“Without the Teacher’s Resource Kit, I would have struggled to put together meaningful and useful training to the people of Khowst Province, Afghanistan,” explained Samuel T Rance, the Rangeland Manager with the US Army’s 3-19th Agribusiness Development Team in FOB Salerno, Afghanistan. “We are also preparing to use the kit to train over 180 local high school teachers at the end of February,” he said.
Stemming from a need to more effectively incorporate poultry science into the agriculture curriculum, the kit has been an innovative mechanism for generating interest in poultry science and production amongst school students and helping teachers overcome a shortage of agriculture based learning resources. By the beginning of 2011, the CRC had sent kits to more than 300 distinct schools and TAFEs.
The kit contains resources that have been developed by the Australian Egg Corporation (AECL), the Australian Chicken Meat Federation (ACMF), the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) Chicken Meat Research Program, and resources developed by the Poultry CRC (including teacher worksheets, presentations, suggested experiments, etc).
“The kit has demonstrably contributed to the advancement of poultry science education in Australia’s classrooms and improved the industry’s chances of recruiting the young talent it needs to remain sustainable,” said the CRC’s Education Officer, Liz Roan.
Feedback from teachers has been very favourable. “Agricultural education is the future of this great nation’s productivity and development, and the Poultry CRC, in its work, does its very best in ensuring a solid understanding of its industry, science, and Agricultural development for society as a whole,” wrote Hardy Manser, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Teacher at Beaudesert State High School in Queensland.
