When you think young people are “20% of the population and 100% of our future” it’s a highly rewarding experience for youth in agriculture to be identified as the pivotal link to the success of programs like The Archibull Prize that are helping forge a bright future and truly making a difference
Young Farming Champions with Niall Blair Minister for Primary Industries Land and Water and the winner of The 2015 Archibull Prize “Cowch”
The 2015 external evaluation of agricultural awareness and engagement program The Archibull Prize shows the program delivers impressive educational and community engagement outcomes.
What the educators are saying
The Archibull Prize program fosters Gold Standard in education outcomes
‘It’s simple… the more students enjoy learning, the more they want to be at school and achieve.
Over the past five years The Archibull Prize program has consistently shown that the students involved were deeply engaged in the range of learning experiences the program provided. Teachers saw the impacts first-hand of a successful combination of arts and multimedia activities, along with project-based processes across multiple key learning areas’. Program evaluator
What the teachers are saying
‘ The benefits of participating tin the Archibull Prize were many, way beyond what I had originally thought. The Archibull Prize has bonded my entire class, they have learnt the value of accepting differences and as a result have gained more tolerance with each other. They have learnt that it is great to take risks in learning and it is OK to make mistakes too, because even then we learn. Through lessons taught inTthe Archibull Prize in 2015, I have been able to “reach” students who were previously disengaged from school, as a result behaviour improved as well as attendance. One of my students was a long term Home School Liaison Officer (HSLO) case (from Kindergarten), he hadn’t ever attended more than 20% of the school year. During Term 3, this year his attendance improved to 70.5%, and he is now off the HSLO case load for the first time ever! Relationships have been strengthened between younger and older students, my Year 8 students were only too happy to invite older students into our space to tell them about our Archi. As a teacher, the Archibull Prize has been wonderful and invaluable as a teaching and learning intervention. The way I choose to teach Archi lessons, put me in the team only as a facilitator, not the leader. This gave students the opportunity to see me not as an authority figure, but just another link in our team. This improved the general classroom climate and also decreased negative behaviours, because we all wanted to keep learning as much as we could. This year, The Archibull Prize artwork was also used as a bit of a welfare project, meaning that students (outside of my class), that were struggling either with school or family issues were referred to me where they were given the opportunity to paint, this worked like art therapy and gave students time to just “chill out”, while also being productive. For many of these students, the Archi provided their first positive experience in education which was just wonderful. As a result, these students have returned to my classroom to talk through issues or to get advice.’ Thank you! Secondary School Teacher
The Archibull Prize has also reached Gold Standard status raising awareness of, and engagment with farming by linking students with agriculture, farmers and the paddock to plate process and inspiring careers in the farming sector
‘The students experienced an increase in their confidence levels and became keener to share their work with others (both within the class and outside of it). Students also appear to have a greater appreciation for farmers and are more critical of information that relates to the products they use.
Increased understanding of the issues affecting farming particularly in our region. Increased knowledge of biosecurity and the factors impacting the Australian agricultural industry’. Secondary School teacher
‘As a result of this program, students learnt so much about the wool industry. All the different process wool can go through to get different products. As I led the technology team I saw strong improvements in student capacities in coding, blogging, image use, resource management, problem solving and infographic creation’. Secondary School teacher
‘In depth learning about a range of areas including how farmers are working to reduce and prevent erosion into the waterways, how scientists and specialists are working to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the beef industries, how each part of the beast is used for different by-products and quality meat products’. Secondary School teacher
‘In keeping with our ‘Farm to Plate’ curriculum focus, students not only investigated cotton but also diversified to investigate everything from milk, rice, fish and honey. Experts were called in to deliver presentations, thus ensuring students could make real life connections at every turn. This reinforced how important the ‘Farm to Plate’ theme was and how it related to them both now and in the future’. Secondary School teacher
‘In order to give students a hands on experience of setting up and running a vital cog in the supply chain of food and fibre, students worked collaboratively to design, build and run their own farms on Minecraft in order to service the local community of ‘E Street’. Students used their acquired knowledge of biosecurity in order to ensure their farms and stock were safe and secure at all times. We even grew our very own cotton crops at school. ‘Primary School Principal
Food has been identified as an issue kids can connect to easily and as a result of the success of The Archibull Prize we have now been approached to use agriculture to help teach students to become creative and caring Global Digital Citizens -see footnote
Preparing young Australians with the skills and knowledge to engage in a rapidly changing world where technology is driving new ways of doing business and relationships are no longer bound by borders. To be successful in this new connected world young Australians must be globally aware, skilled in communication and well educated.
Our team has been excited by this wonderful new opportunity and we have created a complementary program to The Archibull Prize called “Archibull Connections” and we look forward to sharing this new competition with teachers, the community and farmers shortly
Farmers and industry and the community working together to sustainably feed, clothe and power Australia
Footnote
A global citizen is some-one who has the knowledge and understands:
- That the world is interconnected
- How the world works economically, politically, socially, spiritually, environmentally;
- That a global ethic is essential to developing and sustaining equity and justice;
- That humanity is one.
A global citizen is someone who is skilled in:
- The process of consultation;
- Team problem-solving;
- Service to others;
- The ability to challenge injustice and inequality;
- Mediation and negotiation;
- The ability to innovate;
- The ability to think and plan with complex systems as the backdrop;
- The ability to see an issue from several perspectives.
A global citizen is someone who:
- Is empathetic,
- Acts ethically,
- Is outraged by social injustice,
- Is willing to make some sacrifice for the common good,
- Is willing to ACT to improve the world
