Hands-on Learning for Teenagers
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A focus on food and drinks is one of the suggested gateways to addressing sustainable development at schools. Our food consumption has global environmental and socio-economic implications, which are hard to grasp in everyday life. What impact do we make exactly if we eat fair trade chocolate or rice that was produced organically? Most adults and teenagers are aware that e.g. the cacao products we consume, are part of a global food value chain that starts in tropical agricultural ecosystems. However, we know little about how cacao is grown and how it could be more sustainably produced.
In our project Edible Research we will offer one-day workshops for teenagers aged 12 to 15 from lower secondary schools in Zurich to open a window to the world of agricultural ecosystems and their tasty products. All workshop contents are related to ongoing agroecosystem research projects and linked to learning objectives in the curriculum for Swiss primary and secondary schools, "Lehrplan 21".
The overall focus of the workshop is to better understand how basic principles of agroecology and organic farming can help to produce food in a more sustainable way. Content development and curriculum integration is supported by participatory teacher workshops.
The learning environment is a unique greenhouse right in the city of Zurich, in walking distance of the ETH main building. If you come by one day and there is some smell of food, this is probably from outdoor cooking during our workshops. Join in to learn about what is on your plate.
Download project flyer (DownloadEnglish (PDF, 4.2 MB))
Projektflyer (DownloadDeutsch (PDF, 3.9 MB))
Into the greenhouse: Making research edible
The Edible Research team welcomed young students into the greenhouse at ETH to learn about crop production systems and value chains and to better understand their role as consumers. Read more
Edible Research visits Schlieren
The SNF Agora project Edible Research is in full swing, with another school visit taking place on 10 January. Read more
Role-playing games as an educational tool
In the framework of the external pageOPAL and Edible Research projects, Manuel Stamm adapted a role-playing game on palm oil for educational purposes and evaluated how well the game worked in a school setting and how it supported student's learning about palm oil and issues related to it. DownloadRead full thesis
Raising awareness of sustainable food choices
Luna Urio developed and evaluated a game for young consumers in her Master Thesis within the Edible Research project. DownloadRead full thesis
external pageLearn more about the project and Luna’s motivation
Delivering role-playing games
The team delivered boxes containing role-playing games based on the palm oil value chain and sustainable food choices to the Zurich University of Teacher Education for use as hands-on teaching materials about sustainable food systems. Read more
Honor for educational role-playing game
Manuel Stamm won third place in German Simulation Game Award for his ETH Zurich bachelor thesis project based on adapting and evaluating the CoPalCam palm oil game. Read more