MyFarm - bringing food and farming to life for schools

The National Trust's mass online farming experiment, MyFarm [1], has now added teacher content to its website to help bring farming to life in classrooms all over the country.

MyFarm http://www.my-farm.org.uk aims to re-connect children of all ages (and adults) with food and farming by enabling them to make decisions on a real, working farm.

The farm - Wimpole Home Farm in Cambridgeshire - is the Trust's 1,200 acre organic mixed working farm which is home to hundreds of rare breed sheep, cows, pigs and chickens as well as growing crops, such as wheat for harvest.

MyFarm 'farmers' can experience day-to-day farm life including learning all about breeding and rearing farm animals, sowing and harvesting crops and dealing with the everyday dramas of life on a farm.

Website content includes regular blogs, short films, online discussions and votes on every aspect of farming.   Farm Manager, Richard Morris poses regular questions, such as which breed of sheep to buy, or, what crop to sow, for the community to vote upon.  Majority rules - what members vote for really happens on the farm.

Around each vote there are downloadable information packs to include fact-sheets to help with lesson planning plus suggested activities.  Classes can take part in the debate around each decision before casting their vote and tackling specially made classroom content relating to it.  Topics covered range from maths and IT skills to biology and history.

There's lots of fun content too such as Shaun the Sheep games, puzzles and activities to download as well as short films.

Membership costs just £30.  School groups are eligible for discount entry fees for class visits to the farm too.

For more information and to sign up visit http://www.my-farm.org.uk

[1] The MyFarm experiment launched on 4 May 2011.  Based at the National Trust's own working farm, Wimpole Home Farm in Cambridgeshire, Farm Manager Richard Morris poses regular questions on major issues to subscribers to debate and vote upon each month.  Subjects include crops, livestock and wider environmental impacts.

For the £30 subscription fee, My Farm farmers get a daily behind-the-scenes insight into how the 1,200 acre organic farm operates, the right to make decisions on the farm by voting regularly and a family ticket to visit the farm for a day.

The MyFarm website also includes video updates, webcams, live webchats, debates and comment and opinion from both well known farming experts and National Trust tenant farmers.