The results from a farm assessment using the farm management tool www.farmlife.at are groundbreaking on the path to site-appropriate, sustainable agriculture in Austria and offer society a clear signal for environmentally friendly food consumption.
The goal of the project "Integration of the Eco-Efficiency Tool FarmLife into the Agricultural Education Landscape of Austria" (FarmEdu) was therefore to implement the FarmLife tool and the associated didactic concept within the Austrian agricultural education system. A pedagogical concept already existed from the direct predecessor project, FarmLife II. The project aimed to produce a FarmLife educational kit containing teaching and information materials, literature, and engaging activities, designed to provide teachers with both digital and physical support for using FarmLife in their lessons. The existing educational materials were thus further enhanced and improved with suggestions for instructive and competency-oriented teaching activities and a special HBLFA itself FarmLife Tactics.
In addition, efforts were made to recruit interested individuals from the agricultural education sector through various events and media. To train teachers accordingly, a two-day "Train the Trainer" seminar was designed, which has been offered twice a year since spring 2019 and can also be scheduled spontaneously as needed. Adapted to current requirements, a seminar was conducted as a webinar at short notice in spring 2020. This allows interested parties located further away to be reached. At the end of the project, each FarmLife-trained teacher and their school received a FarmLife education box – a wooden box containing the self-designed board game including game materials, as well as a USB stick with the aforementioned documents, game instructions, FarmLife video, etc.
The project's target group included not only school pupils but also students from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences and the University of Agricultural and Environmental Education, who, as part of the project partnership, were introduced to the FarmLife tool in various courses and, among other things, had the opportunity to write their academic theses using FarmLife. One bachelor's thesis was produced, which deals with a (initially only narrative) evaluation of the FarmLife-related educational offerings. Further bachelor's and master's theses are expected.
The project's results include the interdisciplinary FarmLife education kit – a tangible teaching aid – and a robust professional development program developed by the core project team of the Eco-Efficiency research group at the HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein. This will be complemented by the hopefully sustainable implementation of the FarmLife educational concept in the Austrian states of Carinthia, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Styria, and Tyrol, with an extensive network of teachers who have attended a FarmLife seminar. In total, the FarmLife tool is expected to reach several thousand pupils, students, and thus also agricultural practitioners.
The results of this project provide a stable basis for further didactic development, the expansion and securing of knowledge transfer, and the future establishment of "site-appropriate agriculture" in Austria.
