EW TEACHI G METHODS I THE FACULTY OF ORGA IC AGRICULTURE I THE U IVERSITY KASSEL/ WITZE HAUSE, GERMA Y

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1 EW TEACHI G METHODS I THE FACULTY OF ORGA IC AGRICULTURE I THE U IVERSITY KASSEL/ WITZE HAUSE, GERMA Y Julian Kabus, Annemarie Stopp, Felicitas Walczuch University Kassel, Faculty of Organic Agriculture Witzenhausen, department of Agricultural Engineering Mentor: Dr. Christian Schellert University Kassel, Faculty of Organic Agriculture Witzenhausen, department of Agricultural Engineering ABSTRACT We are students of the University of Kassel in Witzenhausen in the faculty of Agricultural Science. Our report starts with an overview about the study in Witzenhausen showing its contents and structure. Our curriculum includes other teaching methods to be integrated with the lectures, such as multidisciplinary courses, compulsory practical courses and work in project groups. Learning objectives for all courses are increasing scientific knowledge and practical skills, getting to know and use cycles in nature and to think in an interdisciplinary way, to act responsibly, to exercise communicational, pedagogical and organisational skills, and to work scientifically. One of these teaching methods is the project of planning and realizing a labyrinth in a field of maize. On a four to five hectares big field an issue connected to agriculture should be made accessible to the visitors, predominant families with children. So the labyrinth offers two things: both getting lost in the cornfield and learning something about agriculture. The students take responsibility for the whole labyrinth until its opening. The tasks and challenges of the students are to choose the topic, to design and realize the labyrinth and finally to make promotion. A similar project is to plan the restructuring of a conventional farm to an organically managed farm. In both projects the students are free to organize everything on their own and to think about contents and realization. Key words: organic agriculture, maze, students project, education THE FACULTY OF ORGA IC AGRICULTURE I WITZE HAUSE Agricultural education has a long tradition in Witzenhausen. In 1898 a School for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture was founded to train agricultural experts in German colonies before World War I. Since 1971 Witzenhausen has hosted the Faculty

2 of Agronomy, International Rural Development and Environmental Protection, which is part of the University of Kassel. For 20 years Organic Agriculture has been part of the curriculum. Since 1995 the faculty focuses on organic agricultural sciences and has changed its name to the "Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences"; a unique situation worldwide. The faculty is known for its applied, interdisciplinary and open-minded education of students from different countries and cultures. The relatively small number of 600 students, the close proximity of all buildings, the individual contact to the staff and lecturers and the intimate atmosphere of a small town are advantageous factors. Today, the Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences offers a consecutive 6 semester Bachelor- and 4 semester Master programme in Organic Agriculture (German Programme " BSc. / MSc. Ökologische Landwirtschaft"). Futher more the faculty offers a "Dual Education" for combined vocational and higher agricultural education. In addition to the German study programmes the Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences offers two international 4 semester Master programmes in English language: "MSc. Sustainable International Agriculture", "MSc. International Food Business and Consumer Studies". Moreover, students can choose to learn about renewable energies and energy efficiency in the German Masterprogramme: "MSc. Regenerative Energien und Energieeffizienz". The main focus of the study is to impart extensive expert knowledge, which is an essential pre-requisite of sustainable agriculture with regard to different agroecological and economical conditions. The general objective is the development of sitespecific solutions with minimal use of non-renewable resources for the sustainable protection of the food basis of a rapidly expanding world population. These are the main topics we focus on: - maintenance of nutrient cycles, - the reflected use of means in organic agriculture and food production, - balanced relation between productive and non-productive areas such as landscape protection - and the link between agricultural practice, regional market and rural development. Teaching and research are directed towards these topics through elaboration of cause-effect-relationships in system approaches. To address and research these topics practically the Faculty has their own teaching and research farm, the Hessische Staatsdomäne Frankenhausen, a modern teaching, research and transfer centre for organic farming and sustainable regional development with 320 ha of farmland and 36 ha grassland. The farm is not only reserved for university research since it is also a high productive and successful market farm which sells most of its produce. The Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences realises that important aspects of social justice need to be considered and protected to ensure the sustainable safeguarding of food. This has been the basis of our long-lasting international commitment. Therefore, all graduates will, through their course of study, be able to make socially responsible contributions with regard to sustainable agriculture, land use, food production and trade. In order to gain a broad understanding of the field of organic agriculture, an interdisciplinary approach in teaching is very important. Students learn to work in a case-specific and methodical manner. In addition, they acquire key qualifications, such

3 as team work ability, interdisciplinary thinking, and responsibility, enabling them to develop modern and practical solutions to problems. EW TEACHI G METHODS 1. THE MAZE One project offered to the students is the construction of a maze in a field of maize. Every year a small group of students decide to plan the maze and this year it took place for the sixth time. The project is decorated from the UNESCO for sustainable education. It took place in a 4 ha large field of maize on the research farm in Frankenhausen. Because of the crop rotation in the ecological agriculture the field where the maze takes place also changes every year. The student are completely free in planning the project. The only things they have to take into consideration is that they need a topic and that the maze shall be open for visitors who pay for entrance. Through this entrance-fee the maze shall finance itself. Frankenhausen is near to the city of Kassel, so there are many of possible visitors. Planning the TimeGarden As we started we just had 4 ha of maize and no idea what do with it. The most important thing was to find an interesting topic which allows the visitors to learn something about (organic) agriculture. We decided to invite the visitors to a trip through the history of agriculture. In fact, we wanted to show the grain-growing and the animal husbandry from the stone age to the medieval age and in the modern agriculture. A long time we thought about the Name of our maze and finally we decided to name it TimeGarden. The next step was to create a sketch about the ways and the clearings and where they shall be set in the field. The sketch changed many times until the maize was sown. We planed many ways of confusion and twelve clearings. Seven clearings were filled with the historical information in the other ones we placed some extra stuff like a path for bare-footed people, a small look-out tower, a medieval monastery garden, a pirates isle in a big field of hemp and in the centre of the maze was also a big clearing with a ancient loom. All these ways and stations we marked on the sketch and later on we used GPS to realize our sketch in the field of maize. Further we had to think about how to present the topics. Important is that the visit of the maze is exciting and the visitors don t become bored. Especially because we hoped many children would come. To enjoy them we wanted to give them the possibility to try different things on their own and of course in a maze they also should lose their ways. That means we had much to think about how to construct the informationboards that they are not boring. As result we realize several points of action, for example got every visitor an admission ticket and a bag filled with chaff and wheat which they should winnow and sift if they find the right clearing. Printed on the ticked were the names of all clearings, but not the positions, and in the clearings were stamps so the visitors could check if they found every clearing. Another construct was a puzzle and a riddle where they got to find the right answers of several questions. Very exiting was the

4 big loom in the middle of the labyrinth where the visitors could weave a patch-work carpet with natural materials. But the people need to know what adventure waits for them in the TimeGarden, so we had to organise publicity, it means we printed flyers and posters and invited and informed the local press. Problems of realization The time was the biggest problem. We had enough time but the difficulty was to plan how long we need for single steps of our planning. As we realized our plans we often had to change something and to think about how we could do things better. We needed a good timetable and to plan when we could do which works, especially because we could not start to bring our installations in the maze until the cultivation wasn t completely done. And of course the field was 4 ha large, so it took much time to carry everything inside and to mill all of the ways. Another problem was the weather, in the beginning the temperature was in a very long time low, so the plants did not start to grow and after there was no rain for a long time. We were afraid that the maize would not be high enough at the opening, but the all of plants have been well grown so the maze had a good start. 2. CO VERTI G A CO VE TIO AL FARM TO A ECOLOGICAL Another project which the students can join is to convert an existing conventional farm to an ecological farm. The result of the project is a concept for a complete ecological farm which can be very different from the original farm. The project takes two semesters and nearly ten students work on it. Every semester several farmers who think about ecological farming present their conventional farms to the students so they can chose which of the presented farms they find interesting to convert. After deciding for a farm the second step was a trip to the farm to have a detailed look on it. There we also wanted to get familiar with the farmer, because a good communication between each other is very important. We also needed to know if he has some preferences or if he want something at no costs for his converted farm. We also had to take into consideration if he always started a change of his original farm which we had to keep or if we are completely free in planning the new farm. We also needed to see the documents and dates of his farm so we could get a concrete knowledge of the condition and finances of it. Further we got a short look on the environment what could be important for the planning. It was much more work to do before we can start the planning of the new farm. We needed to have a detailed look at the crop rotation and to see if it is good. We also had to look at the economics of everything, of every fruit of the earth and every single animal. Further, also the available capacity for work the situation of the family and the rental of the fields was important to know. Shortly every detail of the actual situation got to be recognized. The second part of the project consists in the planning of the new farm. The aim was not just to convert the actual farm to ecological but to create and find new fruits to cultivate or a further work up of products and of course also to think about new ways of selling them.

5 During the whole process we permanently spoke with the farmer to get familiar with his ideas and desires about the new farm. We used information from literature but also the help of the professors of our faculty. We had got a whole year until the concept has to be finished. In the end we presented our concept to the farmer, the professors and interested students.