STUDENTS from Derrinallum P-12 College secondary school recently had the fortunate experience to spend a day out at the Hamilton SmartFarm giving them an opportunity learn firsthand from scientists as part of an education program - ‘Get into AgSTEM’.

‘Get into AgSTEM’ is a free program designed and delivered by Agriculture Victoria (AV) that showcases research and innovation initiatives and complements the needs of Victorian teachers and their students.

The day at Hamilton SmartFarm included multiple hands-on science workshops and experiences for the students set within the context of real-life initiatives as undertaken by AV’s research division.

By showcasing these initiatives, the program consolidates the links between studying STEM at school, with the types of high-tech, cross-disciplinary 21st century skills that are relevant to contemporary and future careers in agriculture.

They learnt about drones which are now routinely used in AV’s pasture research, about sensors used to capture imagery from the ground, air and space, how to construct sensor hardware and use codes to obtain data and apply findings for precision agriculture applications.

The students visited field sites on the Hamilton SmartFarm and heard about current cropping and forage research from scientists and technical staff.

They were also able to see exactly how sensor technologies were being used to measure pasture biomass and nutritive characteristics in the field. 

The Get into AgSTEM workshops purposely cater to the types of careers students could be working towards in the agricultural sector.

Student feedback was positive with some saying they enjoyed seeing a remotely piloted ground vehicle in action, a field-spec instrument capturing data on plant characteristics and hearing about using drones.

Agriculture Victoria community education manager, Anna-Leisa Vietz said the research division of AV was perfectly positioned to provide real-life context to assist teachers to meet technical criteria set out in the curricula.

“The day included a ‘hands on’ science workshop(s),” she said.

“The workshop provides the schools’ community with both the technical content and the interesting context of real-world problems that Agriculture Victoria researchers are working to solve.

“Students constructed and trialled digital soil moisture sensors and learnt about digital data collection, processing and precision agriculture applications to save important resources such as water to minimise environmental impacts.”

Ms Vietz said one of the workshops, Get into Digital Agriculture (Get into Digi.Ag) was rich in cross-disciplinary alignment relevant to Science, Engineering, Maths, and VCE Agriculture and Horticulture curricula, and had been developed to align with Levels 7-8 of the Victorian F-10 Digital Technologies curriculum.

“(The Get into Digi.Ag) workshop, designed around the Digital Technologies curriculum, can also be used to meet the ‘innovations, technology and data’ section of the Agricultural and Horticultural VCE Study Design,” she said.

“The (Get into AgSTEM) program is made up of workshops run at AgriBio and SmartFarms across the state, which showcase Agriculture Victoria’s research and innovation initiatives and so far in 2023 the program has delivered workshops in Hamilton, Tatura, Ellinbank and our AgriBio Centre in Bundoora, as well as being offered online.”

Ms Vietz said because of this year’s program, teachers from Derrinallum P-12 College, Greater Shepparton Secondary College and Cathedral College Wangaratta came together to write a School Assessed Coursework (SAC) based on the digital agriculture workshop.

“For us this was a great endorsement of the program and how it’s working in with real-life to help students identify and prepare for a career in AgSTEM,” she said.

Find out more and access free curriculum linked workshops at the Get into AgSTEM website.