Background of the Project: A school garden is a powerful environmental education tool. Through gardening, students become responsible caretakers. They have an opportunity to engage in agricultural practices on a small scale, learning about the responsibilities and impacts of land cultivation. They explore the web of interactions among the living and nonliving players that sustain life. By doing so, they develop a greater understanding of the natural world. Having a school garden means students are actively learning more about plants, including vegetables and fruit, and seeing how they develop and what conditions are needed to grow them. Establishing a connection with nature at an early age is extremely important. Researchers have discovered that childhood experiences with nature are strongly linked to adult attitudes toward plants. They determined that participation in active gardening during childhood was the most important influence in explaining adult environmental attitudes and actions and concluded that even in urban areas where green spaces are limited, gardening programs for children can provide a strong enough connection to instill appreciation and respect for nature in adulthood. Moreover, the school garden is uniquely suited to help children learn. It is a place where students practice skills like measurement, scientific observation, informative writing, and poetry. The main objectives of our Garden-Based Learning Project are: * to provide children with an understanding of agriculture and the environment; provides children with opportunities for social and emotional growth; improves life skills, self-esteem, social skills and behavior; *to improve in nutrition habits, environmental awareness and health-related knowledge; *to discover how agriculture education reconnect students to school via a garden; * to increase in willingness to try and consumption of fruits and vegetables at an older age due to gardening at a young age; * to offer hands-on, experiential learning opportunities in a wide array of disciplines, including the natural and social sciences, math, language arts; * to encourage all schools to use gardening as a teaching tool; *to show how gardening can enrich the curriculum, teach children life skills, and contribute to their emotional and physical health; * to embrace a healtier, more active lifestyle as an important tool for success at school and beyond; * to demonstrate gardening’s pivotal role in developing active citizens of the future. Number and profile of participants: 6 European secondary schools from 6 countries in Germany as a coordinator and Turkey,Romania,Poland, Norway and Portugal all having curricular and/or extra-curricular programmes for garden-based education. Moreover, in our project will take part all teachers from our schools(especially basic skills PE,Science,language,and English teachers),school cooks,students and their parents. Description of activities: In our Project, there are also planned 6 students mobilities, where children can train themselves in healthy lifestyle, protecting environment and basic skills(Europass mobillities for students). School cooks will be trained in healthy cooking. At schools we will organize many national trainings and seminars for teachers, children, parents with local doctors,chemists,psychologists,dietitians,ecologists,gardeners.We will organize diverse activities and workshops for children and their parents about basic skills,healthy lifestyle,assertiveness, aggression,PE and Science.Children and their parents will be able to take part in sports contests and Erasmus+Fairs. Methodology: Our project's activities will contain all necessary phases: - implementation, monitoring, evaluation and dissemination of the project results; - to gather interview and observational data regarding any changes (academic, attitudinal, social, etc.) that may occur as students use the school garden; - to gather data from both teachers and students regarding the garden-based curriculum and its effectiveness in meeting state science standards and objectives. Expected Results and Long Term Effects : • Students will learn focus and patience, cooperation, teamwork and social skills; • Students will gain self-confidence and a sense of "capableness" along with new skills and knowledge in food growing; • Garden-based teaching will address different learning styles and intelligences; our non-readers will blossom in the garden; • Students will become more fit and healthy as they spend more time active in the outdoors and start choosing healthy foods over junk food; • The schoolyard will be diversified and beautified; • Both teachers and students will get the knowledge how to plant eco vegetables and herbs and how to prepare healthy dishes from them; • Both teachers and students will get a chance of exchanging new and innovative methods of teaching and a higher sense of entrepreneurship and initiative.
The primary aim of the project was to improve environmental education at the facilities, to educate the students to be more aware of nature in general and natural resources. The hanger for this was the "Sensory Garden". By understanding all of nature that surrounds us as such, it is possible to educate students to a greater understanding of the responsibilities they have, both through gardening activities and through the study of human-nature interactions. When students are actively involved, plan and design themselves, become active by hand and then can literally reap the fruits of their work - or look for the causes of failures, knowledge is easier to remember. Therefore, creating a school garden was one of the prioritized goals, which could also be implemented by all project participants. A positive effect was the education in conscious, seasonal and regional nutrition. Since a positive connection to nature is best cultivated during childhood and adolescence, secondary school students of all ages were also involved in the work. However, since the artificially created garden represents only a small part of the relationship between man and nature, our project was also designed to illuminate other aspects that should primarily contribute to responsible handling: Researching the effects of our throwaway society and ways to counteract it, the importance of insects for human existence and taking actions to help them, as more and more species are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss, use of poison and monoculture, that Recognizing the diversity of what nature has in store - raising awareness of the natural environment of plants and animals and the possibility of using them without destroying natural spaces. All participants were willing to do the work as well as possible, despite the known difficulties caused by the pandemic - from distance learning to lockdowns and the different regulations in each partner country. We believe that we have achieved the following goals: The students got a feel for the relationship of agriculture to the environment, improved their skills in this regard as well as social interactions and behavior. They reflected on the influence - both negative and positive - that humans have on the environment and recognized the interaction. Activities such as the creation and management of a (sometimes small) school garden and motivation through successful cultivation were decisive here. Creating and maintaining such a garden and insect meadows also improved the environment in which the students learn. Processing both the garden and wild fruits and plants had the effect of making the students more aware of healthy eating as well. They learned that there are not only cultivated but also many wild plants in their region that can enrich the kitchen and brought their ideas to the families. Activities such as blind tastings and the courage to try something new in the truest sense of the word paved the way for later healthy nutrition. The landscaped gardens continue to be used by all. Other findings were processed in booklets, herbariums or small videos by students in such a way that they can continue to be used in the partner institutions. Through the interdisciplinary activities, the participants also learned that only an all-round education is effective in the future. Not only "natural" subjects such as home economics or biology were involved in the project. Mathematical, technical and manual skills were also encouraged and required (e.g. planning a raised bed or an insect hotel). The participants also became aware that only cooperation can pave the way to a healthier nature. Due to the diverse tasks and areas of activity, we have also managed to give the students courage during the time of distance learning and to motivate them to continue and to create a sense of achievement. As far as possible, excursions to agricultural facilities or to get to know the natural environment were also carried out, especially during the joint meetings. Joint workshops on the topic could be attended both during the meetings and by some partners during the term on site. However, much of what was planned got lost to planning uncertainty, the loss of institutions or the corona regulations. Unfortunately, we did not succeed in realizing our planned final products - a video film by each partner on a set topic. The time of direct cooperation was too short and irregular for this. After the payment of the grant the Polish partners left the project. In agreement with the NA Turkey took over the planned mobility,