A ‘focus on food and drink’ is one of the suggested “doorways to Education for Sustainable Development at school” (Mathar, 2015). We provide interactive learning modules for lower secon-dary school students age 12 to 15, related to learning objectives required in the new curriculum for Swiss primary and secondary schools ‘Lehrplan 21’ (Table 1). Our proposed activities are drawing on participatory formats:

• World café breakfast: Here - Far away - 100 years from now• Food workshops: Outdoor cooking stations• Data collection workshops: What does a crop plant need?• Rich pictures: Visualization of food value chains• Quiz game with clickers: Show of knowledge • Visual feedback: Dance your questions

Agroecosystems are the basis of all food value chains and thus food and nutrition security. For this outreach program we focus on showcasing tropical and subtropical agricultural production systems and global food value chains of two major food com-modities, rice and cacao. The program will help teenagers to better understand their role as consumers and food system actors. Our overall project goal is to facilitate dialogue on research for sustainable food systems between teenagers, teachers, agricultural science students and scientists as a contribution to Education for Sustainable Development. We hope to make the following impacts:1. Improve student’s understanding in regard to food sys-

tems, nutrition and agriculture.

2. Enhance student’s reflection of own consumption patterns.

3. Challenge students to voice own ideas, feelings and new knowledge in regard to food systems, nutrition and agriculture.

4. Enrich the curriculum with hands-on experiences.

Table 1: Project-related learning objectives in the curriculum for Swiss primary and secondary schools, ‘Lehrplan 21’. All five objectives are desi-gnated as part of ‘interdisciplinary topics for the guiding principle of sus-tainable development’ (D-EDK, 2015).

Hands-on learning for sustainability in agroecosystems

Link to school curriculum Objectives

Figure 1: The learning environment for this outreach project is a unique greenhouse in walking distance of the ETH Zurich main building. It used to be a research greenhouse and is now dedicated to education.

Project team: Dr. Anett Hofmann (Group Sustainable Agroecosystems), Dr. Anna K. Gilgen (World Food System Center), Martina Carrel, Simon Treier, Prof. Johan Six (Group Sustainable Agroecosystems), Florence Diserens (March - August 2017)Financial support: SNSF Agora Program, World Food System Center - Mercator ProgramProject duration: 2016-2018Contact: anett.hofmann@usys.ethz.ch

Learning activities