WPSA School Competitions

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World’s Poultry Science Association (WPSA) Schools Poultry Education Competition

Click  to access the National Poultry Education Competition 201 2 Report 

The World’s Poultry Science Association (WPSA) High School’s Poultry Industry Education project was established in 2000 by Queensland’s WPSA sub-branch. This group wanted to establish a hands-on industry education project that would combat misinformation about the use of hormones, be a vehicle that provided information about the poultry industry to the community and could be carried out in agricultural schools.

In 2003/04 the Australian Egg Corporation Limited (AECL) sponsored the development of an operations manual for the project containing time lines, a list of possible research areas students might like to investigate, 40 relevant Australian poultry information web sites and all necessary support material for the project’s annual operation.

Project Objectives

• To extend the WPSA Schools competition to at least two other states outside of Queensland.
• To investigate the most sustainable ways of providing support to the school activities.
• To arrange a meeting with participants being the executive members of the National Association of Agricultural Educators and the state branches of the Association. The outcome to form a consultative committee to plan the development of a ‘training package’ for the schools project.
• By means of the consultative committee, provide input to the advisers involved in the development of the new Federal curriculum.

Methodology

At the commencement of the 2008 school year, the WPSA project had been operational in Queensland for eight years, 85% of Queensland’s Agricultural teachers (both state and independent and a small number of interstate schools) had taken part in the project. The project has grown approximately 5% each year from the initial 11 Agricultural schools (with poultry facilities), to currently where twenty–six Queensland schools took part in the 2008 competition.

The competition requires students to do a review of the poultry industry and develop a report based upon the information they collect that supports their trial hypothesis as well as trial procedure and results and a poster that displays these outcomes.

Agriculture students enjoy the physical components of the competition i.e. contact with the chickens and the responsibility associated with looking after them. Teachers have witnessed the benefits the competition has as a teaching tool and as such have been anxious to undertake and promote it each year. With this in mind, it was decided to use these positives to target a small number of schools to expand the competition nationally.

South Australia Poultry in Schools 2009: Careers and Presentation Day

Poultry in Schools was initiated in response to the anticipated future demand for trained and qualified poultry farm workers in South Australia as a result of significant industry expansion. The introduction of the program in South Australia follows a successful promotion of the WPSA High School Poultry Industries’ Education Competition in Queensland.

The program is effectively a competition, the entries of which consist of a report and poster outlining the results of a simple poultry experiment of the school’s choice. In 2009, four South Australian schools (Balaklava High School, Clare High School, Tintinara Area School and Trinity College) took up the opportunity to become involved in the Poultry in Schools program, each contributing two entries.

The winner, announced at the Presentation and Careers Day at Roseworthy Campus was Clare High School for their trial comparing the growth rates of broiler and layer chicks. The Careers and Presentation Day was generously sponsored by Ingham’s Enterprises, Gourmet Poultry, Adelaide Poultry, Ridley AgriProducts and the South Australian branch of the World’s Poultry Science Association (WPSA).

The winner of the SA competition (Clare High School) also entered the national competition against schools from Queensland and New South Wales. Clare High School received second prize in the national competition.

Poultry in Schools Competition Manual

Following the success of the Poultry in Schools 2009 Competition, the WPSA SA branch in collaboration with a host of other leading industry organisations decided to further support this initiative with the development of a Competition Manual to assist interested schools.

• Introduction and Outline

Junior Category (students in years 6, 7 & 8)

• Competition Rules
• Competition Topics
• Junior Assessment Criteria

Senior Category (students in 9, 10, 11 & 12)

• Competition Rules
• Trial Ideas and Examples

Additional Information

• Rough dates for SA comp
  • January – Teachers’ Information Day held via webinar
  • Mid February – Competition Details Forms to be faxed to Competition Coordinator
  • Early June – Reports and Posters on trial outcomes due in for marking
  • Late June – Presentation and Careers Day at Roseworthy Campus, University of Adelaide
• Reference Material

If your school would like to be involved in this competition, please contact one of the following people:

South Australia or Victoria

Belinda Rodda
Roseworthy & Turretfield Administration
SARDI Livestock & Farming Systems
Roseworthy Campus, South Australia 5371   
Phone: +61 8 8303 7872       Fax:  +61 8 8303 7975
Post:    SARDI, JS Davies Bldg, University of Adelaide, Roseworthy Campus, 5371 South Australia
Email:  belinda.rodda@sa.gov.au      Website:   www.sardi.sa.gov.au

Queensland or New South Wales

Tanya Nagle - Consultant
Ph: +61 07 3901 0094      Mobile: 0408 794 496
Email: poultrycomp@optusnet.com.au