While the cattleman and women were on campus last week, one of the sessions they participated in was artificial insemination in cattle. This session was one that I had the opportunity to help plan and implement alongside my advisor. We put on an artificial insemination school for producers every fall and spring but this is a 3-day event. We basically took the main concepts from AI school, and transformed them into a short course designed for high schoolers. Since these students hadn't yet had a livestock reproductive class we took a different approach to explaining the estrous cycle. We asked for volunteers and had the students help illustrate the estrous cycle in a skit using props. Each volunteer was a designated "day" of the estrous cycle. We used balls to describe the growth of the corpus luteum and balloons for growing follicles. It was extremely entertaining...I'm sure you can imagine! We also covered the history of AI, different tools needed, female anatomy, semen handling, AI technique, and estrus synchronization.
I had a lot of fun helping organize this session and hopefully we will get to do it again in the future.
Learning about the tools needed.
Estrus Synchronization Skit
Working with the female reproductive tracts. This is a good way for them to practice artificial insemination because they can see what they are doing.
Locating the different parts of the tracts.
Practicing semen handling techniques.
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