MEDORA
Right after spring break, Adam Conklin started as the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Medora High School.
When he went into the school’s greenhouse, there were some seeds and a few other items, so he had some shopping to do to prepare for a plant sale.
“I’ve been running to Lowe’s and Rural King to get more soil and containers, and we just packed it as fast as we could those first two weeks, and then it has taken off,” he said of the work he and his students have put in. “I feel really good about how it has progressed.”
The plant sale is from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the grow lab and greenhouse across the street from the school, 82 S. George St., offering several kinds of tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, zinnias and marigolds. Proceeds will benefit the school’s ag department.
“Tomatoes and peppers are pretty common for these types of FFA sales, and then the other ones were just things that I have had success with growing in the past,” Conklin said. “We did have some seeds here already, so I just went with whatever we already had here in stock.”
Conklin came to Medora with experience teaching ag at Eastern (Pekin) and Orleans. He graduated from Crawford County High School in 2003 and Purdue University with an ag engineering degree in 2007. He then worked for Soil and Water Conservation for seven years before transitioning to teaching through online classes with Murray State University.
His wife, Maria Conklin, a science teacher at Brownstown Central High School, talked him into going into teaching.
“She said Blake Hackman there at Brownstown said that there’s a shortage of ag teachers,” he said. “She was already teaching and was like, ‘We could be on kind of the same schedule,’ so I took some extra courses to get my teaching license, and then it went from there.”
When he learned Ashley Shoemaker was leaving her position as ag teacher and FFA adviser at Medora to take the Jobs for America’s Graduates specialist position at BCHS, he jumped at the opportunity.
Conklin’s plant and soil class has done a majority of the work on the greenhouse plants, but students in supervised agricultural experience, career exploration and introduction to agriculture have helped, too.
“They did all of the planting, fertilizing, watering. There has been some transplanting to bigger containers,” he said.
“I just show them pointers, I show them how to do it and then they take off with it,” he said. “I really just demonstrated and showed them the proper way, and they take it from there, so I can just oversee it and make sure the temperature (in the greenhouse) is right. I’ve got to come in on the weekends sometimes and do stuff, but they’ve done the heavy lifting.”
Conklin said the students benefit from the hands-on work and getting outside instead of sitting in a classroom each school day.
“I think it’s just them seeing they planted the seeds and they get to see the whole process through and see it come to life and see that seed sprout and just go from a little bitty sprout into a plant,” he said. “We are applying things that we learned, especially with the fertilizer, stuff that feeds the plant.”
Sophomores Mariah Cobb and Jayden Brown both are familiar with planting, so the plant and soil class was right up their alley.
“It seemed interesting, and you get to work with the plants,” Cobb said, noting her family has a garden at home. “Even though we know stuff, we can learn more stuff.”
Brown said his mother has a greenhouse at home.
“You get to be outside,” he said of what he likes about the class. “It’s fun, and you get to learn about plants.”
Both students have liked seeing everyone come together to make the school greenhouse grow.
“It has been kind of crazy. They grow pretty fast,” Brown said of the plants and flowers.
“It’s something to be proud of, all of the hard work we put in,” Cobb said.
Cobb and her family plan to come to the sale to buy plants for their house, and she and Brown encourage others to stop by, too, and help the school in the process.
“Maybe people haven’t started their garden yet and could start it now since they’ve got plants,” Brown said. “Come buy some plants and see what we’ve all gotten done.”
Beyond the plant sale, Conklin said he plans to have students attend the FFA state convention this summer and then put together a soils judging team, do fundraisers and attend the national FFA convention in the 2021-22 school year.
“It’s just a small, tight-knit community, and everybody knows everybody,” he said of what he likes about working at Medora now. “As we started this, they do take a lot of pride in the facility. They are proud to have this grow lab.”
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What: Plant sale
When: 8 a.m. to noon Saturday
Where: Grow lab and greenhouse across the street from Medora Community Schools, 82 S. George St., Medora
Who: Open to the public
Offerings: Several kinds of tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, zinnias and marigolds grown by students in agriculture classes
Proceeds: Medora Community Schools agriculture program
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