1.2 The principle of integration

So far we have discussed the integration of practical work and classroom work in agriculture. But integration means more than that. Farming activities provide many opportunities for teaching other subjects and provide real-life exercise material for language work and mathematics.

There is yet another aspect to integration: Practical work and observation will not yield much unless they can draw on language and mathematical skills already developed in other lessons. What such an integrated scheme of work can look like can be seen from the examples on p. 37-43. Taking into account that in primary school one teacher teaches all the subjects in a class, integration across subject boundaries should not be too difficult. But it certainly means more preparatory work than if the teacher simply followed the prescribed books in the various subjects.

Farming activities also give real meaning to end-of-term revision: at the end of each term, teacher and pupils go through the records compiled during the term, state their achievements and difficulties end summarize all the quantitative observations carried out.

By the end of the school year pupils will be able to formulate the crop calendar of the crops farmed by going through the record of work on the school farm and the record of observation made on local farms. These calendars may differ considerably from the one provided in the teacher's manual since they depend on local conditions and on the season in a particular year. For similar reasons, topics listed for the different subjects other than manual work are only suggestions. The teacher will have to select those that are suitable for his class' or treat them in a way which suits the overall development of the class.

The following elements, however, should always be present in order to relate farm work to classroom teaching:

- keeping records of school farm work,
- observing and recording the local way of farming,
- end-of-term analysis of these observations,
- end-of-year analysis of these observations,
- preparing the necessary vocabulary at the beginning of each school year,
- writing texts which summarize the ongoing observations (report writing), again graded according to the general language level of the class,
- end-of-term and end-of-year analysis of quantitative observations in mathematics lessons.

Table

Table

Classroom teaching should always be related to farm activities
The main point is that reading, writing, speaking, and doing mathematics are all required in order to put the opportunities offered by school agriculture to good use.

What is meant by integration will become clearer if you look at four texts below. They are written for use in the classroom and show how agricultural topics - yam and maize farming - can be extended in order to incorporate aspects like traditional religion and culture, and nutrition.

Two of the texts simply provide factual information about religious ideas and practices connected with farming. You will notice that these texts do not single out the religious and cultural aspect but bring it up in connection with topics such as land tenure, farming methods, and work organization. They show very well how all these aspects are integrated in the life of farmers in Cameroon. One text is a small collection of recipes for dishes and alcoholic drinks prepared with maize. Finally, one text is the first part of a lesson note on food taboos. It links nutrition and religion, both of which are very closely linked with agriculture. This last one you will find here. For the other texts consult Part III, texts: "Yam Growing in Banyang Area", "Traditional Rites associated with the Planting of Maize in Bali", and "Some Corn Dishes in Bali".

Lesson Notes on an Aspect of "Country Fashion" in the Banyang Areaby M.A. Nchong

Topic: Food Taboos in the Banyang Area
Class: Six or Seven

Aims and Objectives

1. To help the children know why some animals and certain types of food are not eaten by some classes of people in certain areas.
2. To provide language training through interviewing, recording, and reporting on food taboos.
3. To give children practice in writing and reading reports.
4. To enhance the children's ability to conduct interviews, listen carefully, and select useful information.
5. To help children discuss freely the relevance of some rules forbidding some classes of people to eat of certain types of food.
6. At the end of the lesson children are expected to hand in their assignments which are then kept together in the class for reference.

Introduction

Children! Listen to a story I am going to tell you. This story concerns a young man called Arrey-Ndip and his wife Mary. Arrey-Ndip was the only child of his parents. When he left school he went to live with a distant relative in Victoria and soon started work at the Cameroon Development Corporation (C.D.C.) Headquarters at Bota. Having worked for two years he went home and took beautiful Mary as his wife. When both Arrey-Ndip and Mary came down to Victoria, Mary realised that Victoria was a much better place than the village and also that her husband had secured a good job.

Mary became pregnant just six months after she moved to her new home. It was at this particular time that her husband was selected to do a course in Agriculture at Bambili School of Agriculture, North West Province. Arrey-Ndip decided to send Mary home to his parents. He bought a lot of things (beverages, maternity dresses etc.) for her to take home. In fact it was Arrey-Ndip himself who took Mary home. He returned to Victoria and then left for the course.

One day Mary went with the family to a hear-by farm. They had taken water in bottles to the farm. Mary was thirsty. She got a bottle of water, stood upright and started drinking. Her mother-in-law who was working near her turned round and saw her standing upright, drinking water from a bottle. She thundered from a distance: "Sit down before drinking water! Sit down before drinking water from a bottle. You children today do terrible things. When did I ever drink water from a bottle in such a position. It's no wonder some of you give birth to children with long mouths and squint eyes.”

This reminded Mary of several restrictions on meals which had been imposed-on her since she returned from Victoria. Just a few days before, she had been told not to eat antelope, bush fowl, or python. As soon as Mary got home, she wrote a letter of protest to her husband. She protested against all such restrictions. She had even been told not to drink ovaltine and milk which she loved so much. Arrey-Ndip wrote a strong letter to his parents asking them to allow his wife to eat what she liked. His father asked a teacher from the village school to help him write a letter to his son. The parents continued to make sure that Mary did not eat things they regarded as not being right for pregnant women.

According to Arrey-Ndip's parents most of the calamities befalling young men and women today are the result of the nonobservance of local traditions concerning food taboos. They stressed that Mary must not be a victim of such disregard of traditional values.

Finally Mary gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Every member of the family was very happy. Arrey-Ndip took a week's vacation just to come down and see his first child. Mary was also very happy.

The Integration of Agriculture and Mathematics

The following problem is an example of how agriculture and mathematics can be integrated.
More problems are to be found in Part III, text: "The integration of agriculture and mathematics".

Mathematics on the yam plot

There is a plot on which yams are to be grown. In the first example (Variant 1) there are 10 rows, in the second one (Variant 2) there are 29 rows. The rows are 1.5 m apart. The yams are to be planted along the rows at intervals of 1 m. Holes for the yams were dug by a group of three young men. When all the holes had been dug, the lady farming the plot went and counted them in order to pay the group and to find out how many yams could be planted. In each row, she noted the holes which could not be used for planting because they had stones in them, and the holes which were not deep enough and needed more digging. The tables show what she found. Variant 2 is more difficult because some rows are longer than others. This is due to the fact that the plot has an irregular shape which the sketch map will bring out nicely.

Variant 1:
row number	total number of holes	holes with big stones	holes ready for planting
1	40	1	39
2	40	2	38
3	40	-	40
4	40	-	40
5	40	1	39
6	40	-	40
7	40	-	40
8	40	5	35
9	40	-	40
10	40	-	40

Variant 2:
row number	total number of holes	holes with big stones	shallow holes	holes for use
1	34	1	1
2	35	3
3	36	1	2
4	38	1	2
5	39		15
6	40		9
7	41	2	30
8	42		5
9	42	2	16
10	42		12
11	42		15
12	39	3	23
13	38
14	37
15	36		17
16	35	2	5
17	34	2
18	31	1	9
19	30		8
20	26	1	11
21	25
22	22		22
23	19	2	7
24	16		3
25	14
26	11	1	1
27	8
28	6
29	4	1

Variant 1

Variant 2

Questions (for variant 1 + 2):

1. What is the total number of holes?
2. How many holes cannot be used because of stones that could not be removed?
3. How many holes can be moulded up and planted immediately?
4. How many holes must be made deeper?
5. How many seed yams will the farmer need once all the holes without stones have been made deep enough?
6. The farmer has agreed to pay the group 15 frs for each hole which can take a seed yam, and 5 frs for holes which cannot be completed because of stones. How much does he pay?
Payment for completed holes ready for planting?
Payment for incomplete holes with stones?
Total sum of money paid?
7. The farmer 'asks the headman of the group to write out a receipt. How should the headman do it?
8. What is the percentage of holes that cannot be used because of big stones?
9. What is the percentage of holes that the group has to make deeper before they can get their pay?
10. Draw a sketch of the yam plot under consideration. In order to do this, you must know:

a) Ail rows are at right angles to the base line.
b) All rows are straight.
c) The first row starts at a distance of 75 cm from the end of the yam plot. Each row is 1.5 m apart from the next one. The planting distance along the row is 1 m.
d) Your drawing should be on a scale of 1 :100.
e) Show each hole by a mark x on your sketch

11. What is the area of the plot (in square meters)?
12. Each yam hole is 60 cm long, 60 cm wide, and 50 cm deep. What is the volume of soil from one hole (in cubic metres)? What is the volume of all the soil removed from the holes which later on can be planted with yams?