Sowing seeds of knowledge

It's 10am and Shamma Al Khattal is busy taking care of the tomatoes and turnips that have just sprouted on plants, while Mariam Al Suwaidi is watering the field, as preciously as a mother would feed her baby. There are a few other girls busy harvesting freshly grown pumpkin and cucumber. No, they are not farm girls busy in their routine job. This is a group of pupils who have turned a dump yard in their school into a fertile farm, growing a variety of vegetables. From turnip and radish to eggplant and mustard, you name it and it's all available at Jannati Al Khadra or ‘The Green Paradise', a small backyard farm tilled together by the pupils of Al Ittihad Private School, Al Mamzar. Practical learning method "The yard had been used for junk for a long time and we have been meaning to do something with it. The idea of turning it into a garden had been floating around but when we initiated the project, I never thought it would transform into a flourishing kitchen garden," Momina Ahmad, environmental coordinator and teacher in charge of activities at the school, said. The idea was to not only transform a deserted area into a green patch, but to also involve pupils in a practical learning activity. "The garden is now a live project, giving hands-on knowledge to pupils about how stuff which they eat daily grows and learn to appreciate the effort that goes into it. It also gives them a practical idea of different scientific processes like photosynthesis, germination etc.," Hania Jardaneh, the school principal, said. Jardaneh gives all the credit to a group of girls from the school's Environment Club, who volunteered and took it upon themselves to bring the project to life. Admiring the priced possession in her hand, an eggplant, Mariam, a ninth grader, said: "Taking part in farming was a great experience. It taught us all a lot, not only about the science behind it, but also about how difficult and diligent it is to grow stuff that we normally take for granted." For Aliah Bin Fares, also a ninth grader, it was like taking care of a baby. "Right from day one, I was very curious and excited because I had never seen anything like this before. It was really inspiring to see how life changes from a seed to a plant, then the flowers bloom and then slowly the vegetables sprout. It shows how systematically nature works, it is really wonderful to be a part of this," she said. Admiring nature Apart from major tasks like cleaning the dump-filled yard and laying the soil, most of the other chores such as sowing the seeds, tilling the soil, administering the fertilisers and watering the field were taken care of by the pupils. What is interesting is the fact that it took just over a year to have the farm in full bloom, and the first harvest of most of the varieties has already been reaped. The farm was officially inaugurated on UAE Environment Day, March 6, by the school's director general, Mona Al Jasmi. The garden's harvest is collected and sold among the pupils and staff. The money collected is used for charity. Reap as you sow might be a much clichéd adage, but this group of pupils, with the help of their teachers, has proven that it can indeed be achieved.