Let's feed ourselves, naturally!
During the 2020-2021 school year, the Escolab program launched two pilot projects with the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), the Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Barcelona (UB). Entitled Let's feed ourselves, naturally! and We have an idea, the proposals favored a dialogue between secondary school students and the research center.
Through the activity Let's feed ourselves, naturally!, the fourth-year secondary school students of the Josep Tous Institute faced the challenge of analyzing what exactly it means to eat "natural" food and reflected on the messages we receive about food. The students discovered the most current techniques used in plant breeding, demystifying the fear of transgenics and gene editing. The convenience of these new technologies was the topic chosen for debate in the classroom, which the students later explored in depth, seeking new information and collecting the opinions of family and friends through a survey.
As for Tenemos una idea, CRAG doctoral student Andrés Rico explained his group's research, led by Ana I. Caño-Delgado, to the second-year ESO students at the Institut Bernat Metge. Caño-Delgado. Specifically, the team is working to make plants more resistant to drought, one of the great challenges facing agriculture in order to feed a growing world population in a context of climate change.
After this research-focused session, the students proposed ideas and strategies for dissemination. This Escolab audio recollects the witnesses of Zoila Babot, head of CRAG's Communication Unit, Iban Eduardo Muñoz, researcher at CRAG, and Julio Pérez, professor at the Institut Bernat Metge, where they share the keys to the project's success.