On December 24th an experience harvest camp was held at the NPUST Sustainable Farm. The director of the NPUST Center for Education Extension, Ke-Chung Peng worked together with the principal of Lin-Yun Elementary School and a number of teachers and students to put the activity on.
Following up on a planting event which took place on Sept. 1st (2020), the camp gave the little learners a chance to get back into the field and have some fun being farmers for a day, once again. It was also an opportunity for the university to carry out its commitment to University Social Responsibility.
Director Peng said “it’s been three months since the rice transplanting experience, and now it is harvest season. In addition to giving the young school-goers a chance to get back in the field and experience farming life again, they also had fun make rice cakes and enjoy them together.”
Principal Yu-Cheng Hsu of Lin-Yun Elementary School expressed that “through the one-day farming activity, I hope the students can experience the results of careful farming work. The activity also allows children to understand how to added value to the rice through the making of rice crackers.”
In its third year now, the activity was organized with the support of professional faculty from the Department of Plant Medicine, Department of AgriBusiness Management, and Department of Plant Industry, and resources from the University Social Responsibility Project.
This year, Professor Tzu-Che Lin of the Department of Plant Industry was invited to teach the elementary school students practical rice harvesting skills; and after their hard work in the field, they enjoyed a delicious rice dish prepared locally. With time spent both the field and classroom, it was a great learning experience for the children, who got a feel for farming and food production – getting their hands dirty, their minds stimulated, and their stomachs filled. The camp also taught them to cherish the land, appreciate food quality, and understand the environment –and get a real feel for the hard work that the food production process involves.
By teaching and passing down knowledge to elementary-schoolers, college students not only had the opportunity to enhance their own practical skills in the field, but they also were able to give back to the local community by enriching the children with knowledge and helping them to understand more about the agricultural development processes. Through the experience farming activity, with separate installments for planting and harvest, NPUST demonstrated its commitment to caring for the local community, supporting food production workers and establishing good farming practices.