This week in sustainable agriculture we had a Socratic seminar. I was not looking forward to it because of my lack of organization, which made preparing for the seminar very difficult. Also, I generally don't like having conversations with people about topics I don't feel prepared for while being watched by other students. However, this Socratic seminar was the best one I've ever been in.
Usually, their are a few students who come into the Socratic seminar unprepared, resulting in a slow-paced discussion between the people who are prepared, which doesn't really go anywhere because they run out of things to discuss too fast. I was unprepared during the seminar but I was able to add on to the discussion just fine because I was able to apply what I learned from working on the farm into the discussion. When the question came up asking 'why soil erosion and soil fertility are major concerns for agriculture and the environment' I knew what to say during the seminar because I'd dealt with these problems at the farm. I knew that in order to solve these issues grass and shrubs had to be planted, mulch had to be added, drainage had to be improved, and the soil had to be loose because I had seen and done those things for the past three months. I'm not saying you don't have to study, I definitely would've done a lot better if I had. And if it weren't Mr. Stewart teaching in the classroom I wouldn't have been able to connect the work I had done at the farm to the question asked. What I'm saying is that the work that I have done on the farm has given me a greater knowledge of agriculture that I can now apply to the classroom.
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