EDU initiative – survey results
We heard you!
In June 2020, we reached out to Ontario teachers to ask about their experience teaching agriculture, especially grain farming, in the classroom. We wanted to know how you feel about agriculture education, how well it fits with your teaching—or doesn’t—and what your concerns are.
91% of respondents teach elementary school and 74% of that group teach in public schools with a cross-section of urban, suburban and rural schools. 97% of you told us you believe teaching agriculture is the role of schools and 66% believe that the education system should be doing more to educate students about agriculture to connect them with where their food comes from.
We learned that elementary school teachers are interested in teaching agriculture but struggle with time, access to teaching resources and having the confidence to teach a topic they aren’t very familiar with and where you typically go for resources to teach agriculture.
Perhaps most importantly, you said, with regard to supporting teaching about grain farming, the education system should:
- Make materials more widely available
- Bring in guest speakers
- Introduce the subject in earlier grades
- Teach through inquiry-based learning
We’re listening! We’ve taken your comments and insight and conducted a large-scale study of Ontario’s curriculum across grades 1 through 8 in all subject areas to determine where our materials align with your needs and where we can do more to help you in the classroom.
We are busy expanding or creating resources to meet classroom needs with a collection of easily accessible materials that include imaginative programs that incorporate guest presenters such as the art-themed Draw with Rob and the History-based Farmerettes series, as well as hands-on resources such as the popular What’s Growing ON? seed kits, with an updated teachers guide coming soon (spoiler alert! There will be one more type of seed and the guide will include more grades).
Don’t forget to check your inbox each month as we send out our Good in Every Classroom newsletter with updates.
