The executive director of Agriculture in the Classroom Manitoba says efforts to incorporate agricultural concepts into the kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum appear to be paying off.
Agriculture in the Classroom Manitoba strives to connect kindergarten to grade 12 students with the agriculture industry, inform them of the career opportunities in agriculture and help them be informed consumers.
Executive director Johanne Ross told those on hand last week in Winnipeg for Manitoba Swine Seminar 2013, because agriculture is not a core element of the Manitoba curriculum, Agriculture in the Classroom integrates agricultural concepts into curriculum is like social studies and math.
I have seen more of an awareness in young people and a little bit more curiosity and interest in where their food comes from but I also think we have a huge challenge out there because students do have a lot of misconceptions.
They don’t always delve into all the information to get all the right information on what they need about where their food comes from.
Because they are interested they are wanting to know more.
They have very similar ideologies to what our industry has.
We want to take care of the environment, we want to take care of animals, we want to produce good safe food and I think that’s the message that we need to get out there to the students because stereotypically they think agriculture, they think farming, not for them.
There’s not a role for them, it’s not really exciting to them but if we can come out and give more of that broad message of careers, the dynamic situation in our industry for careers and the future and feeding the world and the role we play in feeding the world right here in Manitoba.
Those are the kinds of messages we need to get out to these students.
Ross stresses, in order to expect teachers to use agriculture in the classroom teaching tools, those tools must be connected in some form to the curriculum being taught because teachers don’t have time to bring in new and different things that are outside of the curriculum.
