Wugong Elementary School launches Food and Agriculture Education Series 2 experiential activity during morning light time
In recent years, more and more schools have been introducing students to food and agriculture, and "food and agriculture education" is receiving growing attention. So-called food and agriculture education means rebuilding the relationship between people and food, and between people and the land, understanding the food you eat, cultivating the ability to choose ingredients, and gaining a richer, more three-dimensional understanding of agricultural producers.
The Homemakers United Foundation has long paid attention to the issue of school lunches and trains volunteers to go to elementary schools to read green picture books with children, introducing the difference between processed foods and natural ingredients, and the difference between conventional vegetables and organic vegetables. Among these, the green food education course launched in 2012 in cooperation with Taichung Municipal Li-Ming Elementary School attracted the attention of then Taichung Mayor Jason Hu, who intended to promote it, because the course was planned to progress from the simple to the deep and from concepts to hands-on practice.
In 2015, the Homemakers United Foundation's Green Food Circle group, together with the National Taiwan University Little Playmates team and Taipei City Wenshan Community College, used Taipei Municipal Wu-Gong Elementary School as a food and agriculture education base to develop a set of food and agriculture lesson plans suitable for urban elementary school operation, and this experience will be introduced and explained through a series of articles.
Text / Chen Chi-nong (convener of the National Taiwan University Little Playmates)
In the process of preparing this semester's course, Little Playmates connected for the first time with resources known from the past: the community resources of Wenshan Community College and the volunteers of the Homemakers United Foundation, as well as Teacher Yaman of permaculture, working together. With the input of resources from multiple sides, we discussed and planned together with the principal, director, and class teachers of Wu-Gong Elementary School. Now, with three classes of Wu-Gong Elementary School (65 children in total) adopting the farm garden, food and agriculture education courses and experiences are carried out class by class during the Monday morning dawn time from 8:00 to 8:40, with Little Playmates instructors leading the children in activities, class teachers assisting, and volunteers from the Homemakers United Foundation and Wenshan Community College accompanying each class.
This semester's course takes food and agriculture education combined with "life education" as its core, leading children through food and agriculture experiences to think about new ways of learning and correct attitudes toward life, thereby truly influencing the habits of the class and the children. The first class began on 3/9 (Mon), opening with "a new way of learning." We played clips from "Our Island: Green Campus" to spark the children's motivation, and discussed: Is school just a place for learning, why do we learn, what should we learn... We took the children out of the classroom, carrying frames cut from cardboard, to discover the differences in every corner of the campus with completely new eyes. Many children ran over in surprise to tell us: "There are strawberries over there, teacher!" "I also saw Echeveria, how can it grow there?" Everyone was full of enthusiasm. Another child asked: "What is this, teacher?" and immediately a swarm of children gathered there to look at the "magical plant" their classmate had discovered. It turned out to actually be the green broccoli that Little Playmates had planted earlier; because it had never been harvested, the broccoli had flowered! When we told the children that this was the flower of broccoli, the children who had never seen broccoli bloom exclaimed in disbelief again and again. We saw the children come out of the classroom bouncing and lively, and it seemed that every minute and every second of learning with the earth had a magical power for the children.
3/16 (Mon), the second class, took "preparation" as its core, discussing what needs to be prepared before planting in the farm garden. So we took the children to the farm garden to transplant some plants that could continue to be grown, such as perilla, mint, thyme, Echeveria, and so on. After bringing them back to the classroom, we took out the recycled containers the children had prepared themselves (egg cartons, plastic boxes, pudding cups) to plant them. In addition, we also prepared seeds of water spinach, amaranth, green beans, Malabar spinach, and okra, letting the children start raising seedlings from seeds, playing the role of the plant's mother and taking on the responsibility of care.
After these two classes, Little Playmates, the class teachers, and the Homemakers United Foundation volunteers also reviewed the course together, discussing how to solve the difficulties encountered so far in implementation, so as to revise the course plan. For example, the course arranged too much knowledge and discussion, which cut up the time and compressed the time for the children's actual operation, as well as how to become familiar with the children while also controlling the necessary order, and other such situations. Little Playmates hope that after accumulating experience and constantly discussing and revising the course, the class's food and agriculture education can gradually improve, so that the children feel no pressure but can still learn and gain genuine feelings.
Series of articles
Wu-Gong Elementary School Food and Agriculture Education Series 1 - Getting to Know Little Playmates
Support the Homemakers United Foundation's work in promoting food and agriculture education, and donate to sponsor the "Children's Health: Starting from Food and Agriculture Education" fundraising plan, so that more children have the chance to learn through experience~
For more ways to donate, please see http://www.huf.org.tw/support-us