A dead animal as homework?  Casey Harper, the Agriculture teacher at Schuyler Central High School, saw that the students were thrilled to acquire a new skill they may potentially use in the future. This new skill was butchering a deer. Many of the students in the class hunt and see the value of this skill for their future.

Art teacher Micheal Trotter provided the deer meat. Mr. Trotter skinned and gutted the deer meat before bringing it to school.  This ensured cleanliness for the meat processing that had taken place. Within 45 minutes, Mr. Harper’s Animal Science class had the deer butchered and bones free of meat. Mr. Harper stated that “students benefit by getting a first-hand experience of what it is like to butcher and process an animal.” Students can use this activity as an opportunity to acquire new skills in the meat butchering career field. Mr. Harper and Mr. Trotter could not be more proud of the students and their willingness to learn with this activity. 

“This is going to taste amazing,” stated sophomore and participant in the deer activity, Trey Svatora. Trey shared that he will not necessarily choose this as a career, but plans to be butchering “plenty more deer.” This activity is something Mr. Harper and Mr. Trotter would love to do again in the near future.