Project overview
How can we help young people gain a better understanding of the challenges facing sustainable agriculture, whilst developing their critical thinking skills and their ability to make informed decisions? This is the aim of the ‘Sustainable Agriculture as an Educational Laboratory’ project, led by AFPER.
This project aims to design, trial and roll out an innovative national educational programme based on education through research. Aimed at secondary school pupils, it will enable them to explore key agricultural and environmental issues through an active approach inspired by scientific methods.
Inquiry-based learning
The programme is based on the practical study of agroecosystems and will cover several key themes:
- Soil fertility;
- Functional biodiversity;
- Water management;
- Agroecological practices;
- Decision-making in conditions of uncertainty.
The aim is to enable students to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms at work in sustainable agricultural systems, whilst developing their analytical and critical thinking skills.
Innovative teaching tools
The project involves the creation of several teaching resources:
- Three educational challenges that can be rolled out nationwide;
- A workshop designed to encourage action;
- A mini-MOOC for teacher training;
- A comprehensive teaching pack to facilitate the replication of the programme.
These tools will first be piloted within agricultural education before being rolled out more widely across secondary schools.
A collaborative project
The project involves a number of academic and educational partners, including:
- INRAE, through various research teams specialising in agroecology, soils, water and behavioural sciences;
- Several pilot agricultural education institutions, including Horti-Pôle Évreux and EPLEFPA Limoges-Magnac-Laval-Bellac
- Stakeholders from the agricultural sector committed to training and knowledge transfer.
Expected impact
By bringing together the worlds of research, education and the agricultural sector, this project will help to nurture a new generation of citizens capable of understanding the complexity of agricultural and environmental transitions and of playing an informed part in them.