Lambton Kent “Agriculture in the Classroom”, along with the Lambton Kent District School Board and the St. Clair District Catholic School Board, piloted Adopt-A-Farmer Goes Virtual.
The first step in this project was to produce an interactive video which highlighted the egg operation at Krall Poultry Farms Ltd. for the students to view. The students in the classroom were asked to record their wonderings and come up with three broad questions about the farm operation.
Following viewing the video, farmer Judy Krall, paid the students a visit at their school. There, she answered the students’ questions about the egg operation and the laying hens.
After the live visit, a “SKYPE” call was arranged between the classroom and the barn. The students, through the use of SKYPE, were able to learn more about the farm and the authentic work that goes into egg production.
Topics that were discussed during the SKYPE call were: composting, farm safety, the different sizes and shapes of eggs, feed samples, biosecurity on the farm, and what happens in the control room and in the egg packing room in the barn.
The SKYPE visit ended with the students doing a mathematics activity involving calculating daily egg weights. The students watched as Farmer Judy inputted the calculations into an Excel spreadsheet on her IPAD creating a production graph for her farm records.
The first students to take part in this pilot were Mrs. Whitely’s Grade 3 class at St. Peter Canisius in Watford. Mrs. Whitely commented that, “We all loved it! It was very educational with a lot of learning for the children. Overall, it was a tremendous opportunity and a great way to get the students involved in farming.”
It is anticipated that we will be adding more farmers in the near future to this project.
~Judy Krall~
President, Lambton Kent Agriculture in the Classroom