Education is a big part of Agrium’s business. We educate our employees, growers and investors. We offer tours to members of the community or media who want to learn more about our operations. It only makes sense to extend the knowledge we can provide to eductors and students.

Brand-free:

It is important to note that the education that Agrium provides to schools is free from brands. We don’t spin the content taught on plants or nutrients as we operate using the same basic science. Photosynthesis and nutrient removal is interpreted the same here as in the schools.

The Need:

Teachers have told us that finding appropriate lesson plans or support tools for plant and soil science is difficult. Agrium can help by offering exercises, visual tools and games that allow children to learn through discovery. In our opinion, the more hands-on the better.

Seed Survivor

Seed Survivor is an inquiry-based interactive exhibit designed for children in Grades 1-6. Children work through the 40 x 50 foot space using a passport and visiting stamping stations. The activities give them the opportunity to learn more about the elements plants need to survive. At Seed Survivor, children can see garden insects 100 times their normal size, apply nutrients in the right balance to a virtual field, build soil horizons, plant sunflowers and learn about photosynthesis.

Seed Survivor can be seen every year in Alberta at the Calgary Stampede, the Nationals at Spruce Meadows and at Aggie Days (an agricultural education event for schools). Recently, Seed Survivor has been on a road trip across the United States and visited state fairs and agricultural shows. Due to the demand for Seed Survivor, plans in the works to make Seed Survivor even more portable. Watch for Seed Survivor in a community near you.

• Learn more about Seed Survivor.
• Learn about another youth program, Caring for our Watersheds.

Growing the Next Generation

Agrium is not staffed to be able to deliver many of its programs or tools in schools. Instead, it houses many of these programs and tools on an independent website for teachers and youth to access. The majority of the games found in our Seed Survivor interactive exhibit are stored here. As children often don’t get as much time as they’d like in our Seed Survivor exhibit, they can finish their learning and improve their scores when they get home.

The site features something for all ages including online coloring for younger children as well as videos from experts in their industries for high school students or adults who wish to learn more.

• Visit Growing the Next Generation.

Curriculum Development

Agrium supported and worked with its fertilizer industry association representatives in Canada and the United States (Nutrients for Life Foundation and Nutrients for Life Foundation Canada) to develop middle and high school curriculum. These lesson plans and tools are a free download from www.nutrientsforlife.org and http://nutrientsforlife.ca. The unit, called Nourishing the Planet in the 21st Century, is being used in the United States and is currently being adapted to match Canadian curriculum. It features six student activities to help tomorrow's generation realize the challenge of feeding our growing population. The program was developed in conjunction with the respected Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS). It addresses key objectives from the National Science Education Standards and has even been reviewed by the Smithsonian Institution.

In the year it was introduced the Foundation had over 1,500 requests in the United States.

• Learn more at Nutrients for Life.