The effect of the Macdonald farm-to-school summer program on children's agricultural knowledge

As the world population continues to rise there is an increased movement of people to urban areas and a greater disconnect from rural life.Children living in urban centers may lack the opportunities to learn about agriculture, which affects their daily lives.Studies on elementary aged children's knowledge and understanding of agriculture demonstrate that children have a low level of agriculture literacy.Interestingly though, many of these same studies show that a great deal of children's information on agriculture is acquired outside of school.Consequently, many education researchers have advocated for the incorporation of informal (out-of-school) learning opportunities in agriculture into the science curriculum.In Canada, there is a growing trend of agriculture education programs at the elementary and higher education levels.However, most of the studies on the impact of these types of programs have been conducted on American (US) and European programs.It was, therefore, decided to evaluate a Canadian program: children's learning from the Farm-to-School summer program located at the McGill University Macdonald Campus Farm.The study period consisted of four 5-day sessions during August, 2016.During this period two thematic programs were offered: Plate-to-Farm and Global Food Security.Both programs were offered in both languages, with one week in English and one week in French.Children and their parents from all four summer program sessions were invited to participate in the study.Five research questions asked were: 1 -Does participation in the 5-day Farm-to-School Program improve children's agricultural knowledge? 2 -Do family demographics impact children's knowledge of agriculture (age, maternal language, ethnicity, gender, etc.) 3 -Do children's agricultural background (previous Farm-to-School experience and family agricultural background) have an impact on their agricultural knowledge?4 -What are the parents' perceptions on how the summer program improved (or not) their children's agricultural knowledge?5-What are the parents' perceptions on how the summer program influenced (or not) their children's agricultural behaviours?ii Children's knowledge was evaluated using a pre-and post-test design.Participants were separated into two age groups (6-8 years old and 9-12 years old), and administered a pre-and post-test using a clicker-based response system.Participants' parents provided demographic information, and completed a post-program survey on perceptions.All data was analyzed using SAS version 9.4.Results for the first three questions, using generalized linear mixed-model (GLIMMX) analyses showed no significant difference between the overall pre-and post-test scores.However, English-speaking children were found to have significantly higher scores compared to Frenchspeaking, bilingual and children who spoke other languages (p<0.1).In addition, 9-12-year-olds scored significantly higher than the 6-8-year-old for pre-and post-test scores (p= 0.0562 and p=0.0628, respectively).Perhaps not surprisingly, previous Farm-to-School summer program experience was also found to have a significant effect on children's test score (p=0.012).For the last two research questions, generalized linear model analyses were conducted via the Likertscale, using demographic and background data.The results of this study demonstrate that children's demographic and background profile significantly impact their knowledge and understanding of agriculture.As well, the demographic and background data affected parents' perceptions of their children's learning and behaviour changes.These results should be useful for future planning of the Farm-to-School summer program.iii RSUM L'augmentation de la population mondiale, ainsi qu'un plus grand dplacement des populations vers les zones urbaines amnent un dtachement de la vie rurale s'accompagnant d'une mconnaissance de l'agriculture.Les enfants qui vivent dans les villes n'ont pas la possibilit d'en savoir beaucoup sur l'agriculture.Des tudes sur la connaissance et la comprhension de l'agriculture par les enfants (cole primaire) dmontrent qu'ils ont un faible niveau de connaissances.Plusieurs de ces mmes tudes montrent que la plus part des informations acquises par les enfants provient de l'extrieur de l'cole.Par consquent, de nombreux chercheurs ont propos l'incorporation des opportunits d'apprentissage informel en agriculture dans le programme d'enseignement scientifique.Au Canada, il y a une tendance croissante d'inclure l'agriculture dans les programmes d'ducation aux niveaux primaires et suprieurs.Cependant, la plupart des tudes sur l'impact de ces programmes ont t ralises aux tats-Unis et en Europe.Le but de cette recherche tait d'valuer un programme au Canada : l'apprentissage des enfants au programme d't de la ferme l'cole la ferme de l'universit McGill.La priode d'tude comprenait 4 sessions de 5 jours en aot 2016.Pendant cette priode deux programmes thmatiques ont t offerts : de l'assiette la ferme et la scurit alimentaire mondiale.Les deux programmes ont t offerts dans les deux langues : une semaine en anglais et une semaine en franais.Enfants et parents ont t invits participer l'tude.Cinq questions de recherche ont t poses : 1 -est-ce que la participation au programme 5 jours de la ferme l'cole amliore-t-elle les connaissances agricoles des enfants ? 2 -est-ce que la dmographie familiale a un impact sur la connaissance de l'agriculture des enfants (ge, langue maternelle, l'origine ethnique, genre, etc.) 3 -est-ce que l'exprience pralable en agriculture (programme d't, ferme familiale, etc.) a un impact sur la connaissance de l'agriculture des enfants ? 4 -Quelles sont les perceptions des parents sur l'amlioration (ou pas) des connaissances de leurs enfants aprs avoir particip dans le programme d't ?5iv Quelles sont les perceptions des parents sur la faon dont le programme a influenc (ou non) les comportements de leurs enfants vis--vis de l'agriculture?La connaissance d'un enfant a t value l'aide d'une valuation pr-et post-participation au programme.Les participants ont t spars en deux groupes d'ge (6-8 et 9-12 ans) et ont ralis l'valuation avant et aprs le programme l'aide d'un systme de rponse instantane (cliqueurs).Leurs parents ont fourni des informations dmographiques et ont rpondu une enqute post-participation sur leurs perceptions.Les donnes ont t analyses l'aide du logiciel statistique SAS.Les rsultats pour les 3 premires questions n'ont montr aucune diffrence entre les notes globales pr-et post-participation au programme.Cependant, les enfants anglophones avaient des rsultats plus levs par rapport aux enfants francophones, aux enfants bilingues, et aux enfants qui parlaient d'autres langues (p < 0.1).De plus, les enfants plus gs (9-12 ans) ont eu des notes plus leves que les enfants plus jeunes (6-8 ans) pour les notes pr et post (p = 0.0562 et p = 0.0628, respectivement).Le fait d'avoir dj particip dans un programme de la ferme l'cole a eu un effet positif sur les notes (p = 0.012).Les 2 dernires questions ont t analyses avec une chelle de Likert et dmontraient que le milieu d'origine d'un enfant a eu un impact sur ses connaissances et sa comprhension de l'agriculture.De plus, les donnes dmographiques ont influenc les perceptions des parents sur les changements de l'apprentissage et des attitudes de leurs enfants.Ces rsultats vont tre utiles pour la planification future du programme d't.v DEDICATIONThis thesis is dedicated to my step-father, Albert Solway, who taught me that hard work always pays off and to follow your dreams wherever they may take you.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.