Golden Hills School Division (GHSD) students got a taste for what an agriculture-integrated curriculum may look like at the soon-to-be-open Wheatland Crossing school when students from across the division participated in an Agriculture Industry Training Day at Standard School on Tuesday, April 19.
Over 80 students from across GHSD including Drumheller, Standard, Rockyford, Hussar, Gleichen, Three Hills and Strathmore participated in the day which saw groups travel to a cattle feed lot, greenhouses, a seed cleaning plant, and equine facilities in order to connect theory from an agricultural workplace safety course with industry experts.
“So many of our students are rural, so agriculture safety is what they are dealing with in their daily lives,” said Standard School principal Karen Smith, “and it’s good for any student to have that safety background in their lives.”
Agriculture for Life, a not-for-profit organization coordinated small group, break-out education sessions with local industry in the morning and then had students choose between four afternoon tours which focused on exposing students to the real life agriculture industries we rely on.
“We want to include agriculture in a lot of what we do in our new school because it's an important part of the lifestyle and economy of the area,” said Smith, who explained that the idea of developing a “mini-farm” for the new Wheatland Crossing School, which is scheduled to open in September this year in east Wheatland County, which will serve K-12 students in Standard, Hussar, Rockyford, and Gleichen.
“We currently have a small greenhouse and in the future hope to have a mini-farm area of the new school that students would help maintain and look after,” said Smith. “I’m so excited about it. We’re imagining a barn to house a half dozen livestock animals that the students will learn about and help care for, with a greenhouse and community garden area.”
Smith said she hopes to integrate applied agricultural theory to courses.
“For example, in Grade 3 they study the life cycles of insects, so then maybe they’ll look at the types of insects that affect a Canola crop.”
Participating businesses included Rocky Mountain Equipment, CHS, ATCO Underground Utilities, the Co-operators, ATV Safety, Fortis, Cattlelands Feedyards, AVB Greenhouses, Eagle Lake Nurseries, Rougeau Farms, the Strathmore Seed Cleaning Plant, Crowfoot Ag., and Agrium in Standard.
