The "Manure Milkshake" Smoothie Bowls activity is one of the fun resources at-home learners can access
Take a virtual field trip with the Farm and Food Discovery Centre
Hands-on resources about food and nutrition available for home learners
If the humorous memes appearing on social media are any evidence, there is no question that adapting to an at-home learning environment has been a unique challenge for educators, parents and children alike.
One of the resources features “virtual reality” farm and processing facility tours.
In support of home-schoolers everywhere, the University of Manitoba’s Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre (FFDC) is offering interactive lesson plans which explore food production from field to dinner table.
The FFDC, located at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences’ Glenlea Research Station just south of Winnipeg, hosts approximately 5,000 students a year for curriculum-linked field trips.
While FFDC remains closed to respect physical distancing recommendations, the staff have been hard at work adapting some of the field trip activities to at-home learning resources. Once a week FFDC is releasing a new resource and highlighting a tried, tested and true resource from some of their partners. Most of the resources are suited for early and middle year students and take anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours to complete.
FFDC is posting the resources on their website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages weekly. Subscribers to FFDC’s public newsletter receive advance access to the resources directly in their inbox.
“The pressure to have engaging and fun at-home learning activities is high for parents and educators right now,” says FFDC Acting Manager, Kristen Matwychuk. “We hope by providing some easy-to-complete resources, we can take off a bit of that stress to help parents and kids have fun and learn together.”
The Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre announced in March that the Centre would be closed to help flatten the curve. As the response to COVID-19 evolves, FFDC is hoping to re-open in the summer for family fun events and field trips for child care centres. Until then, the at-home resources will continue.
Follow FFDC on their social media pages: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
For more details on the at-home resources and programs offered at FFDC, visit ffdc.ca