Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) employees in Atlantic Canada partnered with their provincial Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) offices and volunteered at several school events during the 2022-2023 school year. Students learned about careers at AAFC from research scientists, technicians communications advisors and industry development officers and participated in some science experiments. Take a look back at AAFC’s collaboration with AITC in Atlantic Canada!
Newfoundland and Labrador
In February, AAFC employees joined AITC-Newfoundland and Labrador for their Canada’s Agriculture Day event at Cowan Heights Elementary in St. John’s. AAFC’s booth showcased research from their scientists across Newfoundland and Labrador, including research on biodegradable mulch.
New Brunswick
In March, entomologist Dr. Jess Vickruck, and Farm Operations Supervisor at the Benton Ridge Potato Breeding Substation, Rachelle Smith, travelled to the ATIC-New Brunswick and Anglophone School District West’s Ag Expo event at Carleton North High School. Over 600 middle and high school students learned about bees, viewed live potato beetles and looked at the various potato varieties from the Benton Ridge substation farm. Students also learned about the different careers available at AAFC and the types of programs available to them.
Prince Edward Island
On Prince Edward Island, AAFC employees participated in several AITC-Prince Edward Island events throughout the school year. Research Technicians Natasha Mosher-Gallant and Jenn MacLeod volunteered for Ag Adventure Days in Charlottetown as part of Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month in March. They led an interactive booth on insects that impact agriculture on Prince Edward Island. More than 300 grade three students in Charlottetown learned about good and bad crop insects on Prince Edward Island and were also able to hold live Colorado potato beetles and wireworms.
AITC Canada hosted live virtual tours of farms across Canada for ‘The Great Canadian Farm Tour’. In April, AAFC’s Harrington Research Farm was one the virtual tour stops led by biologist Dan McEachern. He guided more than 25,000 students through a virtual video tour of Harrington and how the crops are researched, how research is performed on the farm, greenhouse and fields, and equipment used.
Grade 11 and 12 students in the AgriScience class participated in lab tours of the AAFC Charlottetown Research and Development Centre in May. Students toured four different labs at the centre including chemistry with Dr. Jason McCallum, genomics with Dr. Bourlaye Fofana, soil science with research technicians Taylor Main and Danielle Murnaghan and water engineering with Dr. Yefang Jiang and technician Jessica Matheson.
AAFC participated in two Ag Day events at the Charlottetown Rural High School and Colonel Gray High School in Charlottetown. Students stopped by to ask questions about the different career opportunities at AAFC. Students from Colonel Gray High School saw a demonstration of the projectile weed management project by research scientist, Dr. Andrew McKenzie-Gopsill.
Nova Scotia
In Nova Scotia, research scientist Dr. Harrison Wright and research technician Catherine Pal volunteered for AITC-Nova Scotia Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month. The students from two different schools learned about their careers, had a chance to bottle-feed lambs and test an infrared camera.
In June, AITC-Nova Scotia also hosted their annual in-person AgZone event at the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus in Truro for students to learn about a variety of different topics in agriculture.
The students were introduced to the science behind the use of an olfactory detector which determines concentrations of compounds found in fruits and vegetables. Using 10 different sniff bottles with a variety of different smells, students identified which fruit and vegetable they were smelling. This fun activity explained how AAFC researchers use smell to understand the chemistry underlying the flavour and aroma of fruits and vegetables.
On the second day, students learned about berry breeding and the characteristics researchers look for to create new fruit varieties from research technician Alison Purcell and AAFC summer student Franny Body. The students matched plant characteristics to the corresponding fruit type and completed an interactive berry trivia game. Students tasted fresh berries and rate which fruit they preferred.
On the final day of AgZone, students learned about the Modified McMaster Fecal Egg Counting Procedure from Research Technician, Catherine Pal. Students learned how to prepare slides and view parasite eggs in cattle manure under a microscope. Many students never used a microscope before and were very interested in learning about, and using, this technology.
Thank you to all the AAFC volunteers who helped make these events successful and to the AITC provincial programs for partnering with us.
Watch the Harrington Research Farm virtual tour (video) on AITC-Canada’s YouTube channel.
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