Kids can learn a lot by getting back to their roots and celebrating agriculture in school, say a group hosting a teachers’ forum in Cochrane next month.
On Nov. 24, Agriculture for Life will put on its first education symposium, a professional development day that will bring together farmers, ag industry experts and teachers for meaningful discussion about how to better incorporate agriculture into the existing school curriculum.
The event will take place at the Cochrane RancheHouse.
“There are connections across every curriculum area to agriculture,” said Ag for Life program coordinator Heather Hanlon, herself a former teacher. “It’s something that students can connect with personally: everyone eats, everyone goes to the grocery store.”
Hanlon said some schools around the province are getting on board with helpful tools like community gardens – including Cochrane’s Glenbow School, where agriculture lessons do make their way from the fields into the classroom. Every spring, students plant potatoes, beets, carrots and more in a garden on the grounds of the educational facility.
When school started in the fall, youth harvested the vegetables, and last week they enjoyed the fruits of their labours with pots of stone soup.
“It’s important that they know how food is grown and all the different things that we can do with that food,” said Grade 3 teacher Kristy Cote, who helps manage the school’s garden project.
Cote said she is able to find opportunities to incorporate math, science and other subjects into the garden work.
Kids use rulers to measure the distance required between seeds before planting, and take note of the length of roots after harvesting. Students learn how animals forage for food when they discover that neighbourhood deer have eaten their carrots – and they write about their progress in journals.
Cote said digging in the dirt and tasting the vegetables rounds out the invaluable sensory learning experience for Glenbow students.
“You get your hands in the soil and you can feel the warmth. … you can see the strawberries and taste them. We can really involve every sense,” said Cote.
Hanlon said it’s those types of experiences she hopes teachers will start to incorporate into their regular school days – especially since in the current urbanized world, “a lot of kids don’t know that potatoes grow in the ground.”
“It’s a very important industry for the world (and) for the planet,” she said.
During the one-day symposium, Dr. Frank Robinson, a professor in the University of Calgary’s Environmental Sciences department, will be the keynote speaker. Other panel guests include natural sciences teachers, field trip organizers and more.
Breakout sessions include learning about the ins and outs of soil health, a presentation on the role of bees, discussions of agriculture careers and a hands-on demonstration about container gardening in the classroom.
Registration is open now at www.agricultureforlife.ca.
