Agriculture is the science and practice of growing crops, and raising livestock for food, medicine and other products that benefit humans. An agricultural worker may plant seeds and nurture crops to harvest their products for markets.
Pierce College opened in 1947 and was originally named Clarence W. Pierce School of Agriculture, in its early years it was known as an agricultural school that focused on animal farming and cultivating crops. Today, the Agricultural Department at Pierce provides students with the opportunity to work on a project for a semester or more based on the curriculum.
Brianna Zimmerman, a student at Pierce college is working toward an Agriculture and Horticulture degree. Since the spring semester of last year, Zimmerman has been re-culturing bacteria samples in a liquid broth onto plates in hopes to find novel bacteria.
“We’re seeing what bacteria we can find in the soil and isolate because that bacteria can change the makeup of the soil,” Zimmerman said. “It can filter out nutrients and it can kill other pathogens, it can [also] be halogens, so it can determine the quality of the soil.”
The college recently upgraded its agriculture space, including a “state-of-the-art” plant science lab, Pierce President Ara Aguiar said.
“The new facility versus the old facility, there’s really no comparison,” Aguiar said. “I think it’s wonderful.”
Pierce student Jordan Schoonover is working toward a horticulture degree. Schoonover explained the process of his project.
“We are extracting DNA from the soil from cover crops and we’re just seeing what’s in the soil,” Schoonover said. “Right now we’re doing ICS but I think they were also seeing if there was possibly penicillins in the soil too.”
Students are given the option to choose what to do for their project based on their interests as long as they work up to six hours a week for the hands-on experience.
Professor Savanah Senn has worked in the Agriculture Department for Pierce College for nine and a half years. Senn expressed her excitement for the students to present their work.
“Yes, I think that it’s great for them to work on their presentation skills and also to follow something through to the end,” Senn said. “It’s exciting to see how excited they get and it helps to build their confidence.”
