News

The Dalhousie Faculty of Agriculture is set to welcome more than 500 Grade 8 students to campus next week, May 21 - 23 for the annual Amazing AgZone Race!

AgZone, an interactive field trip for 14-year-olds, is an agricultural awareness initiative of the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Dalhousie University's Faculty of Agriculture. The race is a fun yet competitive way to get adolescents interested and excited about agriculture.

"We expect that many students do not think of agriculture when they consider what they would like to do for a career," said  Rick Hoeg, Agricultural Education Liaison at the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture. “If this program gives them a glimpse of agriculture that sparks an interest and raises awareness, we will be successful.”

At a series of stations across campus, students participate in mini-workshops on diverse topics such as sheep and wool, aquaculture, extracting DNA from plants, living walls,  and much more.

Beginning at 9:30 am students will be racing through seven sessions, spending 20 minutes at each, with a challenge question at the end to test what they’ve learned. At the end of the race, the team with the best time wins!

Teacher Jill Fraser from Trenton Middle School said, “I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you and your team for an amazing day! You were so well organized, the activities were so relevant to our curriculum and students had a blast!”

AgZone, held annually at the university, hopes to broaden the understanding of traditional agriculture among the younger generation.