Growing agriculture awareness in New Brunswick schools
/by Christian Michaud
Delivered by the Agriculture Alliance of New Brunswick (AANB), Agriculture in the Classroom New Brunswick (AITC-NB) is a non-profit, charitable organization committed to providing accurate, balanced, and current curriculum-linked agri-food resources, programs, and initiatives that are based in science.
Part of AITC-Canada, the national voice for agriculture education with a vision for agriculture in every classroom and inspiring every student, AITC-NB acts to engage New Brunswick students and educators to enhance their knowledge of agriculture and food.
The AANB is excited to have Charlotte Flores, AITC-NB manager, and Michelle Landry, AITC-NB coordinator, working together to grow the provincial program. Both are former teachers with a passion for agriculture and sustainability.
“Our goal is to support teachers with the resources they need to get agriculture into the classroom at every grade level,” said Charlotte, explaining that they’re continuing with the successful Little Green Thumbs and Little Green Sprouts pan-Canadian programs, and the Spuds in Tubs program, which focuses on growing potatoes.
New this year is a partnership with two multicultural associations in the province to offer the Spuds in Tubs program during their summer camps. “This is a fantastic way to connect newcomers to something that is historically relevant and culturally important to us in New Brunswick,” said Charlotte.
She added that they expanded the program to some daycares, with children who attend those daycares planting potatoes in the spring and the children who participate in summer camp programs in the same facilities tending and harvesting the spuds.
“Our hope is, in particular with the multicultural associations, if there are extra potatoes, to send them home with recipes and again make that connection for families with something that’s so New Brunswick – the simple potato,” said Charlotte.
Charlotte and Michelle are also working on plans for Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month in March 2023 and are looking to expand on some of the successful initiatives from 2022, such as AITC-NB’s pollinator partnership.
AGRICULTURE CAREERS
A new focus for the 2022-23 school year is agriculture careers: helping students explore the careers available in agriculture and their wide-reaching impact.
“A big part of this is showcasing careers here in New Brunswick, as well as showing that there is a web of supporting jobs,” said Charlotte. “Agri-foods is much larger – it’s one in eight careers in Canada – so we want young people to know that those jobs exist here in New Brunswick as well as to hopefully get them thinking about how they can stay in New Brunswick and work in this really important field.”
Initiatives in this area include a “think ag expo” for high school students who can participate in a career quiz to determine where their interests lie and talk with farmers, farm equipment suppliers, and people within agri-food services.
Other career-focused initiatives include the creation of two videos that will feature the applied science and research institute Valorēs, highlighting its work with agriculture and aquaculture, as well as a new Grade 10 project called 3, 2, 1 Action.
The latter is a marketing campaign project in which students will use the prompt “Agriculture is …” to create a 30-second video and a poster showcasing what agriculture is to them. The goal, said Charlotte, is not only to give students a chance to research agriculture and see it through their eyes, but to help them learn new skills with mentors from marketing companies, universities, and the agriculture sector.
AITC-NB is also taking advantage of AITC-Canada’s Career Case initiative, a career development game that demonstrates the diversity and importance of careers in agriculture and food.
“We’re expanding our programs quite a bit, but we have a lot of vision for what can happen in the future as well,” said Charlotte.
NEW WEBSITE
The AANB recently launched a new AITC-NB website (www.aitc-aec-nb.ca) just in time for back to school. The website offers resources for teachers and students, including a matrix that allows teachers to search by grade level, subject, and outcome for curriculum-linked activities and lessons.
There’s also a growing farmer contact list that will help match teachers with farmers and secondary producers. “That may be a farm that’s open for field trips, a farm looking to do talks and are willing to go into the classroom, or something as simple as a Zoom call when there’s a topic that coordinates with them,” said Charlotte. “For us, it’s a pre-vetted list to refer teachers to when they are looking for a farmer.”
Farmers interested in being on the list can reach out to Charlotte and Michelle through the AITC-NB website, by calling 506-889-3455, or by emailing aitc-aec@fermenbfarm.ca.
(Christian Michaud is president of the Agriculture Alliance of New Brunswick.)
