The Rural Voice, 1993-02, Page 23here are plenty of
T
opportunities to in-
volve agriculture in
the curriculum of schools
but how much a student
learns about the region's
largest industry still
depends very much on the
initiative of individual
teachers, a survey of
educators in western
Ontario reveals.
"The information pro-
vided by the various com-
modity groups is wonder-
ful," says Helen Crocker,
curriculum development
officer with the Learning
Resource Centre of Huron
County Board of Educa-
tion. "I'd like to make
teachers aware of what is
available."
At the secondary level,
says Jack Morgan, super-
intendent of education for
senior levels with the Grey
County Board of Educa-
tion, there are lots of
opportunities for teachers
to work agriculture into
programming but the
amount that is really used depends
very much on the interests and
knowledge of individual teachers.
Ag in the Classroom programs
have been available for most school
systems for some time but the 1993
International Plowing Match (IPM) is
the impetus to "give agriculture its
rightful place in the curriculum of
Bruce County," says Harvey McKay,
principal of Bruce Township Central
School near Tiverton. McKay is
involved in working with the Plowing
Match committee, other agricultural
groups and the Bruce public and
separate school boards in putting on
displays at the IPM, and making sure
agriculture remains part of education
for years to come.
There will be three workshops on
January 27 and 28 and February 3
where Roger Boyd of Ridgetown
College, consultant for Ag in the
Classroom programs in Ontario, will
show teachers the resources that are
available. Boyd will familiarize
teachers with the ag in the classroom
kits and show them how they can
integrate agricultural topics into
programs from science to geography
Reading, 'riting
and rural
Schools are making agriculture more and
more a part of the curriculum.
to mathematical problems. Students
will be encouraged to use agriculture
as topics for their speeches in public
speaking and in the books they write
for their "young authors" groups, says
McKay.
Some teachers have been doing
this for years, says McKay, but some
of the schools in the county are highly
urbanized and haven't had contact
with agriculture, one of the main cogs
of the economic wheel in Bruce. Even
in some of the rural schools a large
numberof the students have no
connection with farms.
The same problems exist with
teachers. Even in his own
school, McKay points out,
about half the teachers come from a
farm background, but the other half
don't have much knowledge of
agriculture.
There are places for the teachers to
turn for help, in Bruce County at
least. The Bruce County Agricultural
Awareness Committee, headed by
Jayne Dietrich, has compiled a list of
people who will serve as an
agricultural resource person for each
school in the county. If a principal or
a teacher is planning a farm
visit and has questions or
concerns, i. can contact the
resource person who will
answer the questions, or if it
is not his area of expertise,
will provide another contact
person with the answers.
The Ag in the Classroom
committee has also compiled
a book of possible farm tours.
The Bruce County Junior
Farmers have donated money
to help publish the booklet.
Such groups are active in
other counties as well.
Susan Christie heads
the Perth County Ag in the
Classroom committee. Last
year her group co-sponsored
a newspapers -in -education
workshop for Perth County
Resource Librarians helping
them extract information on
agriculture from newspapers
for students from kin-
dergarten to grade 5 and
grade 6-8. Her committee is
now looking at improving
reference materials on
agricultural topics for high
school students doing
projects.
Shirley Weitzel, education
consultant with the Perth County
Board of Education estimates about
half the teachers in the elementary
system make use of some sort of unit
of study involving agriculture, from
the study of fruits and vegetables and
visits to an apple orchard, to the story •
of farming in general.
In addition there's an annual dairy
program for grade 5 students.
Students are brought to the Stratford
Coliseum to learn about milk and the
making of cheese and butter. The
demonstrations, organized by the
•milk producers, also let students
speak to a vet and see real cows.
Making teachers aware of the pos-
sibilities about teaching agriculture is
done through workshops organized
for the teachers by various
commodity groups.
There is a lot of co-operation
between the school systems in
developing programs that emphasize
agriculture. The Grey -Bruce Roman
Catholic Separate School Board has
been co-operating with the Bruce
County public board and the IPM
FEBRUARY 1993 19
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