Ajman: British International School (BIS) in Ajman celebrated its first Harvest Festival of 2018 on Sunday, where students of Year 5 and 6 picked a harvest of organic vegetables from the school greenhouse.
Young boys and girls chose and picked ripe tomatoes and brinjal (aubergine) on their own campus to set up a stall to sell the fruit of their labour in decorated baskets.
The shopping bags were specially designed for the purpose and were made out of recycled newspaper. The festival saw about 40kg of fresh organic vegetables harvested.
The festival offered the students an opportunity to make cross-curricular learning possible, the school said. The subjects of art, science, environment studies, maths were all incorporated in the “hands-on learning process”.
In the art classroom, pupils designed and made carry bags out of old newspapers. In science, they learnt about plants and agriculture. In maths, they learnt about the weighing and pricing of produce. Besides the academics, the school added, students also acquired social skills of dealing with people and convincing them to purchase, which is a real-life exposure to persuasive language skills.
Nikhat, the academic director, said the festival “not only energised the spirit of students but also uplifted the feeling of accomplishment from their own labour when the harvested vegetables were sold to parents and teachers”.
The school has won ‘Best institution 2017’ under the “Grow Your Food” initiative by Dubai Municipality.
As a part of the CSR activity, BIS has formed a green garden project on the campus, which is designated for Foundation Stage one to sixth grade, with plans to expand the project on the second campus, accommodating seventh grade to A level.
The project allows the student to experience and learn seed harvesting, soil maintenance, water conservation, crop tending and rotation, harvesting of produce and the selling process of the vegetables.
The vegetables currently grown in the school garden are maize, cabbage, tomatoes, brinjal, green chillies and strawberries. BIS has extended its garden projects into different types of gardens, such as herbal garden, butterfly garden, reading garden, Reuse Park and aquatic garden.
