PECT are working in partnership with Rethink Food and Grow Seed to bring this amazing project to local schools and empower children to think about food and the planet.
The Growing Tower is an innovation and will show children an alternative way of growing the vegetables they eat without the need for planting in the ground. Both the Growing Tower and the seeds are provided to schools that book out a tower for free.
No soil – no mess – education on growing food in the classroom.
This programme has been designed to:
- Introduce children to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
- Highlight the vulnerability of the food system
- Introduce an alternative method of food production
- Provide children with a platform to share their positive solutions
How will it work?
- Session 1 is an overview of why we need to Rethink Food – by 2050 the global population will pass 9 billion – the session will explore with the children the implications this will have on the demand for food. The session also explores how space for crops and livestock will be limited as too will the nutrients in the soil and pollution in the sea and overfishing will restrict the availability of fish as part of our diets.
- Session 2 This is seed planting and will take between 30 min and 45 min, it is more of an observation session for pupils rather than hands on.
- Session 3 This is an introduction to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – these are 17 Goals, set by the United Nations with the aim of helping “save the planet” – this session highlights how the food we eat can impact on the planet. Children complete an individual task to workout which goal is most important to them.
- Session 4 As a class decide which goal is most important to you – specifically with this goal in mind consider, what’s at stake here, what could happen if we did nothing and start to think of some creative solutions.
- Session 5 This is the tower construction session and takes about 45 min to an hour to complete)
- Session 6 Children feedback their possible solutions (this could have been set as a homework task) – consider the advantages and disadvantages of each one.
- Session 7 Creating content that will be submitted to the team at Rethink Food for a piece of work that will be shared during COP26 in Nov 21. Pupils will be asked to present their positive solutions in the form of a tweet, Instagram or Facebook post. All suggestions will be shared as part of a wider social media campaign (all content will meet safeguarding requirements to protect children)
- Session 8 Harvest and eat the produce grown in the tower during the project.
The Growing Towers have been funded by local businesses and are available to book for a whole school term, offering two growing cycles to your students. The Growing Tower is delivered directly to your school and collected at the end of term. It is then delivered on to another school, so they need to be looked after.
Book a Growing Tower
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If you would like more information then please contact – Heidi Latronico-Ferris on 01733 568408 or email [email protected].