Churchbridge Public School is hoping to add to its outdoor education.
The school is planning on growing a garden this spring that students are involved in maintaining, as well as an outdoor classroom, and the hope to add a greenhouse, and an alpaca enclosure once the Good Spirit School Division has an opportunity to review the plan and adopt it post the COVID-19 situation, explained Vice-principal Derek Serdachny.
Serdachny said Good Spirit School Division and Churchbridge Public School havelong focused “On new ways to engage children in learning.”
One way to gain that engagement has been to get students out of their desks and outside where they can take part in some hands-on education, what Serdachny termed ‘experiential learning.”
Serdachny said teachers have to look to new methods to keep youth interested in a world where so much information is at their fingertips.
“Technology in itself has created a completely different environment at schools,” he said, adding the typical classroom with a teacher’s desk at the front and rows of student desks, does not always provide the engagement.
“We’ve had to adapt over the years,” he said.
One of those adaptations is to take students outside for class, and it is being spear-headed by the Churchbridge Public School Eco-Ag Plan.
“The main idea is to give students alternatives outside the classroom,” said Serdachny, adding not all education has to come direct from a textbook, or computer. “... It’s actually showing them how things work, and demonstrating the hard work that goes into maintaining a garden and farm animals.”
So the garden plot provides life skills, things such as the knowledge of how to actually grow a garden, explained Serdachny, adding that is teaching those skills it can relate back to core curriculum in the classroom including the science of soil, to the economics related to the costs of a garden, and managing the produce.
With the addition of a greenhouse and alpacas, the program can grow the educational opportunities provided.
“We want to take it from the garden to the kitchen to the plate,” said Serdachny, adding “I think that’s invaluable. It’s in our history.”
Such education regarding our food is important so students have the understanding what constitutes a good, healthy diet, he added.
With a new greenhouse augmenting what will be garden plots for each grade at the K-to-12 school, and the alpacas to sheer, the project will generate some income that will be used to keep the program sustainable, and the food grown can be utilized in the school canteen, and its annual fall supper for the community.
Serdachny said the project will also bring expertise from outside the teaching roster, relying on area farmers and others to be part of the education. He added the connection to farming is important.
By bringing in local expertise “elders in the community,” Serdachny said they can pass on knowledge and skills students “will be able to use their entire lives.”
“Most communities in Saskatchewan are influenced by farming,” he said, although even in a relatively rural community like Churchbridge many students are rarely, if ever on a farm themselves.
"With social media today our students and society have never been more vulnerable to misinformation,” said Serdachny. “They are bombarded with information promoting NON-GMO, PRO GMO, Hormones or No-hormones added. Our goal is to teach our students about farming and ensure that they can make well thought out and informed decisions when having to decide what is healthy and not healthy at the dinner table. If all you do is see one advertisement and make up your mind, we haven’t done our job."
Serdachny said proper education is essential for students to be able “to make well thought out and informed decisions.”
Serdachny noted that understanding agriculture can be a way to a host of careers that go well beyond being in the tractor seat, and that can open doors to students too.
“There are some pretty amazing opportunities for our kids,” he said.
Serdachny said they have Churchbridge Council on-side with approval to have alpacas in the town.
Next comes school board approval. Once that is granted they hope to move forward with an enclosure for the animals, and the greenhouse as soon as funds, through grants and donations are raised.
“We believe the learning opportunities this will provide for our students are amazing,” reiterated Serdachny. “We think the payoff is going to be huge for our entire division.”
