their FFA jacket."

Continuing the ceremony, Martinez said Alec and Haden were next for food product and processing, winning second in the nation. Also, Chloee and Jayssie earned seventh place and silver for plant systems. 

Gage and Cruz's project was about fishing and having five different types of bait. Their project was to figure out which one would catch the most trout. In their research using three trials, they found worms caught 9 fish, marshmallows caught 8 fish, and shrimp caught 9 fish. The other baits cheese and bread did not catch any fish. 

Alec and Haden's project was about two different steers and compared the aging process. When a steer is slaughtered, they're hung in the cooler for dry aging. The students compared 21 days and 28 days to see if it made the steak more tender. Their research showed that 21 days of drying aging produced the most tender steak.

Chloee and Jayssie's project was about having some land and soil that is not ideal. They wanted to figure out if by putting additives in it, would they be able to grow some crops better? They had two different pots. One of them was at their house and the other had manure in it. They put wheat seeds in both of them and tested to see which one had the most that germinated. Their research showed that soil with manure produced a significantly higher amount of germinated wheat.

When asked about how these particular studies rose to the level of national prominence and competed with about 66,000 other students, Martinez said, "Some of them were very strategic in what category they picked. Animal systems is very competitive, and they chose to not do one in animal systems because they would have more competition. They picked one that they were interested in and that they thought they could do well in. Each of them had a tie to it." Martinez described how the students already loved to go fishing or farming or raise steer in their regular lives. 

Martinez also described how the students were strategic in choosing projects locally, so they were not competing against each other in the same class. This enabled them to have a greater chance to potentially become state champions. 

When it comes to Martinez's thoughts about teaching her students, she said, "I just feel so fortunate to get to work with them. I love my job. We had six of my middle school students that qualified in the state of Wyoming. There were 11 total middle schoolers. We had the majority of middle schoolers representing the state of Wyoming. I think that was really cool. And how the success of the students that went to Nationals is driving the class that comes after them to be just as successful or more successful than them. FFA is such a positive organization."