Starting next Fall, students in the Rocky View School Division will be able to get their education on a farm north of Airdrie.

Teacher with Rocky View Schools, Mark Turner, says they've been given 14 acres to use from a local farmer for "The Farm" program, where they'll teach students their regular curriculum in a hands-on setting.

"We then weave in the actual curriculum to the activities that they're doing. For sometimes when people say, well there's certain stuff in math you just have to teach the old basics, and we sit down just like farmers would do. There's certain times in the year when it's down time, and that's our math time where we'll go through certain things we know we have to cover curriculum wise."

Turner says, there will be a green house, mixed vegetable garden, and chickens to start.

He says, they also plan to connect with people who can offer their expertise in large scale agriculture.

The program will initially be offered to Grade 9 and 10 students, then will grow to include Grade 7 to 12.

"High schools are still kind of struggling to make connections to the real world, so what's more real than actually trying to run a farm?" Turner says. "Trying to learn how do we actually feed the 10 billion people they expect by 2050, and also getting back to some simple ideas like what labour means, what hard work means, and how to be more connected to the land that you live on."

Turner runs a similar program called Building Futures, where students learn the curriculum while building two houses with a local builder, allowing the kids a taste of the trades.

He says, they're now taking this model, which has been working for the last six years, and applying it to agriculture.

For more information, you can contact Lindsey Morrison at morrisonlindsey7@gmail.com

The layout plan for the farm.

 

Send your news tips, story ideas and comments to jgiles@goldenwestradio.com

Follow on Twitter @GoldenWestABAg @JessicaR_Giles