Farms2Schools Resources

Farms2Schools was a six-month program delivered by the Port Phillip & Westernport CMA that used online school incursions to provide students with an insight into how agricultural products got from the paddock to their plate.

As part of the Farms2Schools program a range of learning and curriculum resources and links were developed. These resource include worksheets, videos and an interactive farm and aim to help teachers continue their lessons around sustainable agriculture. Please note that some resources are for specific ages levels so please read the descriptions.

Melbourne Foodbowl Virtual Farm

The farmers at the forefront of Melbourne’s Foodbowl strive every day to produce sustainable products that supports a growing community and look after the soil, water and biodiversity of the ecosystem in which they farm.

You can discover this all for yourself in the Melbourne Foodbowl Virtual Farm. This interactive education tool is your guide to healthy food production in Melbourne’s Foodbowl.

The Melbourne Foodbowl Virtual Farm aligns with the Victorian Curriculum and supports teacher with activities and resources.

Learn more

‘A Better Way To Farm’ school education kit

This education resource was developed by the PPWCMA in partnership with PeeKdesigns. It provides a series of fact and activity sheets that introduce students to the idea that we can use a variety of better, more sustainable methods to help control pests in our farms and gardens.

This resource, which is aimed at Levels 5 – 8 of the Victorian curriculum, breaks down the technical sounding topic of IPM into lessons and ideas that are manageable by students in this range. The cross-curriculum priorities ‘Learning about sustainability’ enables the resource to be used at any level.

‘A Better Way To Farm’ school education kitDownload (PDF – 7.5MB)

Comparing Apples to Earth

This simple activity illustrates how precious soil is as a natural resource, and just what little of the Earth’s surface is available for growing food for a whole world of people

Comparing Apples to Earth activity sheet (PDF – 340kb)Download

Paddock to plate

The following resources show students how farmers grow produce and the supply chains deliver it to our plate. The below videos have been developed for specific year levels (as indicated).

The below activity sheet can be used with the videos when teaching Year 4 to Year 8.

Buying Local Produce: Broccoli Activity Sheet (PDF – 1.9MB)Download

Foundation to Year 3 students

Year 4 to Year 12 students

Bees and honey

From Flower to Honey – This video is a reading of the book ‘From Flower to Honey” Robin Nelson. It features imagery from Pure Peninsula Honey and is suitable for Foundation to Year 3 students.
In this video, Mornington Peninsula based apiarists Pure Peninsula Honey tell us all about the life of bees and how honey is made. This video is suitable for Year 4 to Year 12 students.
In this video, Mornington Peninsula based apiarists Pure Peninsula Honey tell us all about the life of bees and how honey is made. This video is suitable as an extension activity to the All About Bees video.

Plant production resources

The following resources will show students how some farms propagate and look after their own seedlings to plant out as crops in their paddocks.

Videos

In this video Tom from Mossy Willow Farm talks about the plant production side of their farm and the work that is involved in growing healthy seedlings to plant in their fields.

Activities

All of the following activities relate to plant production and growing. The recommended student age for each activity is noted in brackets.

Nursery & Garden Industry Victoria also has some great curriculum-based resources for schools through their Victorian Schools Garden Program website.

Careers in agriculture

The following videos provide an insight into the career opportunities in agriculture and are a great starting point for in-class conversations around this topic.

Other helpful resources

Below are links to other website that offer useful educational resources for students and teachers.