In November, Navdanya International launched an ecological education program with first-year classes at the I.C. Bruno Munari middle school in Rome. These workshops, dedicated to discovering soil as the foundation of life, sparked enthusiasm among students and teachers, highlighting the importance of hands-on learning and direct contact with nature.
The soil discovery lab opens with a simple question: “What does soil mean to you?”. The students’ spontaneous and imaginative answers reveal how even very young people grasp the deep connections between earth, life, and the future: for many, soil is “nourishment”, “oxygen”, a “place where plants are born”, or a “home for many living beings”.
From there, the group embarks on a sensory journey through the horizons of the soil. The students look at, smell, and touch different soil samples, noticing textures, colours, and scents. Working in small groups, they rebuild the soil layers in a glass jar, relying on intuition and curiosity. The activity nurtures reasoning and collaboration, turning knowledge into play and shared discovery. In the classroom workshops, review games and cooperative activities help to consolidate what they have learned, turning abstract concepts into lived experiences.
The lab also explores the role of soil in the life of plants and ecosystems. Teachers, actively involved at every stage, accompany the group with enthusiasm, helping to create an atmosphere of trust and open dialogue.
The students then encounter the story of Navdanya and the tradition of the “9 seeds”, a symbol of diversity and regeneration. Each pair plants nine different species in a pot — including wheat, maize, chickpea, and flax — to care for over the following weeks, creating a small “Navdanya garden”, a living laboratory on soil fertility and agricultural biodiversity. Activities on biodiversity also include observing leaves from the same species: the students realise that, just like each leaf, every person is unique. This helps them understand why soil cultivated with many species is “more alive” than land planted with a single crop.
At the end of the activities, each child chooses one word to describe the experience; the most frequent are earth, life, seeds, humus, creativity. Small words that carry a powerful message: the link between caring for the earth and our own existence.
Work on soil and biodiversity is woven together with the theme of the Rights of the Earth: water, clean air, healthy soil, safe habitats, freedom from pollution. Using symbolic materials and simple “maps” of possible solutions, the students imagine everyday actions to protect these rights, from reducing pesticide use to proper waste management.
The approach, based on “natural learning”, confirms its educational value: understanding grows through experience, while intuition, curiosity, and a sense of responsibility are cultivated. It is a concrete step towards a new ecological awareness that begins right under our feet. This approach is also appreciated by teachers, who recognise how practical activities make classroom concepts more immediate and meaningful.
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