Hosted by OSOS , contributed by Palekastroschool on 13 April 2019
The main purpose of this OSOS accelerator is to raise interest and sensitize learners of a broad age range in (organic) school gardening experience and practice on cultivating plants and/or developing a viable agro-ecological culture. It aims to provide children with opportunities to think and act as conscious and contemporary citizens, agro-ecologists, within a viable development of societies, which grow plants organically in harmony with the environment, in respect of contemporary local and global agricultural economies and healthy eating habits. In other words, incorporating agriculture and organic gardening in the classroom helps learners understand how humans interact with the environment and how food is grown. Furthermore, agriculture and school gardening promotes awareness of a healthy lifestyle, helps learners master even demanding STE(A)M concepts, and exposes citizens to agricultural job opportunities. By designing, cultivating, and harvesting organic school gardens, children experience deeper understanding of natural systems and ecosystems and become better stewards of the earth. Nevertheless, unlike some other activities they participate in during their school years, gardening is an activity they can participate in for the rest of their lives. On a personal level, gardening builds confidence, self-esteem, and pride as children watch their efforts turn into beautiful and productive gardens. It also teaches them patience as they wait for a seedling to sprout or a tomato to ripen. Through gardening, children help to beautify the school grounds and develop aesthetic skills. The praise they receive from peers and classmates, parents, teachers, and community members will enhance responsibility, create a sense of community spirit and perhaps introduce them to the benefits of volunteering, active citizenship and community solidarity. The challenge for the teachers is to provide an adequate and didactically transposed framework of approaches on organic agriculture and organic gardening. Acting as a mentors and facilitators will investigate together with children ways of developing an organic school garden and alongside with the aid of experts and on-site study visits, design and develop such a garden. Teaching and learning activities will include investigations, experimentation and inquiry-based activities, constructions, gardening practice, open exhibitions etc. All children and school community members are to be included and participate in gardening activities, an indicative set of which is described below. Learners and teachers become passionately involved in all sorts of activities of the school garden, encouraging their interests within open (also authentic) teaching and learning environments.
We started building a school garden at the back yard of our school about 12 years ago and ever since it has become a year-round educational programme, with impact in the lives of learners, teachers, school communities and organizations. It has turned out to be a long standing commitment, which promotes innovation linked with formal, non-formal and informal teaching and learning activities, alongside with the building of open communities of practice for sharing common interests, knowledge, skills, competences and the joy of learning in the field. Indicative objectives are the following:
- to develop basic knowledge for the structure, formation and function of a(n) (organic) school garden
- to recognize basic plant categories such as groceries, aromatic plants, flowers and to discern their characteristics
- to cultivate plants in raised beds in the school garden and become young farmers connected with the food production process
- to observe and describe the development of plants in a "seed to seed" approach
- to construct smaller or bigger greenhouses and cultivate seed plants, in order to start organic gardening processes
- to take care of the plants throughout the seasons of the year and learn about the cycle of jobs that need to be done in a school garden
- to be able to confront pests and plant diseases in an organic/natural way, with simple materials and substances, without the use of conventional pesticides
- obtain deeper knowledge about organic gardening and deeper understanding of co-cultivation of plants and plants communities.
- to recognize the basic elements and advantages of organic fertilizers
- to make their own organic fertilizer through the process of composting in the school garden composters
- to discuss and become sensitized on the role of plants in contemporary nutrition habits
- to collect traditional recipes and cook their own meals in conventional cookers and/or solar cookers
- to dehydrate fruits, vegetables and herbs for food preservation in solar dehydrators made out of card boxes
- to discuss about the energy resources of the school garden and become sensitized on water preservation issues
- to write stories about the school garden incidents and experiences throughout the year
- to make artifacts, paintings and art about school gardening
- to write and perform theatrical scenes/play on school garden episodes
- to develop active citizenship and solidarity though voluntary work in the school garden and with the sharing of garden crops with fellow citizens in need ... etc
This is an (inter)thematic/interdisciplinary topic/OSOS accelerator, which interweaves nearly all subject domains of formal, non-formal and informal education, ranging from Science, ICT, Mathematics, Technology & Engineering to Language, History, Arts, Physical Education etc.
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CONTACT PEOPLE:
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ORGANIZATION IN CHARGE:
9th Primary School of Rethymno Primary Science Laboratory Machis Kritis 33, 74100, Rethymno, Crete mail@9dim-rethymn.reth.sch.gr & http://efepereth.wikidot.com |
Feel
A vertical school garden offers a place to enrich teaching efforts with powerful hands-on activities and experiences that make learning come alive, ideas and concepts come into being. Developing a school garden is not rocket science, neither a “build-it-and-it-will-come” endeavor, but rather an exercise which presents a certain level of complexity and must be “child-generated” in order to be “child-owned”. If children lack ownership, they will lack a sense of stewardship. Sustainability requires stewardship. If the garden is to be used, respected and cared for, then stewardship is the key for the whole community. The foundation of success is not necessarily in proper construction or sound plant selection. Successful vertical school gardens are built on the foundation of committed people, bearing in mind that although “there might not be a garden in every school, but there is definitely a school in every garden”. “Garden-based Learning” [GBL], within a context of “Inquiry-based Science Education” [IBSE], can be defined simply as a set of instructional strategies that utilize a garden as a teaching and learning tool. The pedagogy is based on experiential education, which is practiced and applied in the living laboratory of the garden. Moreover, GBL has the potential to enrich basic education in all cultural settings. In cases where it is most effective, GBL is a pedagogy that is used with all children. It has something to contribute to each learning style, and to children at each developmental level. Garden-based learning offers a context for integrated learning. An integrated curriculum is often associated with real-life problems in contrast with a traditional subject–based curriculum. This provides a vehicle for higher order thinking skills as students are challenged to move beyond memorization, to see patterns and relationships and pursue a topic in depth, within a thematic approach. They are engaged in actively and socially constructing and construing knowledge, rather than passively accumulating and accepting information and they also develop analytic and synthetic thinking. The (indicative) activities proposed/conducted for this OSOS accelerator are physically placed at the school garden (in situ), but also in the networks/communities of people surrounding them (in vivo), as well as in the workspace of the connected virtual environments they are linked with (in vitro).
Imagine
Even a century ago, John Dewey, in his famous book “Democracy & Education” (1916) contends that “gardening need not be taught either for the sake of preparing future gardeners, or as an agreeable way of passing time. It affords an avenue of approach to the knowledge of the place farming and horticulture have had in the history of the human race and which they occupy in present social organization. Carried on in an environment educationally controlled, they are means for making a study of facts of growth, the chemistry of soil, the role of light, air, moisture, injurious and helpful animal life, etc. There is nothing in the elementary study of botany which cannot be introduced in a vital way in connection with caring for the growth of seeds.” (pp. 216-217). Thus, the challange for us nowadays still remains the same and is rainforced by current circumstances as the strugle against poverty and the concecuances of economic cricis.
Designing a vertical school garden has been a challenge for the school community, which involved us in a series of creative problem solving activities, like the kind of structure of the garden, the design and arrangement, the materials used, the teaching and learning activities we could involve the children in the development of the process etc.
Using materials from local distriduter(after designing it by teachers and students) we built a three floors vertical garden with its own watering system!