Showing posts with label Learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Learning. Show all posts

Tuesday, 8 March 2016

Farming Preschool Teaches Kids How to Grow Their Own Food

From Sara Barnes at My Modern Met

"In the age of convenience—instant digital technology and fast food—it can be hard for kids to feel connected to nature and to what they eat. With this in mind, Rome-based designers Edoardo Capuzzo Dolcetta, Gabriele Capobianco, Davide Troiana, and Jonathan Lazar have created an innovative way to introduce children to the outdoor environment. Their proposal—which recently won the AWR International Ideas Competition—is called Nursery Fields Forever, and it combines urban farming with a preschool education.


Nursery Fields Forever offers three approaches to learning: from nature; from technique; and from practice. Children will be taught to grow and harvest their own food, as well as interact with animals. These tasks, though small ones, can have a positive effect on kids' everyday lives. The hands-on method instills valuable social skills, teamwork, and promotes a healthy lifestyle from a young age. At the same time, students will also learn about the benefits of renewable energy—including wind turbines and solar arrays—that keep the school running.
“We think that kids should enjoy nature,” Dolcetta told Fast Company. “So we designed this strange school: No classrooms, but open spaces where vegetables grow inside and animals can come in too. It’s a mixing of the two things, school and nature.” With this model, children are engaged in learning that will inspire them to think differently. "A typical school has desks and chairs—in our school, there are not these things. And there's the freedom to stay inside or go outside."





Wednesday, 22 July 2015

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind


From ultrafacts.tumblr.com:
William had a dream of bringing electricity and running water to his village. And he was not prepared to wait for politicians or aid groups to do it for him. The need for action was even greater in 2002 following one of Malawi’s worst droughts, which killed thousands of people and left his family on the brink of starvation.

Unable to attend school, he kept up his education by using a local library. Fascinated by science, his life changed one day when he picked up a tattered textbook and saw a picture of a windmill. Mr Kamkwamba told the BBC News website: “I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water.

“I thought: ‘That could be a defense against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself’.” When not helping his family farm maize, he plugged away at his prototype, working by the light of a paraffin lamp in the evenings. But his ingenious project met blank looks in his community of about 200 people.

“Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy,” he recalls. “They had never seen a windmill before.” [x]

In 2014, William Kamkwamba received his 4 year degree at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire where he was a student.


The Iceberg Illusion