Steve Schultz knows how to cultivate some genuinely good ideas.
Schultz, who’s an AMA member, is a science teacher at Lacombe Composite High School in the city of Lacombe, in central Alberta. Under his guidance, his students have brought eco-friendly projects to life both at their school and in their community.
It all started in 2006 with a three-year initiative that led to the installation of 32 solar panels at the school. Since then, the students have achieved a lot—from planting a food forest of 200 fruit trees to converting a portable classroom into a near-net-zero greenhouse.
Their efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2022, Lacombe Composite was the only North American school to be shortlisted in the global organization T4 Education’s competition, World’s Best School Prize for Environmental Action.
Schultz—a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)—has also created online resources, so other teachers can replicate projects. One of his passions is to elevate agriculture education in Canada, the only G7 country that doesn’t emphasize the curriculum.
“Agriculture needs to be in more schools,” he says. “It’s become my secondary passion to spread that message to as many people as I can and model what it could look like.”
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