Environmental Law

Environmental Law

The school garden

The school garden is one of the projects of the SUSTAINABLE SCHOOLS program which aims to contribute to sustainability in the educational field and to recognize schools as agents of change in the city.

The garden, together with the management of waste (paper and cardboard, plastic packaging and organic waste) has the will to make changes - beyond specific actions or thematic weeks - with the horizon of adopting a comprehensive approach of center to transform the educational institution and face the challenges of sustainability and the climate emergency.

The project of the garden at school arose from the evidence that the activity of the garden has a very important pedagogical content to bring students closer to the contact and observation of nature. In our case, this importance becomes more evident, since often, our students do not acquire these experiences spontaneously at an early age. The current project has different aspects:

Representative image of Aspace Difón

On one side is everything that refers to planting and making the school greener.

Representative image of Aspace Difón

For another, everything we do around waste reduction and composting.

Representative image of Aspace Difón

And finally networking.

Inside the section LET'S PLANT AND MAKE THE SCHOOL GREENER we work the garden Currently, we do this on five cultivation tables and in several containers, all of which are located in the school's small yard. Nine groups/classrooms participate in this activity: two kindergarten groups, three primary and four secondary groups. This activity is carried out by the teacher together with other professionals in the group. Two plantings are made throughout the course: one in the fall with vegetables and winter vegetables (chards, cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli and lettuce) and another in the spring, with vegetables and vegetables typical of this season (peppers, tomatoes, lettuce).

The big advantage that grow tables and container gardening have over ground gardening is that students can participate more actively because they can access it sitting in their wheelchairs without having to get down on the ground. In addition, you can work with the containers both inside the classroom and outside. Both tables and containers plant in the same way, with seedlings and seeds.

Getting the containers is very easy, in our case, we used plastic fruit boxes. Both containers and tables should be lined with anti-root cloth and filled with a mixture of coir, soil and compost.

The school garden
The school garden

HOW WE WORK THIS ACTIVITY

  1. The first thing we do is prepare the land, remove weeds, pour compost and aerate the land.
  2. Among the whole group-class after seeing different plants, we choose what we will plant.
  3. Finally, the most motivating moment of planting has arrived. At this moment, the whole group of students and professionals participates.
  4. And then there is the work of maintaining, watering the garden and watching the growth of what we have planted.
  5. At the same time, we make identification posters for the different vegetables, look for information on how to take care of them and make scarecrows so that the seagulls don't eat the harvest.
  6. And finally we do the harvest where the whole group-class participates at the same time.

With the work of the garden at school we aim to enhance contact with the earth and plants, and enable activities that can be carried out inside and outside the classroom. Enable a direct and experiential learning framework, and awaken the student's interest in the natural space. This activity helps us reinforce instrumental learning by applying it to reality. On the other hand, the garden activity enhances team work while influencing the autonomy of each student. It promotes socialization and group cohesion.

The garden is a cooperative activity, since all the students participate in it to the extent of their possibilities, and it is thanks to the participation of all that it is possible: those who can plant and take care of it, others water, and others do a more sensory activity such as touching and smelling the different plants.

In addition, school gardens as a form of learning encourage interest in discovering aspects of the environment impacting Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Quality Education. At the same time, we are working on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 13 on Climate Action, using the spaces for creating school gardens as an environmental education tool based on respect for nature. In this way, awareness is also raised about the sustainable development objectives of the 2030 Agenda.

From the Aspace Catalunya Foundation, we have as a central objective to promote a comprehensive transformation of the educational institution through the implementation of sustainable and ecological projects. The institution is committed to creating a more sustainable future and to the comprehensive education of our students, using the garden as one of the main tools to achieve this. Our comprehensive approach and commitment to collaboration reflect our determination to successfully address the challenges of sustainability and the climate emergency.