2020-21 Annual Progress Report
Agriculture in EVERY Classroom, Inspiring EVERY Student!
At AITC-C, we are committed to cultivating meaningful connections to agriculture and food for students and educators across the country.
Accurate Balanced Current
Alongside 10 provincial member organizations, we offer resources, initiatives and programs that are ACCURATE, BALANCED, and CURRENT, and science-based. Together, we’re inspiring Canadian students to care about the food they eat and where it comes from.
A message from Johanne
Despite the distance, this past year has been all about gathering together – meeting of the minds to define AITC-C’s path forward and charting our road to success. It’s very empowering to come together with our members, partners and stakeholders to move towards our common vision – to bring the dynamic story of agriculture and food into every classroom across Canada!
Johanne Ross
Executive Director
When we ENGAGE with students and educators, we LEAD the way in agriculture education, we EMPOWER our partners to participate, and we GROW – together!
Engage
student experiences in agriculture education this year
Curriculum Connected Resources Matrix & snapAG Information Sheet views
Students across Canada participated in Little Green Thumbs
Website views
Social reach
Your Input Built Our Framework
After holding impact framework sessions in every province, we’ve laid out our path to success in agriculture education in this fulsome report!
1
National Stakeholder Session
Provincial Sessions
people signed up to join the conversation
of comments captured
Our consultations with a wide array of experts – from educators to farmers to government representatives – brought about our framework for successful learning. Our plan is clear:
Think
Know
Feel
Think
Know
Feel
When we put these crucial pieces together throughout a student’s journey from K to 12, we are nurturing agriculture literate Canadians!
Ag career resources at your fingertips
In April, we launched thinkAG.ca, a one-stop shop for agriculture and food career resources. This innovative and interactive learning tool provides personalized career suggestions to students in Grades 5 to 12 and offers engaging materials for everyone!
Thank you to Cargill, Farm Credit Canada, and the Canadian Agriculture Partnership (CAP) program for their generous support of this project!
career profiles to inspire you
The thinkAG website is a great way to help students think about their interests, whether that’s technology, communications, finance – you name it – and to see that all of these have a place in agriculture. I’m excited to see students make these connections.
– Darren Gasper, Superintendent, Sun West School Division
10th Annual Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month
To celebrate a decade of CALM, we kicked off the month with an announcement from the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. Alongside our 10 provincial members, we virtually connected with thousands of students, teachers, and parents, in schools and homes nationwide! To mark the occasion, creative virtual elements were added, including the release of 10 online, interactive resources for educators.
10
participating provinces
10
interactive e-learning resources developed
10
years of CALM
360,000+
student experiences over 10 years
36,000+
video views
2.8 million
social media reach
Thank you
Thank you to all of our members, volunteers, and supporters who helped us celebrate this amazing milestone by sharing their time, videos, messages, and agri-food stories! We couldn’t have done it without you!
CALM would not have been possible without the support of Cargill, Corteva Agriscience and CAP.
Curriculum Linked Resource Matrix Now Available in French
Toggle between both official languages to find the resources you need!
English curriculum outcomes
French curriculum outcomes
Outcomes added for Quebec
Explore More
Check out what’s new with our resources, initiatives and programs!
snapAG
Do you or someone you know have questions about agriculture and food? With more than 70 sheets available on topics from proteins to the environment, our fast-fact sheets are here to help!
G3 Grow Beyond Scholarship
For the second year, G3 and AITC-C offered 6 scholarships for $4000 to students pursuing a career in ag and food, plus $1000 to each winner’s high school. Learn more and meet this year’s winners at g3growbeyond.org
Little Green Thumbs
Students and teachers can get their hands dirty through this amazing indoor gardening program! Through Little Green Thumbs, participants learn real-life STEM skills by gardening in their very own classrooms.
Journey 2050
Based on real-life challenges, students must sustainably feed a growing population in a virtual farm simulation.
Coming soon: We’re working closely with our members and Nutrien to virtually expand this fantastic resource!
genAG
Grade 9 to 12 students are challenged to develop ideas that promote agriculture and food careers in this dynamic marketing competition. This year, genAG thrived thanks to RBC Future Launch and CAP!
Real Dirt on Farming in the Classroom
Working with Farm and Food Care, with the support of FCC, AITC-C has developed the Real Dirt on Farming in the Classroom, an exciting resource that accompanies the Real Dirt on Farming magazine.
E-learning version coming Fall 2021!
Students enjoy reading next to the garden. Smelling the earth and plants is calming. For other students, it’s an exciting place of exploration, discussion, investigation. They are ignited with excitement when they see the first germination and they monitor the changes from day to day. The garden inspires new learning about soil, insects, plant varieties, and seeds. The garden is a giving place for students to take in what they need for their day.
– Teacher, Saskatchewan
genAG is like a gift that keeps on giving…genAG creates such a buzz within our school, we are finding that our Agri-Science and Animal Science courses are becoming more and more popular with students.
– Teacher, PEI
Lead
With the support of our steadfast leaders, AITC-C is reaching more students in the classroom than ever, whether at school or at home.
From west to east, AITC-C is in every province
Our incredible provincial member organizations are bringing agriculture education to students across Canada. These members, who also make up our board of directors, are the delivery network between Canadian classrooms and agriculture education resources, initiatives, and programs. Together, we are forging the path to success in agriculture education.
Meet Our Board
A message from Pat
Although Agriculture in the Classroom is well established in many provinces across our country, our organization Agriculture in the Classroom Canada is five years young. It brings together the strength and expertise of all ten member provinces toward our vision “Agriculture in every classroom, inspiring every student”.
Pat Tonn
Chair
Our People
The AITC-C team is dedicated and passionate about agriculture and food! Our staff works hard to stay current in the ever-evolving landscape of agri-food education.
Our People
The AITC-C team is dedicated and passionate about agriculture and food! Our staff works hard to stay current in the ever-evolving landscape of agri-food education.
Meet Our Board Advisory Committee
In February 2021, AITC-C formed a Board Advisory Committee (BAC). Comprised of experienced and passionate individuals from across Canada, the BAC members offer their perspective and insight as we work towards achieving our strategic goals.
Empower
AITC-C wouldn’t be the organization it is today without our generous foundational partners! As funders and advocates, they are knowledgeable trendsetters in agriculture and food that are committed to AITC-C’s mission.
Partners
new partners this year and growing!
Click below to read messages from our amazing partners!
$1.6M in Funding for New and Expanded Tools
In March, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), through the Canadian Agriculture Partnership (CAP), announced just over $1.6 million in funding for AITC-C. Over the next two years, this funding will help us offer and expand innovative teaching tools and initiatives to students across Canada.
AAFC is a champion of agriculture education. This strong partnership and collaboration continues to allow us to enhance our work.
It is absolutely essential that young Canadians understand where their food comes from. They must know what farmers’ work consists of and how hard they work to take care of their animals and our environment in order to provide us with high-quality food.
– Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau
To Our Partners
Because of your support, we’re able to bring the power and benefits of agriculture education to millions of Canadian students and educators each year. Thank you!!
We are proud to collaborate with these great organizations to increase our reach and impact
Motivated to help students think + know = feel?
Partner with us today and be a part of the impact equation!
Grow
Opportunity, innovation and growth always follow challenge! AITC-C skillfully pivoted to offer more experiences virtually throughout 2020, reaching students in new ways, like:
Canada-Wide Virtual Farm Tours
For the launch of CALM and on Canada’s Agriculture Day, students and educators joined us on farms from coast to coast.
We will be just as busy for the rest of 2021!
Virtual farm tours in 2021
Up to
students joined in
To celebrate
&
LMS to Launch This Year
Our team is diving into the development of a customized Learning Management System (LMS). The LMS will facilitate the expansion of several resources, initiatives, and programs and will provide exciting opportunities for AITC-C to engage teachers and students.
Business of Food Expansion
The Business of Food will become part of our LMS and will be available nationally, at no cost to participants, thanks to Bayer Crop Science Canada! These online learning modules, developed by our member AgScape, bring knowledge about agriculture and food to education professionals.
With hundreds of educators having already completed the program, we’re excited to see the same success in every province!
New snapAG Sheets Coming Soon
Incredible new snapAG sheets are coming your way, including sheets with an Indigenous focus.
sheets added since last year
sheets being released in 2021 and 2022
sheets to explore
Teacher Guide and Resources Coming This Fall for the Guardians of the Grasslands documentary
Working with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Foundation, we’re developing education resources for Guardians of the Grasslands. The film explores the state of the Great Plains grasslands and the vital role cattle play in its survival.
Coming Fall 2021: Updated connectAG Resource
We’ve re-connected with the farmers in this interactive resource and now have a profile for all 10 provinces. ConnectAG helps Grade 7 to 10 students understand what agriculture looks like across the country!
Career Aptitude App and Career Game Coming Fall 2021
The thinkAG Career App is an immersive experience for students in Grades 9 to 12 that will help them understand which careers match up with their interests through the Holland code (RIASEC) system. Students can also use their results in other thinkAG offerings, like the Career Case game!
Career Case is a gamified learning experience for high school students, originally developed by AITC Saskatchewan and expanded by AITC-C, that encourages students to explore how people in agriculture careers help to solve real-world issues.
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
Thank you for coming with us on this journey to celebrate the past year! We can’t wait to raise the bar in 2022!