At the end of October, Melissa Ploeckelman and Kyle Koshalek headed down to Indianapolis to attend the National FFA Convention. Ploeckelman and Koshalek served as exhibitors this year in the Ag Health and Safety area put on by the SAY (Safety in Agriculture for Youth) Clearinghouse and Career Safe. Students came into the area with 9 interactive areas to learn about agricultural Health and Safety and got a t-shirt at the end to remind them the importance of talking about safety with their classmates, co-workers and families.

Ploeckelman and Koshalek played safety Jeopardy with the students after they had filled out a short survey about safety classes they had taken in school. The survey will help the UMASH team understand what safety lessons are being taught and how to create future curriculum to help agricultural instructors teach more ag health and safety in the classroom. There were a record number of students that entered and enjoyed learning safety in the SAY area this year. Ploeckelman and Koshalek worked with about 1,200 students, advisors and guests in three days.