A total of approximately 150 students from three Prince Albert elementary schools are taking part in "The Real Dirt on Farming" tours this year.

The tours offer elementary school students the opportunity to visit primary production operations and this year's tours include stops at a honey production operation near Prince Albert, a bison ranch near Cudworth and the Pork Interpretive Gallery at Elstow.

Angela Nordstrom, a teacher at Red Wing Elementary School says this type of tour meshes well with the curriculum in both science and social.

Angela Nordstrom-Red Wing Elementary School

It's hands on learning.

So much of the time we only get to read about these things so it's kind of nice that they got out to actually see and touch first hand.

Students aren't really aware of agriculture.

That's the thing.

We're a rural school however, most of our students at this school live on acreages.

Their parents aren't farmers so it's amazing to me how little they actually do know about agriculture.

So even though that's our main industry in Saskatchewan, students just aren't familiar with a lot of things.

So it's nice that they were able to see where their food comes from and the process it takes to raise animals and it just gave them a little eye opener I think.

As well it's good that, students at this age are starting to lose a little interest in school so it's kind of nice to get them out of the classroom for a bit and get them engaged in learning again.

Nordstrom says the students really enjoyed seeing the baby pigs at the Pork Interpretive Gallery, they also saw the baby calves at the bison ranch and the baby bees at the honey operation and they were kind of intrigued with seeing these tiny animals.

She notes another purpose of the tours was to encourage students to choose careers in agriculture which started quite a buzz among the students talking about opportunities they could have for their future.