EIT Food collaborate with Glasgow Science Centre to educate children about sustainable food production

During October 2022, EIT Food collaborated with Glasgow Science Centre to deliver a series of workshops to encourage children to learn about how food is made and where it comes from. EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. Glasgow Science Centre is a charity and one of Scotland’s most successful visitor attractions with five-star Visit Scotland accreditation. The centre attracts over 330,000 visitors to its exhibitions and events each year and regularly takes its science activity on tour across Scotland.

In recent years Glasgow Science Centre has diversified its programming to attract a wider range of visitor groups through community engagement and learning programmes, adult only events and tie-ins with broader cultural programming in Glasgow. Glasgow Science Centre was voted 'Glasgow's Favourite Business' at the Glasgow Business Awards 2022.

The workshops were open to everyone visiting Glasgow Science Centre across a 14-day period in October. Each activity was designed to help children to improve their knowledge of food production and to develop their science and problem-solving skills. Activities included:

• Under the microscope: children could look at soil samples and seed species under a microscope to understand their different structures.
• Protein trump cards: children could compare sustainable and unsustainable sources of protein against factors such as land use, water use and CO₂ emissions.
• Meet the food production expert: children could meet experts working on food technology solutions for the agrifood industry.

Glasgow Science Centre and EIT Food also offered bespoke workshops to local community groups in Glasgow. These were designed to approach the topic of food in a safe environment and in an accessible way. The community groups took part in many of the same activities as the general public along with some adapted activities with the additional support of the Community Learning Team. Many of our communities have taken part in climate science and sustainability themed learning with us and were keen to link this to the topic of food.

One participant said, "Before this workshop, I would've never even of thought about how much protein or how much CO₂ our food produces. It's very interesting".

Partners and startups across EIT Food’s community hosted activities during the ‘future of food’ workshops, to enable children to explore food innovation first-hand. Children could meet food technology experts and be inspired to uptake a career in food science when they grow up.

During the workshops, The Scottish Association for Marine Science educated children about edible and farmed seaweeds, to raise awareness of using seaweed as a food source and feed ingredient. Children were able to learn able a seaweed life cycle and also handle live seaweed, as a sensory learning experience.

EIT Food supported agrifood startups Crover and Beta Bugs were also involved in the workshops. Crover has created the world's first granular drone to help grain storage operations reduce losses and maintain high-quality storage conditions. At Glasgow Science Centre, children could manoeuvre Crover’s drone through a grain storage tank via an app on a mobile device.

Insect genetics company Beta Bugs educated children about insect farming during the workshops. The company is developing and distributing black soldier fly breeds to the insect farming sector. Children were able to learn about how insects can be used as an alternative protein source for animal feed and also be used to break-down agricultural and food waste.

Rethink Food, a non-profit company, inspired children to be food scientists by helping them to grow a plant shoot in a test tube to take home. The charity that previously worked with Glasgow Science Centre for their COP26 initiative, delivers food surplus from supermarkets to schools with the aim to remove hunger as a barrier to learning.

The ‘Future of Food’ workshops were delivered by EIT Food, the world's largest food innovation community, and Glasgow Science Centre, an educational charity that inspires and motivates people to engage with science.

Glasgow Science Centre has a captivated audience of science enthusiasts of all ages and by partnering with EIT Food’s community of experts, families could explore the huge topic of sustainable food production and innovation through interactive activities.

For more information, please contact laura.elphick@eitfood.eu