‘Where our food comes from’ science teaching teaching tool

‘Where our food comes from’ science teaching tool seeks educator feedback

A popular science teaching resource, which centres around plant growth, food production and the importance of New Zealand primary industry, is calling on educators for their experience using the tool – ahead of an upgrade later this year.

The free, web-based resource which helps Year 5 – 8 students understand scientific concepts and critical thinking (using examples from ‘the story of food’), has been accessed by over 1200 people since the beginning of the 2017 academic year. It will be refined in line with user feedback, and a final version will be launched in November 2017.

“We want to make this resource even more valuable and relevant using feedback from teachers and educators who have used it as a teaching tool over the past two and half terms,” says project leader Dr Tessa Mills of AgResearch. “If you have used it, we are keen to hear what you have to say about it, as we are now carrying out this revision.”

Dr Mills says feedback so far has been really positive. “Users say it is ‘easy to teach’ and that students are engaged with the lesson plans, videos, animations and the fun experiments – which include following the chain that leads to the food in their lunch boxes, and then finding out why it goes mouldy.”

She adds that educators particularly like the fact that the resource is linked to the New Zealand curriculum. “Many teachers have said that this is an aspect that could be highlighted more in the final resource.”

The Soil, Food and Society project team is now keen to hear from anyone using the resource (accessed at www.soilfoodsociety.online) either in school, in the home classroom or in an Ag or Enviro group. Feedback for the final iteration should be emailed to: Ralph Springett at ralph@regearlearning.com by 31st October 2017.

This project is funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Farming Fund, The Fertiliser Quality Council, DairyNZ, Federated Farmers, Horticulture NZ, Core Education, House of Science, Ravensdown, Ballance Agri-Nutrients, Irrigation New Zealand and NZ Young Farmers.

Note to editors:

The Soil, Food and Society science teaching resource is aiming to complement a new set of online resources, recently announced by Associate Minister for Primary Industries, Louise Upston. The new resources (from MPI) will provide teachers with the information they need to help their students learn about New Zealand’s animal welfare, biosecurity and food systems. More information: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news-and-resources/teacher-resources/te-ao-turoa/

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