Articles
La Ruota degli Orti – the wheel of the garden
Article number
1459_6
Pages
532 – 60
Language
English
Abstract
The therapeutic horticultural project La Ruota Degli Orti (the garden wheel) is currently carried out in 64 institutes and primary schools in the Emilia Romagna Region in Italy, promoted and financed by the 2072 Rotary District, with the patronage of Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna Region, and with the financial collaboration of Banca del Monte Foundation.
The project, which owes its name to the toothed wheel symbol of Rotary International, is born from the analysis of the needs of our communities in the context of educating the young generations to improve their relationship with nature and develop healthy social skills through the use of horticultural activities at school, especially in those classes where there are children with special needs or social fragility, to prevent or address peer-to-peer issues.
The project consists of two essential components: the donation to schools of all the material necessary to build and cultivate a raised bed, including soil, drainage materials, plants and garden tools and the creation of a web App, designed to provide horticultural advice and information to the children taking part in the project, so using their tablets or smartphones, they can better develop each step of the horticultural activities and, at the same time, through the App they can share with other participants pictures and comments related to their experience in the garden.
It is our belief that providing positive data on the results obtained will encourage the school managers to promote the continuation of the project in future years.
What drives the project is the belief that it could inspire a change in the traditional school system that sees the birth of many vegetable gardens in schools as a symbol of harmony and ways of integration.
The project, which owes its name to the toothed wheel symbol of Rotary International, is born from the analysis of the needs of our communities in the context of educating the young generations to improve their relationship with nature and develop healthy social skills through the use of horticultural activities at school, especially in those classes where there are children with special needs or social fragility, to prevent or address peer-to-peer issues.
The project consists of two essential components: the donation to schools of all the material necessary to build and cultivate a raised bed, including soil, drainage materials, plants and garden tools and the creation of a web App, designed to provide horticultural advice and information to the children taking part in the project, so using their tablets or smartphones, they can better develop each step of the horticultural activities and, at the same time, through the App they can share with other participants pictures and comments related to their experience in the garden.
It is our belief that providing positive data on the results obtained will encourage the school managers to promote the continuation of the project in future years.
What drives the project is the belief that it could inspire a change in the traditional school system that sees the birth of many vegetable gardens in schools as a symbol of harmony and ways of integration.
Publication
Authors
A. Balducci
Keywords
therapeutic-horticulture, webb-app, children, school, education, social awareness, integration
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