An Alberta farm kid is opening up the world of agriculture for other youths by distributing free learning kits.
Luke Silinski, 17, grew up and lives on a farm in the Beiseker area. He has a passion for agriculture technology and wants to share it.
Since 2021, Silinski has been distributing agricultural boxes that he calls “content packs.” The boxes are part of his non-profit company, Ag Tech STEAM. (STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math.) Each box contains an activity for each letter in STEAM.
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“I would describe Ag Tech STEAM as a program or system that is dedicated to bringing agriculture technology and education to rural and under-served kids,” said Silinski, who loves computer programming and agriculture.
The idea arose in 2018, when Silinski attended the Emerging Agriculture Hackathon, a University of Saskatchewan event that unites innovators and entrepreneurs. He pitched a set of free, online courses intended to educate youths interested in ag tech. His idea won the event’s MacGyver Award for the most creative solution to an agricultural problem.
“It evolved when we contacted our friends at Farm Credit Canada and they were interested and invested in the project and they gave us a budget to get started,” he said.
Silinski describes himself as Ag Tech STEAM founder and “head of play,” and is adamant that the boxes remain free.
“They cost about $110 in total, but I give them away completely for free,” he said. He has numerous sponsors including Olds College, Nutrien and Lethbridge College. His parents, Shanyn and Earl, who are grain farmers, are champions of the project and help him out.
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Silinski has created four different boxes: good bugs; bad bugs; plant health; and soil health. Each box can be adapted for students from kindergarten to post-secondary. Adults like them too, he said.
“They all contain activities based around agriculture, like agronomy, entomology, forages, seed treatment using worm castings and germination testing. All smaller stuff that farmers would do in the field normally.”
He said he was inspired to start the project because he couldn’t find good agriculture education.
“I didn’t know agriculture was the third most advancing field behind heavy construction and aerospace. I didn’t know there were strides being made in autonomous tractors and robots, for example. This was never communicated until around four or five years ago, at this point.
“Kids may have an interest in technology but might not be able to (take) it farther because of their current situation, or just not knowing that there is a field for them.”
Silinski started making the boxes in 2021 and to date has sent about 70. He’s given presentations, put info on social media and attended events to promote the project.
“A lot of it is personal one on one interactions. Sometimes I sell my Ag Tech STEAM idea to people when we are having a conversation about something completely different and my Ag Tech STEAM comes up and I tell them about it. That gets the word of mouth out.”
Silinski is also a Lego pro, and his skills with Lego get people interested in the boxes.
“They come for the Lego and they stay for the Ag Tech STEAM ideas,” he said.
The boxes have gone over well in schools.
“We find teachers and the principals are the most interested. There isn’t a lot of room for us to make an impact with the superintendents of school divisions, but where we find the most success for schools is teachers and principals and students recommending the boxes to the teachers in the schools,” he said.
Most of the boxes have been sent within Alberta, but “we’re hoping to expand not only in Canada, but internationally as well. We’ve had interest from the United States, from some places in Europe and Africa too.”
Silinski has downloadable content on his website, including a colouring book. He also has plans to create add-on boxes.
For more information, or to get a content pack, see agtechsteam.ca.
