Nichole Neubauer and ADC student board of directors speaking to Prairie Rose Public School trustees. (Photo Courtesy Ross Lavigne)

By Gates Guarin

Farm education for both rural and urban kids

Student leaders spearheading agricultural education

May 10, 2022 | 4:10 PM

IRVINE, AB – Students at Irvine School are getting the unique opportunity for a real world look at life on the farm, and they don’t even have to leave the school grounds. The Agriculture Discovery Centre has only been in operation for a week now, but student leaders have been quite busy making sure the centre is running at full capacity.

The ADC’s student board of directors hosted a tour of the grounds for Prairie Rose Public Schools trustees and members of Cypress County.

Reid Vossler, president of the student board, has been hard at work.

“We’ve been highly involved in that for the first few weeks, we’ve been testing it out, making sure everything works,” Vossler says.

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Paige Munsch, who is the board secretary, says she is excited this kind of opportunity exists not only for herself but for other students.

“I think it’s just really cool to have all these animals here,” Munsch says. “I know a lot of kids have never had the experience to have all these animals, and now for them to be coming out with their classes and just learning about them and understanding how big they actually are.”

The centre is set up by a committee, and every student at Irvine will get the chance to work on different parts of the farm, from tending to livestock to planting trees and produce.

Nichole Neubauer, project coordinator, says everything done at the centre is meant to get students interested in a diverse career in agriculture.

“We want to create plenty of activities that are connected back to curriculum, so essentially a place to bring curriculum to life. Rather than watching a movie or reading about something in a textbook, let’s talk about sustainable measures.” Neubauer says.

Trent Rayner, Irvine School principal, has high hopes for the future of the program.

“We’re hoping that this is something we can carry forward and pass on to other schools,” Rayner says.” We already have plans for lots of other schools to come in and visit us and learn what the farm is all about, and what it can do for them.”

Vossler and Munsch say they want the entire process of how food gets from the farm to the table to be the biggest takeaway for future students.

“I’m hoping this will definitely close the gap between- from how food gets to people’s tables,” Vossler says. “I mean, there’s a lot of misinformation on how food gets to tables and there’s a whole bunch of rumours that we’d just like to narrow that down a bit.”

“I really want to teach kids the process before the food ends up in the grocery store for you to take home and eat it and that it’s a lot more work than a lot of people would actually expect,” Munsch adds.