The Ag Prop Program continues to hone its technique for helping students absorb essential knowledge of the industry. Kids pose with their animals at the Agricultural Discovery Centre in Irvine in this May 2023 file photo.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
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Prairie Rose Public Schools is looking at past successes and future opportunities with its Ag Pro Program, which continues to prepare students for a career in the agricultural sector.
Local farmer and founder of the Agricultural Discovery Centre, Nichole Neubauer, led a presentation reviewing the previous year of the program, which is hosted out of the centre at Irvine School.
“It’s how we’re going to teach kids to be agriculture professionals and what it looks like to work in industry,” said Neubauer. Students were taken through a series of different experiences, from Workplace Safety through a partnership with Safety Buzz Campus, to “as many different directions as (they) can.”
She explained that according to reports released last year, 48 per cent of agricultural businesses struggle to find qualified workers, which helped define the ‘why’ of how the program was developed. Different opportunities to learn have been presented to the students, such as Ag Pro Crops, Ag Pro Machinery and Technology and Ag Pro Beef, which focus on different areas for six-week courses in a “learn from the experts” approach.
Over the summer, the ADC hosted an immersive farm camp for youth in collaboration with Medicine Hat College, with roughly 25 total attendees between the two-week camps. Participants enjoyed learning about livestock care, harvesting produce and preparing meals from scratch, while allowing the facility to be utilized during the summer.
Current future plans for the program included a chicken fundraiser for Foremost School, as well as exploring the possibility of adding beekeeping as another possibility.
“This is a fledgling project that’s just getting off of the ground,” said Neubauer. “We have an opportunity to harness the incredible knowledge of Sheldon Hill from Sweet Pure Honey. We’re currently actually looking to see how we can have hives on playgrounds in schools, and also how we can take it one step further to do some research about the effect of climate change on bee populations using some sensors sensing carbon dioxide, and how do these swings in temperature affect the populations and such.”
Neubauer says she is confident they will be able to apply for a grant for the project, while they continue to build on the various partnerships and current offerings through the ADC that offer an engaging and varied agricultural education.
