A card game which can help identify every plant or tree, mostly used in the local/personal garden, it can be used to learn the local flora and to bring nature closer to children and the less experienced people in gardenig. The game is based on the dichotomous key, it is therefore easy to find the required plant by always deciding between 2 options.
Environmental education, education to sustainable development
Orti Urbani Monte Ciocci
Non Governmental Organisation
2014
Via Domizia Lucilla 40, Zona Balduina-Monte Mario 00136 Rome RM, Italy
The association is called “Orchi Urbani Monte Ciocci» and was born from an intuition of the Monte Ciocci Committee (the neighbourhood committee that made possible, after years of struggle, the opening of the Monte Ciocci Park in 2013).
The main purpose is the creation of a social gathering place, realised through the management and maintenance of an abandoned and degraded area, later transformed into a community garden.
The association, which has been active since 2014, operates in accordance with the regulations of the Municipality of Rome with Resolution no. 38 of 2015, and is authorised by an agreement by the
Department of Environmental Protection – Agriculture and Animal Welfare Directorate. It currently manages an area of 1,600 square metres in the Monte Mario nature reserve.
Today, the association has over 45 members who take care of the 19 available plots.
Over time, the association has grown in the number of members and frequenters of the neighbourhood, and in addition to the cultivation of plants and vegetables, over the years it has developed many municipal and international connections.
The main aim is to show where vegetables, herbs and fruits are really from and how one can recognize them. Most people only know the final product from the supermarket and are not aware of the origin. When school groups visit the garden for educational purposes and spend time there regularly, they see a lot. How can they see even more, how can these new details be memorised in the brain?
How can people be motivated to look more closely? How to organise time in the garden so that they don’t get bored? How can we motivate school groups to arouse interest, create enjoyment and make them want to come back?
Members of the gardening project have tackled this topic and, with great enthusiasm and perseverance, developed and produced a card game and implemented it with school groups and teachers.
The response was great. The effect was surprisingly positive. Active small groups immediately formed to find the solutions in the game. Special attention was paid to exploring the materials (leaves, flowers, tree bark, soil, …) with all the senses: touching, smelling, tasting, moving, the material. The second focus was on how people work together, how they help each other when exploring. In addition, the game was developed in such a way that scientific details were simplified, for example pictures instead of words, and thus geared to the level of the participants.
The use of this game, which was developed using the dichotomous key (an identification system that has proved useful for determining organisms of all kinds), made a big difference when the school groups visited the garden.
The teachers had a clear focus. This meant that the children were immediately introduced to the subject matter. Time is effectively utilised in play. The result is that a lot of knowledge was imparted in a short time and with a lot of fun. By working directly in and with nature, the children’s sensory perception was visibly enhanced. Everyone involved had a great desire to work in the garden again. Furthermore, the dynamic in the group of pupils has developed further. Even outside the garden, i.e. back in everyday school life, the community has changed for the better.
The preparations and the resulting success also enriched our human relationships in the garden. And the desire to adapt the game to other plant species is already being worked on.
For this game, it is important to familiarise yourself with the card contents before the leader works with the group. Otherwise it is easy to confuse the names. Then the sense and fun of the game is no longer given.
It´s not recommended starting this project on your own. A detailed discussion with the garden participants in advance is important, as the various preparations need to be well organised. This concerns which plant species should be researched, as well as who will do the printing and graphics, and many other tasks that will arise during the preparations. Before the final realisation, it is necessary to do a ‘test run’ with competent participants before the school group is actually invited to the garden. In order to change and correct any errors before finalisation.
The objective of the Gardeniser Academy project is to support the development of community gardens in Europe by offering online training contents tailored to the needs and expectations of gardeners all over Europe.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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