FoodSHIFT Pathways
https://www.foodshift-pathways.eu
Empowering educational communities with learning resources to change the food system
The Challenge
Provide the educational community with learning materials that encourage and promote different paths towards innovative solutions based on STEAM education and “learning by doing” technologies to transform our food system into a more sustainable one.
Our Solution
Co-creation of digital resources and interactive videos by and for primary and secondary basic education teachers. Boosting methodologies inspired by projects such as Remix the School.
Type of Project
Innovation funded by European Union’s Erasmus+ programme under Grant Agreement 2022-1-SE01-KA220-SCH-000089962.
Project Outputs/Applied Technologies
6 interactive teaching resources for primary and secondary school teachers aimed at promoting a change in perspective. The materials serve as a catalyst to inspire teachers and students to develop specific basic skills in food waste transformation.
The Project
The current Food System contributes 30% of Europe’s share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 24% from animal-sourced food alone and 6% from food loss and waste. The need for land for crops to feed livestock generates great pressure on land use, biodiversity and water resources. Furthermore, unhealthy diets associated with a high consumption of red meat, sugar and saturated fat are linked to several non-communicable diseases that contribute to more than 70% of all deaths in Europe.
Producing and consuming food in more sustainable and plant-based ways is the most effective way to reduce GHG emissions and will also benefit human health as a consequence. The timing is critical and there is a need for urgent action. From the FoodSHIFT Pathways project we believe that the role of education is essential to increase awareness and empower citizens from the earliest ages towards environmental actions with the greatest impact. However, the approach to the need for change in our food system is loosely integrated into current curricula, leaving between seeing a lack of practical resources for teachers in this specific area and exposing the need for develop didactic material to support teachers in the development of specific skills in the area of sustainability and food sovereignty. Therefore, the objective of the FoodSHIFT Pathways project is to provide educational communities with tools and knowledge that support teachers in their efforts to develop specific skills in future generations that encourage critical, creative thinking and oriented to design solutions about our food system and our eating habits.
FoodSHIFT Pathways is a project that seeks to transfer the knowledge acquired in the Foodshift 2030 sister project to school classrooms and their environment, thus multiplying its impact by involving younger generations and supporting sustainable development goals 4 and 12 by promoting a quality education and by promoting the use of more sustainable consumption and production models. The project will foster a learning ecosystem in which teachers and students find innovative learning experiences through a series of practices enriched with digital resources and interactive videos initially designed by the FoodSHIFT Pathways project consortium that is coordinated by Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and involves five more institutions from Greece (Ellinogermaniki Agogi), Denmark (Carsten Meedom), the Netherlands (SUSMetro), Spain (IAAC) and Portugal (Ciencia Viva) and later enriched by the communities of teachers participating in each of the 6 countries involved.
The generated resources will be treated as case studies focused on different parts of the food system value chain for participating schools to explore, develop innovative projects and activities that support their behavior change towards the food system and, at the same time, increase awareness of the problem in the local communities of these same schools.
Our Contribution
Fab Lab Barcelona has extensive experience in implementing projects with food waste in the formal educational environment using artisanal techniques and digital manufacturing thanks to projects such as Remix El Barrio, Do-It Europe and Siscode and its Remix el Barrio spin-off collective. Now, our efforts are to continue the work in progress by supporting the teaching community with new tools and knowledge especially co-designed to support teachers in their day-to-day teaching efforts. With the aim of developing specific competencies both in teachers but also in the students and future generations that foster critical, creative, and solution-oriented thinking about our food system, eating habits and the food waste problem.
Who is it for?
Teachers/educational staff as well as food system stakeholders, in order to raise awareness and cultivate student sustainability competency, environmental literacy, global awareness and food citizenship.