LAA201 Urban Agriculture in Practice

Credits (ECTS):5

Course responsible:Ingrid Merete Ødegård

Campus / Online:Taught campus Ås

Teaching language:Norsk

Limits of class size:max 25 participants

Course frequency:Every year

Nominal workload:Approximately 125 hours of work are calculated in total, mainly practical work outside. Planning, logging and report writing are estimated at 20% of working hours.

Teaching and exam period:The course starts short in the spring parallel. Starting out about June 1. Lasts the entire growing season until mid-October. Review with the report is presented orally in mid-November.

About this course

The course includes practice-based learning in urban agriculture. The course runs throughout the growing season from May to October and is based on student-active learning and independent work and practical collaboration with fellow students. Start with introduction to the course in the first week of May (digital). The students must set up a plan for what they want to cultivate in their own cultivation field / plot, approx. 5-6m2. The plan must be approved by the teacher before starting out around 1 June. The teaching will take place out in the Student Gardens as practical demonstrations, tips / advice and guidance in the field. Gathering once a week, except July. June will be the most intense month with the preparation and preparation of cultivation Fields, then sowing / planting and watering. The students must jointly be responsible for organizing rosters for entire growing season (including July). Weed weeding and irrigation as well as inspection of the fields (including common areas) will be the main job in July and August, as well as some harvesting. Harvesting will last until mid-October. Cleaning up and getting ready for next season is also an important part of the course. NMBU is the University of Sustainability and Studenthagene will mainly be cultivated according to sustainable ecological principles without the addition of artificial fertilizers, and completely without chemical pesticides and with a large degree of recycling and reuse of materials. Social sustainability is also important through collaboration, learning from each other, and sharing both work and crops. The course ends with an autumn thanksgiving party with a long table out in October where we enjoy the field's crop / this year's crop. Students write a report with logs and reflections from the entire growing season. Submission and review with examiner in the first half of November. The purpose of the course is for the student to acquire relevant practice experience outside ordinary study everyday life and apply theory in practice by using reflection as a tool to develop new understanding through learning-by-doing and reflecting in close connection between theory and practice. The learning will be based on theory, practice and reflection where the focus is on growing edible plants, as well as combinations with ornamental plants.

The students will be responsible for the Student Gardens in Uraksen at all times emerges as representative.

The course requires a large degree of own initiative from the students - but the teachers can be consulted.

Learning outcome

Knowledge: You must acquire basic knowledge of:

•Planning of own cultivation field for annual crops (both ornamental and useful), preparations, implementation of sowing / planting, establishment and harvesting. • Know key concepts in outdoor plant cultivation. • Use of different tools adapted to different activities • Experience in operation and maintenance of common areas with summer flowers and / or perennial plants such as fruit and berry plants etc. • Operation of cultivation fields • Harvesting of plants, when are the individual species ready for harvest. What a crop can be. • Post-work / clean-up related to cultivation.• To participate in social community and cooperation on common goals. • Reflection and analysis to acquire an understanding of various tasks and challenges that lie in practical cultivation through logging along the way and report writing at the end.

Skills: You will acquire basic skills in: • Planning, facilitation and cultivation, harvesting and clean-up in practice. • See the need for cooperation, sharing of experiences and division of labor of eg irrigation. • To write a log and use these together with subject-relevant theory to design issues related to the work tasks and be able to discuss these. • To carry out systematic and professionally justified reflection of work operations that you perform.

General competence: You must acquire basic competence in: • What Urban Agriculture in practice entails • Practice-based learning • Ordinary work operations related to practical cultivation and challenges associated with them • To work independently and to participate in collaborative processes as a team member and contribute with problem solving in practical cultivation.

  • The course is based on their own efforts at problem-based learning - there are only a few introductory lectures, but we will find time each week in the startup and approximately every two weeks later, with the exception of July, as we meet in the student gardens. Then the students get advice and help. Otherwise, students are expected to read up on their own plants (4-10 species), how they should be grown and describes this in the report.
  • Canvas, guidance of various teachers in the field of cultivation, through collaboration with fellow students
  • Students should have a minimum of one year of study at the university.
  • Folder evaluation: Practical presence, activity and involvement in the student gardens + reflection report. Pass / Fail.
  • External examiners approves the plan for the course.
  • Prepare a plant plan Follow up your own plot and common area - incl. Completion and clean-up. Attend a the joint gatherings out in the field at the start up and minimum two more. Keep a work log and write a reflection report included the log (10-20 A4 pages in total). Participate in a joint gathering for presentation and discussion of the reports as a conclusion to the course. Details appear in the semester plan. When repeating the course, the course must be taken again in its entirety, including compulsory activity.
  • 15 hours. Meetings weekly in the Student Gardens for questions, demonstrations and guidance, with the exception of July.
  • The course is reserved for students on a master's degree in urban agriculture (M-UA) and students from ILA / PV and others if there are vacancies
  • None
  • Passed / Not Passed
  • GSK