Agriculture, Forestry and School

Short description

• Raising awareness among educators regarding the realistic and up-to-date representation and communication of agriculture, forestry and the food industry in Austria;

• Maintenance and further development of the interactive platform www.schuleambauernhof.at  and the portal www.landwirtschaftundschule.at

• Preparation, implementation and follow-up of the school workshops "Agriculture and Forestry in Austria" (reaching about 8,000 adolescents with 350 workshops - target groups: students of secondary level one and two);

• Preparation of ten “thematic padlets”;

• Organization and implementation of seminars for (aspiring) educators (50 courses for further training – meant to reach about 1,000 educators - and six series of webinars);

• Collection and publication of 12 good practice projects in elementary schools; new training folder for the providers of training about “Schule am Bauernhof” (SaB).

Point of departure

The image of agriculture and forestry among educators, children and adolescents is often characterized by prejudices and clichés. The achievements of farmers are often not properly assessed, and the many tasks that agriculture and forestry have to perform are often overlooked. In areas such as plant protection, animal husbandry and correlations of agricultural policy, incorrect information is often conveyed through the media and schoolbooks.

Targets and target groups

• (Elementary) educators,

• children,

• pupils and adolescents

• (Elementary) educators (in training)

Project implementation and measures

• Raising awareness among educators regarding a realistic and up-to-date presentation of the Austrian agriculture.

• Creation of new presentation materials for multimedia school information workshops about "Agriculture and Forestry in Austria". Reaching about 8,000 adolescents with 350 workshops. (Target groups of students of secondary level one and two)

• Updating, further development and maintenance of the specific (interactive) platform for educators to obtain information on agriculture, forestry and the food industry in Austria, the search for farms participating in “Schule am Bauernhof” and related teaching materials.

• Implementation of 50 training courses and informative events for non-agricultural educators, aiming to reach around 1,000 educators.

• Supporting the sustainable implementation of the contents of the seminars, webinars and courses in elementary education through a monthly webinar.

• Networking with educational institutions of the federal states (one workshop)

• Preparing ten new and topical subjects as seminar offerings for the next years.

• six series of webinar for non-agricultural educators

• Collection and publication of good practice projects in elementary schools.

• Presence of the offers of the Rural Education Institutes (LFIs) respectively Chambers of Agriculture at the Interpädagogica 2021 - Fair for Educators, as well as stand costs for the Interpädagogica 2022.

• Presence of the offers of the LFIs respectively Chambers of Agriculture at the KiTa congress.

• Federal coordination of “Schule am Bauernhof” to coordinate joint activities in the best possible way.

• Increasing the reach on social media

• Expansion of the offers on www.landwirtschaftundschule.at  including publication of new categories for specific offers of the federal states. In the long term, educators should be able to find on this page all relevant projects about agriculture and forestry in the school and elementary sector.