Junior Certificate Short Course
Food from the ground up
Food: From the Ground Up is a unique program that links students, the consumers of tomorrow, with their food in a fun, easy way. By growing, cooking and marketing their own food, students are brought on a food journey that opens them up to a world of understanding around local, national and international food production. The course also encourages the students to meet and interview local food producers, processors and chefs so they can experience a range of jobs and local food production that bring to light the Irish food and hospitality industry.
Rationale:
Airfield Estate aims to enable and inspire people to make better food choices, and that means better for their health, better for their finances and better for the environment. By participating in this course, the student will be engaging with food and its production from the soil all the way through to its consumption, involving both agricultural, business and culinary practices.
Students will be drawn to the practical nature of this short course at Junior cycle level, which combines key elements of subjects like Business Studies, Home Economics, Science, Biology and Agricultural Science. The course will encourage the student to learn new skills as well as apply practical skills they have experienced in several other subjects at Junior cycle level (Maths, English, Science, Geography, Home Economics, SPHE and Business Studies). Students will participate in growing and creating their own food and in doing so will contribute to their own wellbeing as well as exploring practical and research skillsets.
Strand 1 - Farming and the Land
This strand aims to introduce and build the students’ knowledge and understanding of the basics of crop growth and care. The student will plan and research the crop that they will grow. Students will identify types and varieties of plants and/or animals, establish growth and care regimes, as well as timelines and environmental impact and establish a final objective for the programme. The students will initiate the growing, cultivation and harvest stages of their crop. This will involve learning practical skills around the nurturing of a crop to harvest as well as identification and adjustments to any challenges they face along the way. They will also engage with local farmers to experience agriculture in a live environment.
Strand 2 - Consuming
In this strand, the students will aim to create a food product from their harvested crop. They will experience practical food production skills, as well as become involved in research around the nutritional content and practicalities of using their product. They will also interact and engage with local producers or chefs to experience their food production practices, the business of food production and how it impacts the local, national and global economies.
Strand 3 - Marketing
In this strand, the students will become aware and experience the effect of marketing on themselves and their peers by creating a marketing campaign around their crop and the meal that they have created. They will share their learnings from across the programme and present their work to their peers. The process of collecting and presenting their information is as important as cultivating and creating a food throughout the module.
Teacher Resources
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printed course document
We have a limited number of printed course specification documents available on a first-come, first-served basis. Complete the form to request a file for your class.