In The News: NHS brings home three FFA state titles

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic 

Two teams and one individual honored for their agri-science experiments

CORVALLIS — The Newberg High School FFA program graduated a decorated class of seniors last year, but it appears the next generation is ready to take their place after five underclassmen combined to win three state titles at the state convention March 18-21 at Oregon State University.

All three titles came in the agri-science experiment competition, including a second consecutive title for sophomores John McCarthy and Todd Halleman, who teamed up this year to win the Division II (10-12th grade duo) environmental science crown after earning state championships as individuals in 2015.

“Last year we had won in our own categories and we decided to join up and create the dream team this year,” McCarthy joked.

The freshman duo of Violet Elder and Lala Frketich won the Division IV (seventh-ninth duo) social science competition for their food shopping survey, while sophomore Alyssa Berry earned the top prize in social science Division III (10-12th individual) for her survey of student opinion on GMOs.

McCarthy and Halleman created and tested their own American bullfrog synthetic predator deterrent, a metal cutout of a great blue heron similar to the coyote cutouts that deter geese from landing in fields.

The pair ran 40 trials with their test subject, “Terry” the bullfrog, and in every instance he turned and moved away from the cutout resembling one of the invasive species’ natural predators.

“Both Todd and I believe the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife could implement this design in highly populated areas of bull frogs because they eat native species such as bass, turtles, lizards and even other frogs,” McCarthy said. “Not only is it a great predator, but due to it’s size it’s also very loud and many people complain about the noise pollution they create. This could be a way for residents to remove bull frogs from areas where that’s a problem.”

The students also created the cutout as environmentally-friendly alternative to the many methods touted on the Internet, which can include harmful chemicals.

NHS teacher and FFA instructor Bob Beckner said he thinks the experiment could draw the attention of the ODFW, joking that the only current curb on the invasive bullfrog population are people who want to fry up their legs.

For her experiment, Berry surveyed NHS students for their opinions about GMOs, specifically searching for opinions on whether they should be labeled, would students knowingly eat products containing GMOs and how they thought GMOs affected their bodies.

Berry was not surprised that some students didn’t know what GMOs were or that some thought GMOs harmful or without benefit, but was caught off guard by the magnitude of the results.

“Of the students who knew what GMOs are, most of them would not eat a GMO due to it affecting their bodies in bad ways, even going to extremes to say that they kill you or do damage to your body,” Berry said. “About 30 percent of students didn’t know what GMOs were, which kind of surprised me seeing how it’s such a hot topic in the media right now.”

Elder and Frketich surveyed shoppers at the Newberg Fred Meyer about the content of their shopping carts, specifically asking them to estimate the amount of food items versus non-food items they had purchased.

They then checked the carts and found that most shoppers largely overestimated the amount of food items in their carts, which aligns with research that has shown Americans spend just 11 percent of their budget on food, which is among the lowest rates in the world.

The judges were impressed with the subject matter, especially because teenagers are rarely the ones who do the shopping in their households.

Lane and Elder, along with fellow freshman Hannah Lane, also competed on the Newberg’s FFA Knowledge team, which placed sixth at state. Elder added a seventh-place finish individually in creed speaking.

Halleman and McGarthy also stayed busy at the convention, teaming up with Mariah Lemen, Jacob LaPointe and Cassidy Hannan to place fifth on the farm business management math test.

Individually, junior Israel Pintor also placed fifth in extemporaneous public speaking, while junior Shaelee Barnett and senior Emily Sandberg both earned their state degrees, an honor just 5 percent of FFA participants achieve.