Presentation of educational materials for Organic Gardens
Under the 'De l'hort at Home' ( 'home garden'), the Government is promoting the introduction of organic gardens in Catalans schools . The idea is to promote awareness of this type of agriculture through the program carried out by members of government and Healthy Life Association.
So “El Sagrer” school, from Barcelona was the venue for this presentation, attended by the Minister of Education, Ernest Maragall, and the Agriculture, Food and Rural Action, Joaquim Llena, alongside Angeles Montse Parra from Fitness Association members.
During the presentation, the minister Maragall, noted the high educational value of this initiative that promotes healthy eating among schoolchildren. Maragall, also said they are working for most schools in Catalonia have gardens at your facility. Currently, in the city of Barcelona there are 180 schools that have school garden, a total of 550 schools, both primary and secondary public or private.
For their part, responsible people for Healthy Living Association, stressed that the teaching has taken into account a holistic universe at the time of preparing the starting materials from a pedagogical point of view, concepts such as food, biodiversity, sustainability, proximity, health, intergenerational concept, including the ecological footprint in the manufacture of the materials themselves and their compensation with MamaTerra Forest planting.
Educational kit
"De l'hort home" is a set of teaching materials aimed at students and teachers of primary and secondary in Catalunya, which has been published by the Association Healthy and the Generalitat of Catalunya with the support of the Social Work "la Caixa" Fundation. The material was presented by her author, Montse Escutia, in the latest edition of Biocultura.
This initiative is part of the 105 stocks that make up the "Action Plan for Food and Farming 2008-2012", approved by the Government last November, 2008. The materials will be sent to the 75 teacher resource centers located throughout Catalonia to get to schools with teaching guides and training for teachers who use it as a tool in their classrooms.
Information on organic production
The objective of this initiative is none other than to inform and educate children about organic agricultural production and expand the teaching provision related to organic school gardens. The organic food production is a production system leading to the procurement of food of high nutritional and sensory quality by implementing sustainable production methods and respectful to the person, environment and rural areas, subject to strict control system and certification.
Thus, the educational proposed activities are easy to integrate into school projects designed to develop competencies geared to make responsible use of natural resources and take care of the environment.
With this proposal, the Government makes available to children and teachers basic information on organic production of foods with a knowledgeable and participatory format.
Inside the kit we can find:
Game of the biocidal product
Question and answer game that aims to have a good time sharing ideas about organic gardening and respect for the environment. For this reason, the proposed contents are extensive and reach understanding aspects of the garden calendar, sustainability, compost or recycling. This is an adaptation of the popular game of the goose with a new chant.
Game of showing face
It is a driving game that simulates the pursuit feeding relationships that can occur in an organic vegetable garden to compare with those found in an orchard where intensive agriculture is practiced.
Within a seed
It is something that shows a series of images that represent a natural cycle. Cutting and folding the paper gives a square articulated frieze that allows both sides to turn the leaf showing a sequence of four images.
Experiment with the soil
Through this game, people seek to show the properties of the soil to have a clearer idea of how our land is more successful with our organic garden.
HorTAC
HorTAC is a CDRom that aims to develop a set of skills that are needed to solve a series of challenges through digital experimentation. Its content is divided into three sections:
- The information box: allows access to a set of files containing the original materials that make up the eco bag. It is aimed at teachers.
- The garden step by step: the entrance to this section is performed through an animation that leads to 12 activities that help form the organic school garden.
- Games: seven recreational ideas set in the garden, which enable the play and, in turn, learn.
Organic school garden calendar
This schedule is to easily differentiate themselves from the garden species of autumn-winter, the spring-summer garden and you can understand all year. Moreover, it also indicates whether the planting should be done directly with the time. The 26 species of garden that arise are the most classic of the gardens and are arranged according to plant part that is eaten. The schedule is complemented by a number of suggestions for working the garden and a justification of organic farming, which can lead to constructive discussions.
The suitcase is complemented by three books.