Engage your Ag students

Agriculture is an exciting and engaging subject for students, in high demand every year. With new NCEA changes taking effect, it's never been more important to find support, and now it's never been easier. Don't let anything stand in the the way of offering this subject at your school.

July 2023 saw the nationwide launch of AgDept, an interactive, engaging and high quality online resource used to teach the Year 11 Agriculture (AS90921) curriculum.

Let us take the strain...

A complete, self-paced resource for you and your learners

Health Management Practices

This course on health & welfare includes the causes of disease along with health issues and health calendars for individual species.

Breeding Management Practices

The breeding course covers everything from the basics through to genetics and includes modules on reproduction in various species.

Feed Management Practices

Nutrition is vital to animal health and in this course we cover the science of digestion and the practical implications for feeding livestock.

AgDept has been created with the endorsement of HATA and the assistance of Massey University School of Agriculture & Environment.


I do not have a farming background so found the site really useful given the depth and breadth of content required to be covered by AS90921. It gave me space to leave the students well set up while I spent time with individual Agricultural students or other Horticulture students.

Students found the content [was] engaging and supported their learning. It also supported us as teachers to know that the advanced students had everything they needed to gain Excellence, while giving the less competent kids the confidence to attend the external NZQA examination and achieve credits.

Ivan Davie

Tauranga Boy's College

AgDept


The AgDept online learning platform is veterinary-taught, by the entertaining Dr Sarah Clews, renowned for her deep breadth of knowledge and skill across all species covered - Cattle, sheep, poultry and pigs; health & husbandry, breeding and nutrition.

Video lessons are accompanied by a downloadable E-book, bonus materials, self-study games, and interactive quizzes that feed back to teachers, allowing both student and teacher to monitor the individual’s progress.

Local

Expertise

Key features

  • Species-specific farming calendars allow learners to understand how topics fit into the big picture

  • Quiz results are fed back to the teacher to allow both learner and teacher to follow their progress

  • A personalised dashboard allows the learner to pick up where they left off and move at their own pace

  • Quizzes and handouts reinforce key concepts and essential jargon

  • Updated annually with changes in welfare laws and gold-standard practices

  • Students engage in self-directed learning, freeing up teachers to focus their time where it's needed the most

  • Covers content for the new NCEA curriculum

Information-packed video lessons

Downloadable course books

Give your students their best chance for success

AgDept gives advanced learners the tools they need to excel and boosts the confidence of less academic learners all while freeing up your time.

It's a win-win!

Why Choose AgDept?

A complete learning package

Expert presenter

Taught by Dr Sarah Clews, an Aotearoa-New Zealand based veterinarian

Video lessons

Engaging videos explain the concepts, supported by graphics and animations

Course books

Everything covered in the courses are also supplied in comprehensive, downloadable ebooks.

Quizzes

Learners can test their understanding with quizzes, which also feed back to teachers, keeping everyone informed of the progress made


After a highly successful trial use at Tauranga Boys’ College, teachers report an increase in student confidence and engagement with their 1.6 external examination from previous years when the app was not used.

Students had greater engagement with the concepts as the app gave each individual in the class their own personalised dashboard so they could pick up where they left off and they could test their own learning after each section was completed

About us

Sarah Clews

Veterinarian



Sarah Clews is a farm & lifestyle block vet, with a passion for welfare and education.

Born and raised on a lifestyle block, she grew up around goats, sheep, chooks, horses and more, developing a passion for caring for and bettering the welfare of our farm animals from a young age.

Dr Sez initially studied animal behaviour, further fuelling her passion, before returning to New Zealand to become a qualified vet. She now works with the many farms and lifestyle blocks of the South Auckland region and runs the YouTube channel

Sez the Vet’, airing interesting and topical weekly episodes on the health of farm animals.

Kate Brennan

Editor lifestyleblock.co.nz


Kate has been a lifestyle farmer for over 25 years and editor of lifestyleblock.co.nz since it launched in April 2000.

As editor, Kate has worked with veterinarians, farmers, academics and experts to provide accurate, NZ-based information to people who are starting from scratch.

Starting on a 4 acre block in the Waikato, Kate now farms angora goats and cattle on a 220 acre Northland block.

Kate doesn't appear on-screen very often but works with Sarah on writing and producing the courses.

Pricing

Learners

What they get:

  • Access to all three courses

  • Video lessons

  • Downloadable coursebooks

  • Bonus materials

  • Quizzes

  • Personalised dashboard

  • Teachers have access to quiz results and progress

$30 for up to 12 months access

Teachers Professional Development

What you get:

  • Access to all three courses

  • Video lessons

  • Downloadable coursebooks

  • Bonus materials

  • Quizzes

  • Personalised dashboard

  • Private discussion forum

$200 for up to 12 months access

reduced to $50 if more than 10 learners enroll from your school

Terms & Conditions apply.

Call 021 840 151

Email:kate@lifestyleblock.co.nz

AgDept logo

Copyright 2023 . All rights reserved