The University of Saskatchewan’s agriculture college hopes to increase enrolment by exposing high school students and teachers to a science curriculum based on agriculture.
Jon Treloar, the college’s community liaison co-ordinator, said it has held about 10 two-day workshops over the last couple of years, involving 150 teachers, and the response has been positive.
“We’re seeing kids who have taken this say they want to pursue it at university,” he said.
The workshops have their roots in the early 2000s, when enrolment at the college began to decline.
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“We looked into it and saw that high school students are unaware of the science of agriculture and the opportunities that exist in the industry,” said Treloar.
He said there is little agriculture-related content in high school science classes. After meeting with provincial education officials and high school teachers, the college developed curriculum based mostly on biology as it relates to agriculture.
Students are presented with real life issues or problems and asked to solve them, an approach called “problem-based learning.”
The program has three objectives, according to Treloar:
• Expose science teachers to agriculture and bioresources.
• Provide their schools with curriculum resources.
• Instruct teachers in problem based learning.
