ACTIVITY

From Garden to Market – Part 1

Description: Students understand what they have, what they could sell, and what it will cost.

Intention: Students learn how to turn available garden resources into a simple business idea while understanding basic costs, resource management and value creation.

This is the first Brick of a series of 3;
Part 1 – Plan the business
Part 2 – Price, market & prepare
Part 3 – Market, money & reflection

Before:

Before the lesson:

  • Check which vegetables, herbs or other products are ready to harvest.
  • Prepare a simple garden inventory sheet for students.
  • Collect information about existing materials and ingredients available at school.
  • Prepare a simple cost calculation sheet for each team.
1

Introduction

  • Explain the challenge: “We are going to create a small regenerative school business.”
  • Briefly introduce cost, revenue, profit, supply and demand.
2

Survey the garden

  • Walk through the garden.
  • List what is ready to harvest and estimate quantities.
  • Discuss: What resources do we have? What can we realistically produce?
3

Decide what to sell

  • Teams choose products.
  • Decide whether to sell vegetables directly or make simple value-added products.
4

Calculate costs

  • Seeds/materials
  • Jars/bags/labels
  • Extra ingredients
  • Other production costs

Didactic tips:

  • Keep it concrete: Use real vegetables, materials and prices wherever possible.
  • Let students make the decisions: Guide them with questions rather than choosing the products for them.
  • Start simple: Encourage simple products that can realistically be produced with the available resources.
  • Make costs visible: Let students physically identify what is needed to make each product and connect each item to a cost.
  • Ask guiding questions: What do we have? What do we need? What could we make? What will it cost?
  • Connect to the bigger picture: Highlight how using local resources and reinvesting profits can support the school garden and community.
GreenComp: 4.2 Collective action, 2.1 Systems thinking, 4.3 Individual initiative
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Investigate
THEME:
Nature & biodiversity, Food & beverage
TIME: 45 minutes
AGE: 10-12 years, 13-15 years

SUBJECTS:

  • Nature sciences
  • Mathematics
  • Home economics

TOOLS / MATERIALS:

  • Garden inventory sheets or notebooks
  • Pencils/pens
  • Clipboards, if available
  • Harvest baskets or containers
  • Scales or measuring tools, if available
  • Calculator
  • Cost calculation worksheets
  • Information about prices of seeds, ingredients, packaging, jars, labels, etc.
  • Examples/photos of possible products
  • Access to the garden

METHODS:

    RESOURCES: