Adrian Park’s study of calf weight gain is the type of school project that prairie co-cordinators of Agriculture in the Classroom want to see.
The 15-year-old student decided to take an agricultural angle to his science class project this winter. He looked at which of two Holstein bull calves would gain more weight — the one sucking a bottle or the other drinking from a pail. The Rocanville, Sask., student found to his surprise that the pail-fed calf gained about five kilograms more than the other during the six-week project.
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Making agriculture part of all school life is the objective of the AITC programs that run in most provinces and are usually aimed at the elementary level.
Al Mohart, executive director of the Saskat-chewan AITC, said a “lunch kit” for growing plants is a popular program.
It includes samples from the province’s five soil zones and canola, barley and pulse seeds. As the children grow the plants, they learn about the value of nutrients.
Mohart, who will be reporting at the group’s annual meeting April 11, said it has been a successful year for attracting members and funding from “different industries who want to get their message out about food and agriculture.”
The increased funding allowed the group to produce another 350 plant lunch kits and hire a full-time office worker to assist Mohart.
The program linked with various groups such as Farmers with Disabilities and the Centre for Agricultural Medicine, and received $100,000 to develop a comprehensive farm safety guide for Grades 1 to 5.
Mohart is looking forward to AITC’s annual writing workshop on July 2-6.
Teachers will write sample lesson plans on timely topics such as water and genetically modified organisms. There will also be a public debate about GMOs between a University of Guelph professor and a Saskatoon representative of the Sierra Club of Canada.
