Workshop for schoolchildren

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Enabling children contact with nature and gardening. Training of social skills through passing garden knowledge.

Description of the activity

The urban gardens workshops have had as a general objective the promotion of children’s contact with nature through the ecological urban garden.

In the case of the workshops in Asturias Acoge during the educational visit to the garden, an attempt is made to emphasise the following aspects:

  • Intercultural values in the context of an orchard.
  • Explaining organic farming and the need for a healthy diet.
  • Tools and basic utensils in an orchard.
  • Preparation of the land: composting.
  • The vegetables: how they are sown, planted, maintained and harvested.

With the objective of promoting interculturality and approaching the immigrant collective, each workshop was given by participants in the Huertas Acoge project (all of them are migrants) coordinated by Asturias Acoge, as well as volunteers from the association and Ahmed who is from Morocco and was a beneficiary of the Asturias Acoge project, and currently owns a plantation of organic vegetables and raspberries.

Each workshop lasts one and a half hours and a maximum of 25 students are taught. They are divided into several groups to facilitate the active participation of each child.

Thanks to this workshop, the migrant gardeners can come into contact with children and in this way feel more integrated into the Asturian society.
They can also gain self-esteem, feel more confident about speaking in public, , feel comfortable and protected, and can also tell their story so that children know and are aware of the difficulties of their new neighbours.
Mainly the workshop is intended for students of the second year of primary education in the city of Oviedo. During the year 2018, 10 workshops were carried out with the participation of 239 students from 8 primary schools.

Competences and training needed

To carry out these activities you must have training and experience in organic agriculture in addition to certain teaching skills for the development of workshops with children.
It is important to highlight that when dealing with children we must adapt the contents to the ages of the students and we must also manage group educational activities.

Steps for the implementation of the activity

The first step is to analyse the profile of the students to whom we are going to assign the activity: primary school students need different lessons than others from more advanced courses (secondary school) or students with special educational needs or with learning or behaviour problems.

Selection of the plot, of the materials, tools and different seeds that we will be using for the development of the activity.

Establish what objectives we want to implement in the activity and what main ideas we want to transfer to the students.

Materials and methods

Infrastructure:
The workshops are held on land provided by the Foundation of Teachers of Mining of Asturias (FUNDOMA), which have a multipurpose room, toilets etc., and outside there is the greenhouse and the rest of land with different plots for growing.

Materials and human resources:
They have a classroom with tables and chairs where workshops can be developed as well as documentation and posters necessary for advertising the workshops. In the greenhouse there are different tools , seeds, plants and pots which students can bring their own lettuce to grow at home. The human resources of the activity are made up of five migrant volunteers who prepare the spaces for the reception of the students and their delivery, as well as five volunteers who are in charge of the management and purchases of the materials and delivery of the same. All these volunteers have a long experience as volunteers in the management of educational projects.

Time/Workload:
Each workshop requires a different amount of time .As an example it could take four hours for the preparation of the facilities (cleaning of the classroom and greenhouse, preparation of vegetables, plots, seeds, and the purchase of different necessary materials, another two hours for the carrying out the workshop with the students and one more hour for the coordination and management of the workshop.

Costs:
Each workshop has an approximate cost of about 300 euros, including human resources, materials, supplies, etc.

Learning outcomes for the participants

Thanks to these workshops, the migrants learn:

  • to work as a team with the local population and other migrant people.
  • to have some routines and defined schedules.
  • to learn new cultivation techniques.
  • to increase their opportunities in the agriculture sector.

From the point of view of the students who visit the garden is a great opportunity to be in contact with nature through the ecological urban garden, in addition to teaching the benefits of organic farming and the promotion of healthy eating habits.

One of the main purposes is the promotion of values of teamwork, respect, tolerance, patience, and the promotion of interculturality and coexistence.

The schoolchildren have the possibility to learn how other people live, the problems they have had to get to Oviedo, how they live in their countries of origin, learn about healthy food, apart how plants grown and the growing calendar and how the work in the garden is developed.

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