【IM Course】 High School Students Conducted Outreach Lessons for Elementary School Students
Third-year students from our school's IM Course visited Narayama Elementary School in Nara City to conduct an outreach lesson on the theme of "Non-Standard Vegetables" for sixth-grade students.
In the IM Course, students engage in Global Leadership Studies (GLS), a project-based learning program focused on solving real-world problems. Students identify social issues based on their own interests, think independently about possible solutions, and take concrete action to address them.
This outreach lesson was planned by students who have been focusing their activities on the issue of non-standard vegetables—vegetables that do not meet commercial standards for size, shape, or appearance. With the cooperation of Harada Farm, which has continuously supported their activities, the students brought actual non-standard eggplants to the school and encouraged the elementary school students to explore the issue together.
"What are non-standard vegetables?" "Why are vegetables that are still perfectly edible thrown away?" "What can we do to prevent non-standard vegetables from going to waste?" To explain these questions in a way that elementary school students could easily understand and to create opportunities for meaningful discussion, the high school students carefully prepared and practiced their lesson many times.
On the day of the visit, the warm welcome from the sixth-grade students gradually helped the high school students overcome their nervousness, creating a lively lesson filled with smiles. During the lesson, the elementary school students shared insightful opinions and questions, including:
- "Why doesn't the government change the standards for vegetables themselves?"
- "Why not cut non-standard vegetables into pieces and sell them that way?"
- "Could we send these vegetables to people in other countries who are struggling with food shortages?"
Some of these suggestions addressed the root causes of the problem, while others offered entirely new perspectives. The high school students were impressed by the elementary school students' creative and flexible thinking.
In fact, this outreach lesson itself was made possible through the students' proactive efforts. Previously, the students had participated in an event called "Curry Shokudo," where curry made with non-standard vegetables was served. At that event, they happened to meet a teacher from Narayama Elementary School. This encounter eventually led to the opportunity to conduct the outreach lesson.
One action leads to a new encounter, and that encounter inspires the next action. Through this experience, the students gained a deeper appreciation of the importance of taking action to address social issues and the value of building connections with others.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Harada Farm for its generous cooperation, as well as to the teachers and sixth-grade students of Narayama Elementary School in Nara City for their warm welcome. Thank you very much for making this meaningful experience possible.
