Shri Ram and BB&N explore food, glorious food!

Posted: 12 April 2021

Overview

Primary school students from The Shri Ram School, India and Buckingham Browne and Nichols, USA collaborated on a mini project to explore and engage with food. BBN School selected to learn about herbs and TSRS chose carrots. The children exchanged photos, videos, and information with our partner school and were able to explore and learn about growing, harvesting, cooking and understanding nutritional value. There was even the opportunity for a hands on learning with a trip to an organic farm. Families shared traditional recipes to inspire students with new dishes. The students also read stories about carrots and became authors to create stories with carrots as characters.

This project created an over-arching theme for all our learning activities including math, art and crafts. The children took back important skills of collaboration, problem-solving, teamwork, questioning and appreciation of diversity and sustainability.

Details

With the idea of providing experiential learning of the journey of carrot from the ‘Farm to the Plate,’ the project was broken down week wise through the course of 8 weeks and integrated into a different areas of the curriculum. The children embarked on a journey of holistic learning involving the soil, weather conditions, varieties of carrots, nutrition facts, practical hardships of growing, joys and skills of harvesting, consumption of carrots, stories and traditions across cultures, food diversity, commitment to sustainability and involvement of the wider community.

In-class activities: We held class discussions about Round Square, our partner school BBN School, varieties of carrot and their nutritional value. Because of the time difference between our two school, we were unable to chat live; however we made short videos with our students which were then played in class. We used carrots as inspiration to look at the 3D shape cone shape in Math and Art by making a conical shaped carrot. In their English classes, children read carrot themed stories. Students also made their own story booklet with a carrot as one of the main characters. Each class tried different traditional recipes and children were involved in activities such as grating, grinding, chopping, etc.

In-school field: We planted a carrot patch and the school gardener explained the ideal climate, soil and adequate water requirement for growing carrots. Tilling, sowing and observation were all done outside. Children recorded their observations every week.

Lunch Hall at school: A ‘carrot fest’ was celebrated for a week where every child and teacher tried a recipe of carrots.

At home: Parents helped children in making a variety of carrot recipes specific to their region and then brought them to school to share with others.

Field Trip: We took a trip to an organic farm to expose them to the hardship involved in the growth of the crop, variety of crops, irrigation technique, vermicomposting and harvesting.

Challenges

While the journey was very enriching, we did face some challenges along the way. Due to paucity of time and untimely rain, the seeds planted in the school nursery were not able to support the observation of the life cycle of a carrot, however we were able to organize a field trip to a carrot farm to help children understand the entire process.

Due to the difference in time zones between the countries, live engagement and interaction were challenging. To overcome this challenge, we exchanged video recordings to share our ideas and questions.

Impact 

The project had a huge positive impact on the entire school community- children, parents and teachers. Children took back extremely important skills of collaborative learning, problem-solving, teamwork, questioning and appreciation of diversity and sustainability.

Long term outcomes

The long term outcome is awareness about food and appreciation for the complexities involved in getting food from the farm to the table. Creating empathy and understanding the importance of building sustainable systems and the need for protecting the environment for a safer and healthier future. Learning is beyond borders even if the time zone is different, we can still explore ways to collaborate.

We would love to collaborate with more schools and indulge in theme-based learning.

Advice

• Choose a topic that the children have a direct connection with.
• Though different time zone worked out, however, the impact will be far better when the children can communicate one on one.
• Integration with different subjects helps in covering various aspects.
• Activities conducted should show a visible impact or garner a better understanding of their immediate environment.
• Activities should be able to give back to the community at large to inculcate empathy and the ability to have a holistic view.

Author: Ms. Elizabeth Rosenberger (Buckingham Brown & Nichols School)1st and 4th Grade Science Teacher, Ms. Damaneet Chhabra (Buckingham Brown & Nichols School) Academic Coordinator Form I & II