The pedagogical project of the gardens and the school farms of the EDALNU Program and its antecedents (1958-1972)

Seminar by María Tormo Santamaría

Dietitian-Nutritionist, Master in Public Health and contracted pre-doctoral Department of Community Nursing, Preventive Medicine and Public Health and History of Science, University of Alacant.

The work analyzes the historical background of the orchards and the school farms promoted by the Agricultural Extension Service in its formative and informative activities in the 1950s; as well as the continuity that they had as educational units developed in the Education Program in Food and Nutrition (EDALNU) that was launched in 1961. The implementation of the orchards and farms helped to promote the local production of protective foods, in addition to improving eating habits at school and family level. The application of the methodology of "learning by doing" fostered both learning by discovery, as well as problem-based learning and service learning. In line with the historiographic current of the present time and the uses of the past, the integrative vision of the EDALNU Program, in which the school, the environment and the family were interconnected, can serve as an example for current education strategies in food and nutrition .

IHMC.