Delta School District’s Farm Roots Mini School has been recognized with a national innovation award.
Last week the Farm Roots program received the Ken Spencer Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.
The award was established with the contribution of Dr. Ken Spencer to recognize and publicize innovative work that is sustainable and has the potential of being taken up by others; to encourage a focus on transformative change in schools; and to provide profile for classroom innovation within school districts, schools and the media.
Farm Roots Mini School involves local experts in education, agriculture and sustainability working with students in grades 10 to 12 in a learn-by-doing program where students design, build and manage a farm. The students are responsible for running a sustainable agriculture business, and their efforts are a vital part of their course work.
The unique mini school provides hands-on learning opportunities across core subject areas, including science, social studies and entrepreneurship.
“Farm Roots Mini School is such an ambitious and creative way to connect hard-to-reach students to their learning while building their appreciation of crucial environmental and climate issues,” said Darren Googoo, chair of the EdCan Network, which facilitates the award. “We congratulate the students, educators and community supporters for making this program such a successful model for other school districts to emulate to engage their students.”
A recognition ceremony to honour the students, educators and community partners involved in the award-winning program will take place sometime in May.
“We are thrilled that Farm Roots is having such success,” said Brooke Moore, Delta’s district principal of inquiry and innovation. “Students at Farm Roots are learning in a hands-on way. They get to plan and then run businesses - they get outside almost every day - and they get to do their science labs in a field rather than a classroom. A group of them even earned university science credit by doing a course with a KPU prof who came out to teach once a week for a term.”
This summer Farm Roots will welcome students going into grades 9 to 11 for a summer program where they can earn school credit, a leadership certificate and potentially even cash.
Learn more at: www.deltalearns.ca/farmroots.
