On this week's episode of Lancaster Farming's new podcast, FarmHouse, we're talking to Lisa Boltz, an animal science teacher and FFA adviser in the Shippensburg Area School District.
In 2023, Boltz was honored with a National Association of Agricultural Educators Ideas Unlimited Award for her innovative wool processing lab, in which students learn about the process of using wool to create fibers and textiles.
Over the course of the project, Boltz's students follow wool through shearing, grading, skirting, scouring, carding, and spinning before using it to make dryer balls.
The project is hands on, relatively inexpensive and adaptable to most animal science curricula, making it ideal for programs that need to get creative with limited resources.
"I wanted something tangible for the kids to interact with," Boltz said. "And wool is a great example of how we do that."
Boltz didn't grow up in a farming family, but developed an interest in agriculture when she participated in a rabbit breeding project in high school. From that point on, she knew she wanted to be involved in ag.
As an FFA adviser, Boltz now uses that drive to guide students through the FFA program, where she encourages them to organize and run their own projects.
She said programs like FFA help motivate girls and young women to get involved with agriculture.
"(The girls) see opportunities in the FFA and they see very few barriers for those opportunities because we are setting them up for success and they can see that we're helping them through those challenges," Boltz said. "So I feel like even though agriculture as an industry is very male dominated, the girls are getting that leadership side and running with it."
In addition to chatting about Boltz's classroom and FFA experience, we also discuss broader issues facing educators, including the teacher shortage and what that might mean for ag education.
