Generation Climate
Empowering young people for future food systems transformation
Food systems change requires engagement, mobilization and learning among citizens. And it all starts at young age – at school. Young people are key to our common future and are a potential source to new ideas and creative solutions. Youth is the period in life where dreams start and adolescence and school is where leadership, creativity, entrepreneurial mindsets and worklife possibilities are created. At the Generation Climate training course we set out to gather practitioners, researchers – and pupils from schools to demonstrate new formats for how learning about food systems change can take place in a busy school environment. We draw on the rich tradition of the SESAM and SELEA and the Young Minds Foodlab (YouMiLa.dk) concepts and programs. We take the idea of Education for Sustainable Food Development (ESfD) as the point of departure, we use the concept of Project Based Learning (PBL) and Citizen Science in the Classroom to create a 2nd generation food education and food literacy training at school. An approach that brings in mentors and researchers from academia and businesses to create a Science2School cooperation that activates the classes of the STEM subjects, Home Economics and Computational Thinking.
The 2 course was a combo of conceptual and theoretical lectures and hands-on experience with engaged and experienced science teachers and their classes. Our teachers and pupils that have all worked with engineering and building of installations, mock-ups, innovations and workshops related to food, science and the digital. The course had attracted participants from across the world and had been organize by the University of Copenhagen, Dept of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, UCPH-Science, School services in cooperation with Lund University as part of the SELEA21 International Network Program.
The list of speakers included experts, professors and practitioners from EIT Youth Food Mission, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at University of Copenhagen, FAO Headquarters Rome, Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC) and the and the Food Faculty at Lund University, School of Nutrition, UniRio, Rio de Janeiro, Center for Digital Education and Department of Computer Science at University of Copenhagen, the University of Copenhagen Science School Outreach, Department Food Science at University of Copenhagen, Lindevang School Food & Computational Thinking Lab and the The Food Waste Living & Learning Lab at Nærheden school as well as the Young Minds Foodlab and GS1 Denmark. The organizers agreed to develop a new version of the course to be held in 2023.
PROGRAM
DAY 1: Opening session:
Welcome. Why young peoples engagement in foods system transformation is essential.
Our Food, Our Food System strategies and implementation for the EIT Youth Food Mission – Vivien Bodereau, EIT Food Youth Mission
The Young Peoples climate mobilization – a new transformative power in society? Insights from Project Planning with Youth. Natalie Marie Gulsrud, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management
The FAO*UNICEF Education Teachers Lab – How teachers can revolutionize food education in schools: Melissa Vargas Araya, Nutrition Consultant at FAO Headquarters, Rome
Is the future of food systems digital? And where does the school fit in?
The UFO’s in your fridge, Using Computational Thinking to explore food waste and climate with 7th grade students. Daniel Spikol and Sadegh Talebi, Center for Digital Education and Department of Computer Science, UCPH, tbc
Pupils as future innovators – bridging the gap between school and society with hands on learning. Torben Ingerslev Roug, Teacher and coordinator of UCPH Science Outreach
Green Not Grey – how the Future Food project attracts more young people for a career in the food system, Marie-Louise Boisen Lendal co-founder and Director Think Tank Frej
A food systems overview for school kids – all on the same dashboard? Mukti Ram Chapagain.
Independent AI & Food researcher/Dept of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen
The Young Minds Foodlab experience as a short cut to Science Literacy – first insights from Horizon SESAM program. Bent Egberg Mikkelsen
Empowering young people for food systems transformation the Brazilian Way – insights from SELEA21. Alessandra Peireira, Professor, School of Nutrition, UniRio, Rio de Janeiro; TBC
Social cooking & dinner at the KU Food Lab and in UCPH Science Outreach Lab
DAY 2: HANDS ON PROJECT & PRACTICE DAY
Four Young Mind Foodlab Workshops each 1½ hour. Hosted each by a teacher and a crew of pupils. Each workshop is with an opening presentation, Q&A session followed by a hands on building & construction workshop where you as a participant get the chance to try out the activity your self.
1. Plant Based Food Strategies for pupils – how to teach microcomputers, sensors,
computational thinking and food at the same time Lis Zacho, Math teacher at Lindevang
School and Coding Pirates coordinator and Torben Ingerslev Roug, teacher and coordinator at UCPH-Science, School Outreach
2. Food Waste or NoWaste. How food waste literacy training with a digital touch can be taken into learning reality in middle school, Kirsten Vestergaard Hansen, The Food Waste Living & Learning Lab at Nærheden school.
3. Build your own classroom Vertical Farming Unit and learn how biosignals and sensors can be used to establish biological self regulation. Mukti Chapagain. Research assistant UCPHIGN/DI-KU.
Group Work. Students course assignment.
Each group present their Project Idea in the plenary session and get feed back from a panel of teachers and researchers
Contact
Bent Egbjerg Mikkelsen, Professor; Urban Food Systems Transformation, UCPH
bemi@ign.ku.dk
Henrik Søndergaard, Project manager at Department of Food Technology, Engineering and Nutrition, Lund University
henrik.sondergaard@food.lth.se