Every year, Shelley Loeffler’s Grade 6 class in Saskatoon gets to see the 1962 black-and-white film The Drylanders.
The 69-minute National Film Board movie follows a family that moves to the Prairies from Eastern Canada and its struggle to survive on the farm during the 1930s drought.
It is history that her 11 year olds need to know, Loeffler told the annual meeting of Agriculture in the Classroom (Sask.) Inc. on April 11.
Loeffler, who has been a teacher for 20 years and is one of the AITC’s 238 agriculture ambassadors, said her urban-centred students “certainly don’t get on the grid roads often enough …. My kids need to know supporting farmers is an absolute must-do. Kids need to know farming is more than the growing and harvesting. In an urban world, we have to stay in touch with the rural.”
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AITC executive director Al Mohart said the program sets up displays at agricultural shows, works with teachers, developed a lunch kit to help students study how plants grow, and designed a farm safety program.
New this year will be resource material on agricultural careers.
“Agriculture isn’t simply rubber boots and overalls. It can be high tech,” Mohart said.
The AITC program will almost double its budget to more than $200,000 for the upcoming year, he said, as more businesses agree with the need to educate students about agriculture.
Manitoba’s program held its annual meeting April 9. Johanne Ross said the members, who are more often corporations and industry members, are also finding “it’s part of their business to promote agriculture.”
Ross said the group is pleased with where the program is headed. New this year will be an October program called Share the Harvest that will have farmers talking about their experiences.
The Manitoba program also wants to hold a summer institute for teachers to help write resources. Such workshops are held in Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
A three-day event in Winnipeg in September will teach 1,500 school kids about crops, soils, good and bad bugs and farm livestock. Previous versions of the event called Amazing Grace were a day shorter.
The Manitoba program has also had success with lunch kits for plants. It expects to run out of the 1,000 kits developed and sold for $20 to schools.
A national meeting of AITC programs will be held May 30 in Halifax.
