Keeneland Magazine - Winter 2015 - Locust Trace AgriScience Center

making a difference
LOCUST TRACE
FIELD WORK
A BROAD APPROACH TO LEARNING PREPARES LOCUST
TRACE STUDENTS FOR FUTURES IN VETERINARY SCIENCE,
AGRICULTURE, AND HORTICULTURE
By Jacalyn Carfagno / Photos by Jonathan Palmer
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field work
Laurie Mays, the equine program director at Locust Trace
demonstrating what he’s learned as answering questions on paper.
AgriScience Center, is teaching a lesson in equine markings and
Learning can range from restoring an old tractor to build-
anatomy. Standing in a paddock on a beautiful fall day, her left
ing fences and run-in sheds on the grounds to tending over six
hand on Trinity, the slimmer of two spotted saddle horses patient-
acres of gardens and raising bedding plants, poinsettias, mums,
ly serving as live examples, Mays begins by asking students to
and fish for sale, and eggs that wind up at God’s Pantry. When
name a part of a horse and then walk up to Trinity and point to it.
animals get sick or a sow is close to farrowing, students stay,
A typical group of teenagers, her students are sporting tight
pants, some piercings, one blast of pink hair, and fashion boots.
sometimes overnight, to tend them.
Locust Trace opened in 2011 with 182 students, but its origins
They have run quickly out of horse parts they can identify.
go back to 2005 when Joe Norman, then the principal of Eastside
“Nobody knows what an eyeball is?” she asks, her voice rising
Career and Technical Center, hatched the idea of expanding the
school district’s horticulture program into a broader agricultur-
above the wind.
al education opportunity. Research showed that students wanted
classes in animal, veterinary, and equine sciences as well as more
horticulture, and the agriculture community supported the idea.
Locust Trace as it is today became possible in 2009 when the
federal government gave the school district 82 acres of land on
Leestown Road through its surplus properties program. This afforded the opportunity to create a campus where the buildings
and the surrounding land are teachers too. “The classroom has to
expand past the four walls in a building,” Norman said. The habitats and migratory patterns of the non-farm animals on the land
are part of the curriculum. Students also learn how occupation by
humans and domestic animals impacts the soils, vegetation, and
underground water table.
Since its founding, enrollment in the range of agriculture
classes has doubled and continues to grow. This year 308 stuLaurie Mays, the equine program director, uses a live model to
teach equine anatomy to students at Locust Trace.
dents, split between morning and afternoon, study at Locust
Trace. They can choose among five paths of study: animal science
systems,
Reacting to Mays’ question, a few sheepishly raise a hand. Finally, one walks up to Trinity and points to an eye.
This is experiential learning. No sitting in a classroom memo-
which
includes
equine studies; agribiotechnology
ness
systems;
systems;
agribusiagriculture
rizing a diagram of a horse with narrow lines pointing to fetlock,
power, structural and tech-
forelock, pastern, etc. The students, who spend half their day at
nical systems; and plant and
Locust Trace and the other half at another Fayette County School
horticulture systems. Next
District high school — called their “home school” — are in their
school year food science and
first semester of the equine track, one of five tracks Locust Trace
processing will be added to
offers. A horse’s eyes, they learn, are set wide for a greater range of
the mix.
vision. As prey animals horses need to know what’s around them,
Almost
all
applicants
Mays explains. That’s also why their ears can rotate to collect
are accepted, but as enroll-
sound from every direction.
ment rises, the process may
Watching from outside the plank fence is Peyton Cherry. A senior, he’s one of the interns helping show visitors around.
become more competitive.
While the emphasis is on ag-
At Locust Trace “you actually do” what you learn, he says. There
riculture and animal science,
are classrooms but what’s taught is rapidly translated into experi-
the school also offers tradi-
ence in the field, barn, or lab. Exams are as likely to be a student
tional classes such as math,
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Senior Peyton Cherry hopes to
study zoology in college.
field work
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Students in the vet-assistant track get hands-on experience with a
variety of animals.
English, and chemistry, which students may take at Locust Trace or at
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Cherry’s home school is Bryan Station. He’s got nothing against it,
but he loves Locust Trace. “You kind of want to be in class,” he says,
“because you chose it.”
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field work
Eventually, they might meet some
more challenging patients in the Locust
Trace Vet Clinic, a private, full-service
veterinary practice that operates out of
space in the school building. Every vet-assistant student will rotate through the
clinic operated by Dr. Lee Godman. They
learn how a filing system works, how to
greet patients and their owners, and they
get to watch and assist, when possible,
all aspects of actual vet care, including
surgeries. On this day Allie, a pit bull mix
owned by Locust Trace’s community liaison Sara Tracy, is getting laser therapy
A rooftop garden is another example of how Locust Trace makes the best use of existing
space while also affording learning opportunities.
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
Photos of an early visit by professionals surveying the
property that became the Locust Trace campus show
them riding on horseback through grass up to their
ankles. Not exactly your typical visit to a potential construction site.
And what resulted is far from typical. Locust Trace is a
net-zero project, a set of buildings that produce as much
as they use. Designed to make the best use of sun, shade,
and wind for cooling and heating, they include sophisticated monitoring equipment so students can track how
the systems are working in real time. This allows them to
learn how things such as opening a window or turning on
a fan can affect temperatures and energy consumption.
Susan Hill, the lead architect of the team that
designed Locust Trace, said the first goal in producing
a net-zero project is “to drive down consumption.” So,
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Locust Trace was situated to take advantage of light in the winter
and shade in the summer and to capture prevailing winds. The
exterior walls are all insulated poured concrete, and few of the
interior spaces are air-conditioned, relying instead on high ceilings, ventilation louvers, windows, and huge ceiling fans to keep
them comfortable.
Locust Trace has three types of solar panel installations: to
produce electricity, heat water, and provide heat for the buildings.
As a result, the campus’ energy use per square foot is only
about a quarter of the average for schools in Kentucky.
The water bills are also low. All the rain that hits the roofs is
collected in three huge underground storage tanks and used to
water the school’s plants and animals. Waste water is processed
in a constructed wetland — a gravel bed with plants that filter
it before it percolates down into the soil. (There is no odor; the
wetlands look, and smell, like part of the landscape.) And the
water that hits the roads and paths around the school doesn’t
flood into the nearby stream, instead slowly seeping into the soil
through permeable pavers.
Locust Trace will always be a unique project because of its use,
size, and location but some of the lessons learned there are being
applied elsewhere, Hill said. A new high school being built in Lexington will have insulated concrete walls and permeable paving
and solar panels on the roof. Visitors have come from school districts across the country and beyond to study the lessons Locust
Trace has to teach.
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field work
Equine studies students learn all aspects of horsemanship. Some will go on to veterinary assistant positions straight out of high school
while others will pursue veterinary medicine and research careers.
to relieve back pain. Godman explains to
Like Peyton Cherry, Knowles said the
rider, said Laurie Mays helped her sort out
seniors Madison Reeves and Justin Olm-
benefits of small classes and hands-on
the logistics for “how to haul my horse
stead that the photons emitted by the la-
learning extend beyond the classroom. “The
900 miles to Massachusetts” this summer,
ser stimulate the mitochondria in Allie’s
relationships between teachers and stu-
“and checked in on how we were doing
back muscles to promote blood circula-
dents are definitely a lot closer than most
throughout the trip.”
tion — typically limited in muscle tissue
at my home school, and most students had
Like Knowles, many Locust Trace grads
— to speed up healing. Everyone, includ-
a teacher they always felt they could come
go on to college to pursue studies directly
ing Allie, wears goggles to protect the
to for personal advice or advice about gen-
related to their work at the school, includ-
eyes, and the students begin applying the
eral academics, not just help for the class.”
ing many potential veterinary students.
therapy. One holds and calms Allie while
the other operates the laser.
And that help continues beyond grad-
Locust Trace has a close relationship with
uation. Knowles, an experienced event
UK’s agriculture program and many grad-
Katie Knowles came to Locust Trace as
uates enroll there. Others are prepared to
a junior from her home school of Tates
go directly to work, whether working with
Creek and graduated this past spring. “Al-
farm machinery or as veterinary assis-
though people think of LT as an ag school,
tants. While some leave agriculture, they
it’s called an ‘agriscience center’ for a
have a better understanding of it and the
reason,” said Knowles, now a freshman
planet they live on.
at Smith College in Massachusetts where
Norman, now retired, is thrilled with
she plans to pursue an engineering de-
the reality his vision has become. Ken-
gree toward her interest in equine biome-
tucky “will reap the benefits from the out-
chanics. “The science is really good at the
school, and it definitely rekindled my love
for science and experimentation.”
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For certain procedures such as laser
therapy, students and patients wear
goggles.
standing education these students experience,” he said recently. “Locust Trace is an
amazing school.” KM