Each issue of this school year’s Triton Times, I’d like to highlight Triton High School’s concurrent course offerings available to our students. A concurrent course is a class that upperclassmen can take to earn both high school and college credit—FREE and right at Triton. Concurrent courses are taught by our own Triton teachers to sections made of only Triton students. Depending on the class, students earn anywhere from 1-4 college credits per course. Teachers must have a master’s degree and a minimum of 18 graduate credits in that field. This month we’ll look at the agriculture offerings.
Mr. Robert Ickler teaches both of our concurrent agriculture courses: food science and plant science. Concurrent Food Science is the equivalent of Riverland Community College’s FSCI 1000 Principles of Food Science class and Concurrent Plant Science is the equivalent of Riverland’s AGSC 1010 Introduction to Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources class. Because these classes fall under “Career and Technical Education” (CTE), they are the only concurrent classes offered to sophomores, in addition to juniors and seniors. Sophomores-seniors who have a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 or higher are eligible to take these classes.
Food Science has been offered to Triton students since the fall of 2018. Students who successfully complete this class earn 4 college credits. Mr. Ickler enjoys teaching this class because of all the labs he gets to do with students and that “it’s fun to see students figure out new food products.” This class has been especially popular with our sophomores as a great introduction to taking concurrent courses at Triton High School.
Plant Science is a new offering this year and students taking it this semester are the very first ones at Triton! Students who successfully complete this class earn 3 college credits. Mr. Ickler enjoys learning about raising lettuce in the “Fork Farms Drip Irrigation hydroponic systems” right along with his students. Their first harvest took place on February 28th (pictured) and they will sell their lettuce to the Triton food service program so that all students can enjoy the class’s hard work.
Mr. Ickler recommends these classes to anyone interested in raising, harvesting, processing, storing, researching, and eating food. He believes these classes offer a great opportunity for students to explore careers and competencies needed to be successful in the food science and plant systems pathways. These courses directly transfer to the University of Minnesota, South Dakota State University, North Dakota State University and University of Wisconsin-River Falls among others, along with many two-year schools. Students wanting to get a degree in agriculture, food or natural resource pathways can earn a total of seven FREE college credits while in high school to get a jump start on their career.
