Experiential learning program plants SEEDS of on-farm knowledge

Organizers hope to launch a science-based program in September

Three sets of eyes widen as a brown egg drops from a hen and rolls to a stop next to two others in the laying box.

Amid excited squeals, one girl gingerly reaches forward and, after a few false starts, snatches the fresh egg from under the clucking hen.

“It’s warm,” she exclaims, amazed, and passes the egg to her friends to touch.

This is a real-life experience the Dufferin Sustainable Educational Experiential Development School (SEEDS) Learning Farm pilot program wants to facilitate.

Why it matters: There are fewer opportunities for children, students and adults to experience farming with ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and the closure of outdoor learning facilities.

When Joan Vanduzer approached Jeanette McFarlane about creating an experiential on-farm learning program to run on her 100-acre Mulmur-area heritage farm, the timing couldn’t have been better.

“(With) Bill 216 and food literacy, this is an opportunity to connect the dots for families, teachers, schools and communities,” said McFarlane, former education director of the now-closed Mansfield Outdoor Centre. “With the closing of yet another outdoor centre, where can one learn about nature and farm life?”

Bill 216 is the Ontario legislation that aims to increase the amount of food literacy in the Ontario education curriculum.

McFarlane wrote a proposal for SEEDS as a summer pilot program with a full launch in the autumn and submitted it for review to Vanduzer and the Harbinger Foundation.

“They don’t ever see a chicken except in plastic. Even the adults, they don’t know anything about farming,” said Vanduzer. “I think there’s a huge opportunity for learning about the connection to the earth. The sky’s the limit for what you can do if you’ve got a little bit of land and smart people.”

The SEEDS pilot had 11 children from ages four to 12, an ideal number to assess what worked and plan potential improvements for future programs, said McFarlane.

SEEDS is flexible enough to provide age and curriculum-appropriate material for kindergarten students to high school kids and help develop soft skills such as communication and leadership.

“They’re sharing from different perspectives, and it’s kind of like team-teaching on the next level because it’s within your group of peers,” McFarlane said.

“It’s wonderful to see through fresh eyes, but it’s also the peer rela- tionship support from complete strangers, with the older ones pass- ing their story or their knowledge as well.”

Much like the age range, there was a wide variety of previous exposure to farming among the participants.

One student came from a cash-cropping background and shared knowledge about tractors, dual hitches and seeders.

However, through SEEDS, he was exposed to chickens and pigs for the first time and learned how hogs deal with heat. Another student was fascinated by snakes, leading the group to search for snake habitat areas.

The science-based and curiosity-driven program embraces inquiry-based learning, said McFarlane. Adding instructors Aundrea Schneider, biologist, and Jen Taylor, farmer, allows for a deeper level of education.

The children learned how a flower makes seed, the pollinators’ role, and how food gets to their plates. In the meantime, they planted potatoes and picked fresh herbs.

“This is all about helping grow better people,” said McFarlane. “If we don’t ask questions and we don’t get the right answers, then what are we basing our whole knowledge of the world on?”

McFarlane wants to develop more taste-touch-feel interpretive centres as the program increases its partnerships with farm organizations to share sector-specific knowledge and educational resources.

She said it’s important to acknowledge these programs can’t reach their potential without support from agriculture organizations and their knowledge about food production.

“They all have educational tools but they have nowhere to put them or bring them to life,” McFarlane said. “I’m saying the door’s open here.”

Ideally, she would like the pilot project participants to return in the autumn and harvest the potatoes they planted. The act of planting, harvesting and cooking the potatoes is a valuable step on the road to creating a robust, healthy and respectful relationship with the earth and food.

“I see it as a huge opportunity going forward because the disconnect between people and food is just widening,” she said. Loss of life skills and knowledge about farming and cooking from scratch can happen in one generation.

“We’ve got this massive population who thinks food is available 24-seven, and they don’t know how it’s grown,” McFarlane said. “They don’t know where it comes from and they don’t know what the value of that food is or the land.”

The program aligns with the old ‘one-room schoolhouse’ peer teaching model, whether it’s older children teaching younger ones or local agriculture organizations sharing their knowledge with youth, she added.

It all comes down to building relationships and a community of learning and exploration where agriculture, the environment and the next generation are the winners.