Students helped to discover benefits of dairy

The online primary school education program Discover Dairy was developed by Dairy Australia, in consultation with teachers, and offers a range of resources with activity ideas, worksheets and videos to bring the diary industry to life in the classroom. 

DA's schools communications manager Emma Rundle said the new Discover Dairy resource hub was an easy tool for teachers to get students excited about key parts of the curriculum.

"The Australian national curriculum guidelines are always evolving, and so too is our Discover Dairy primary school education program," she said.

"Teaching students about agriculture, Food and Fibre and Health and Nutrition are core components of the curriculum so it's important we help equip teachers to deliver these streams in the modern classroom.

"Alarmingly, children are increasingly disconnected from agriculture and lack an understanding of where their food comes from and the important role that our farmers have in providing nutritious, high quality food in Australia and abroad."

Ms Rundle said there was evidence that nine out of 10 Australia children were not getting enough dairy in their diet each day.

The Discover Dairy resources highlight the farm to plate process, and how the consumption of dairy foods, as part of a balanced diet, can build and maintain strong, healthy bones during childhood and throughout life.

The resources have the flexibility to be adapted to suit teachers' needs and are easily downloaded from the online hub for immediate use.

Education consultant Naomi Lindermeyer, Kimberlin Education, said Discover Dairy's resource hub allowed teachers to effortlessly search for and save lesson plans that would best suit the year-level of their class, as well as the particular subject they are teaching.

"While putting together the one-stop-shop resource hub, our research revealed 87 per cent of teachers said they would like to teach an inquiry led unit to their students based on farm to plate concepts," she said.

"Teachers can select different types of teaching resources such as PDF's, animations and video, depending on how it best fits with the lesson they are planning."

Discover Dairy has been educating students about the importance of the Australian dairy industry since 2007.