A school garden is a great place to learn through hands-on experience! With this in mind, the Mindeltal Schools aim to integrate their previously unused outdoor space into their daily operations. In particular, the goal is to create opportunities to educate students in the field of environmental education. In collaboration with the Landschaftspflegeverband Günzburg e.V. and our local contact there, Jakob Nagengast, a plan has been developed that is set to be implemented during the current school year.
The site was divided into three "zones" to accommodate the expanded needs:
- Areas for intensive use in general school operations: playground, sports facilities, outdoor classroom, recreation & play
- School garden: Areas used for intensive crop cultivation > Growing our own food (Curriculum topics: sustainable food supply, raising chickens (organic livestock farming), agriculture, etc.)
- Areas used extensively or left undeveloped for: (Curriculum topics: Ecology, species and nature conservation, cultural landscape, biotopes (ponds, deadwood, etc.)
To ensure that students not only benefit educationally from the new garden but can also taste the fruits of their labor—grown using purely organic methods—the garden’s produce will be fully integrated into the school’s meal plan and home economics curriculum.
The garden should be designed primarily to enhance the school’s curriculum. However, it should also be possible to use the educational garden for extracurricular events and to create quiet corners and relaxation areas for students and teachers.
