Why Waite is the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine’s outreach program, in which secondary school groups are invited to visit the Waite campus for a range of fun and educational activities around plants and agriculture.
A five week program has been exclusively designed for the Department of Education’s South Australian Aboriginal Secondary Training Academy (SAASTA), Wirltu Yarlu by Why Waite and the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine. The program is based around Indigenous foods and plants and is being delivered to 18 engaged year 11 and year 12 students from across the state.
Students will undertake presentations, tours and experiments ranging from native foods, aroma and sensory, fermentations of indigenous fruits, plant propagations and genetics. The students will also be preparing summative assessments that count towards their SACE criteria for year 12.
The first session during the last week in July went off with a bang, with a special workshop hosted by Rebecca Sullivan, co-owner of native food company Warndu. Rebecca brought along lots of native fruits and spices for the group to try – and they had great fun doing so! They ended the day with a native spiced saurkraut ferment and an aroma sensory activity.
A huge thank you to the Why Waite volunteers and Waite staff who came and joined us for our first session. It was a great learning experience for everyone involved.
Can’t wait to see what the next 4 weeks bring! If you see the students around with the SAASTA logo emblazed on their uniforms, please make them feel welcome!
Rebecca Sullivan pictured with the SAASTA students at Waite