For more than a decade, the highly successful Picasso Cows program has challenged primary school students to find their inner Picasso by decorating their very own life-size fibreglass cow.
Developed in consultation with teachers and education consultants, the curriculum aligned program teaches primary aged students about the many facets of the Australian dairy industry, from the health and nutritional benefits of consuming dairy foods to what life is like on a dairy farm and how milk is produced to bring dairy products from the farm to their plates.
Despite a challenging year, the popular program Picasso Cows was successfully taken up by 97 primary schools across two programs, engaging 187 teachers and educating over 10,000 students across the country about the industry and products.
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Clarence Town Public School, NSW, (program 1) and West Morley Primary School, WA, (program 2) were the two winning schools taking out first prize for their outstanding learning journals and their Picasso Cows "Claraline and Miss Milky Way".
A full list and pictures of the winning schools are available on https://www.dairy.edu.au/picasso-cows.
The program has continued to have a positive impact on students, with teacher Melinda Watson from St John's School Euroa, Vic, commenting that "students are (now) far more aware of what their daily dairy requirement is. We had students writing their own dairy diary, off their own bat. I saw a lot more dairy in lunch boxes and a lot of students would come up to me and say that they had consumed dairy that morning."
With the shift to remote learning throughout the year, teachers and parents were also able to take advantage of Dairy Australia's online curriculum aligned resources and activities on the Discover Dairy Hub, leading to a significant increase in engagement with our curriculum resources.
It is estimated that the Discover Dairy lesson plans and resources reached 337,510 students from January to October, compared to 289,530 in 2019.
For more information about Discover Dairy or if you know of a school in your area who would like to be involved in the Picasso Cow program visit dairy.edu.au or email schools@dairyaustralia.com.au.
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