I.T. Volunteers Judge Field Day

Volunteers from Information Technology judged the computer portion of the annual Ag Science Field Day, a series of competitive events for high school students involved in agriculture. Over 2,400 student members of California 4-H and Future Farmers of America participated in 23 agriculturally-based competitive events. The Field Day has been sponsored by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences for the past 18 years as part of an outreach and recruitment effort.

About 75 participants took part in the Computer Applications Contest, which required students to submit a computer application (in this case a spreadsheet) and do a three-minute oral presentation.

In the allotted three minutes, students addressed the uses of modern technology in agriculture, such as devices that help track the eating habits of cattle, and the use of the Internet to obtain information on weather conditions and stock prices.

"It's hard to get up and talk in front of people, but they did a really nice job. I learned a lot of things I didn't know," said Lisa Rocca, a computer resource specialist in Information Resources, one of the judges of the oral presentations.

The other volunteers from Information Technology were Catherine Olvera, Mike Schiltz, and Steve Faith.