entertainmentenviorment

Visits and activities for children return to Porto’s educational gardens

The Environmental Education Centers are once again carrying out activities and receiving visits in the educational garden.

The resumption of activity in the pedagogical garden of the Rural Center of Parque da Cidade and Quinta do Covelo, after the closure period that these spaces were forced by the pandemic, is registering a very significant participation, which demonstrates the increased interest in this type of activity. During the month of June alone, more than 1000 participants visited the two locations, in 69 sessions provided by the Porto Environment Team, exclusively outdoors.

The Pedagogical Garden workshop, included in the Environmental Education Program of Porto, is an activity sought after by teachers and educators, due to the connections it allows to establish the curricular contents of the various academic years. Because it takes place in an urban environment, and in the current context of the pandemic, it is, for many of the participants, the only opportunity for contact with nature. It is also a fundamental pillar of environmental education, namely with regard to healthy eating, sustainable development and organic circularity.

To ensure safety and respect for sanitary standards, the Porto Environment team reorganized the distribution of the vegetable garden to prevent groups from different institutions from crossing paths with other participants, ensuring a maximum number of 12 participants and the necessary social distance.

In this return to activities in the pedagogical garden, the sessions included a theoretical framework component, on the daily work carried out by the gardeners and technicians at the site – which never stopped during the period when children and young people and other interested parties were not present, thus maintaining the productive space and in good condition.

The most explanatory session took place during a visit to the garden space, where participants had the opportunity to recognize and identify the different cultures. In a more practical session, the children were able to develop horticultural activities through sowing, preparing the land, following the growth and maturation of the plants and learning about homemade composting and vermicomposting techniques. Putting your hands on the ground, feeling the different textures of the harvested vegetables, feeding the chickens and collecting eggs were moments of learning and great joy.

The Environmental Education Centers team, during the period of confinement caused by Covid-19, had to reinvent itself and created the Virtual Environmental Education Program, which already has more than 70 episodes, to watch on the YouTube channel of Portal de Notícias Porto.

This summer, the cycle “Oficinas do Invisível” has also been held, which has already had the participation of around 100 children. See more information about upcoming activities and registrations here.

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