Did you know that children can gain valuable knowledge about the Mediterranean ecosystem through contact with nature? That is exactly what we enabled for the 6th-grade pupils of Koper Primary School as part of the MEDS GARDEN+ project, co-financed by the European Union under the Interreg VI-A Italy–Slovenia Programme.
What did we do?
- Guided tour and introduction to greenhouses: the children visited the rainwater collection system used for watering the plants, stopped by the orchard, and learned how to graft trees. Together we discovered how greenhouses work and how to care for
plants. - Transplanting and sowing plants: they tried out gardening skills by sowing seeds and transplanting tomato and basil seedlings. The sowing and transplanting workshops were led by Slavica Debelak, an expert from KZ Agraria Koper.
- Creating plant markers: each pupil made their own unique label for their plants.
- Searching for hidden animals in the garden: they became green explorers and learned about the role of different animals in the ecosystem, identifying which are beneficial and which are harmful.
- Experiential learning through play: the children got to know Mediterranean plants through smell and tried to guess which plant they were smelling.
The children participated in all activities with great interest and gained useful knowledge for their home gardens.
Smiling and full of impressions
The most beautiful part at the end of the day were the children’s smiles and their sincere curiosity. Once again, nature proved to be a wonderful teacher. With the help of experiential learning, the pupils gained new knowledge about the Mediterranean ecosystem, learned gardening skills, and developed respect for the nature that surrounds them.
