The Hagenbeck-school in Berlin offers a special instruction: All subjects deal with the topic of “Biological diversity.” Students will learn why it is important to protect species and Ecosystems.
It is eight o’clock in the morning, curious about a group of girls and boys at the gate rejects. “Look, Oreo is so funny. And there, Agro, running at the Wilma.” Somehow, the three goats, the it is, for the young people more interesting than the otherwise indispensable mobile phone.
The group stands in front of the student farm, where there are goats, ducks, chickens, pigs and many other animals. The farm belongs to, as well as the school garden with many crops, for the Hagenbeck-school in the district of Pankow, in the North-East of Berlin. Four hundred students learning in this Integrated secondary school. A small school, in a jewelry building, the exercises nevertheless, a great attraction.
Each of the Hagenbeck-school must be ready to make your fingers dirty
“I chose the school because I found the animals and the garden is especially exciting,” says Yara. The twelve-year-old cuts with their classmates, Lina and Elodie Apples, plucked from the school’s own Apple tree. Delicious food for the goats.
“You have to be careful that you feed them separately. Otherwise, too little and the kabbeln get over it,” says Elodie. On the question of whether it makes more fun to push than the school, she replies without Hesitation: “Yes, definitely!”
Not only animals
To avoid misunderstandings: The students learn here, as at other schools also have math and English lessons, sports, physics, and foreign languages. What are the Hagenbeck-distinguishes school from other schools, is their guiding theme “Biological diversity”, which is enshrined in the timetable of all the subjects.
“All the departments have been sitting and thinking about where to fit it, the topic of ‘Biological diversity’ to incorporate,” says the Deputy head of the school, Claudia toads heerdt in an Interview with DW.
“We are, as far as I known, in Germany the only school that does that.”
The children are too young to drink alcohol, but old enough to learn how to grapes grow
And so the subject finds himself not only in biology lessons, but also, for example, in math class, where the flower beds in the school garden, to be measured in the WAT-classes (economy-work-technology), where supports for bean plants to be built or in the English classroom, where the reading of “animal Farm”, in relation to the student farm.
The Federal government had adopted in 2007 a “National strategy on biological diversity”, with the help of which the loss of species and habitats should be stopped. In the Consideration of how your school could be the social tasks, the idea to make “Biological diversity” theme, so Claudia toads heerdt. That was about eight years ago.
Video 01:26 live Now 01:26 Min. 
Students in Berlin will learn, with the goats and the “three sisters”
With spade and rake to learn
In the school garden, which is located right next to the farm, to crop the students are the plants. Whether you want to cut them off, asks Kolya.
“Listening would help, I said, only the Dried-up,” says Elke Mahrenholz, the supervisor of the school garden.
The twelve-year-old fiddles a little embarrassed at the garden scissors in his Hand. So inattentive, as it seems, he is not. He has already learned a lot – for example, “what is photosynthesis,” he says. “And other things, like sustainability, that you can make from things you no longer need, new things for other purposes.”
You may not look a lot different than other schools in the city, but inside a completely different way opened to learn
So some of the raised beds in the school garden from Bock spring boxes that were previously used in sports lessons.
“Here you can have a little more to give from the horse dung,” advises Mahrenholz students that have removed the dried plants, and now new in the raised beds.
In the Winter, if it is not done in the school garden so much, brings you to the students, for example soil science. This includes how soil through natural fertilizers to improve or what kinds of diversity are there in the soil.
Now – in late summer – include a pen and book but still a spade and rake to the teaching utensils.
Watch the Video 03:28 live right Now 03:28 Min.
A school in Berlin teaches “Biological diversity”
The three sisters
Behind the raised beds, a group of students takes care of the so-called three sisters.
“We build here every year a mixed culture, and this year, we have specialized in the three sisters. The consist of the Corn, the squash and the bean,” explains the 13-year-old Erik with a straight face.
“The high-standing Corn towered over the smaller of the sisters and offers them shade. The middle sister, the bean, high grows on the corn plant, and provides Hold,” adds Charlotte.
And Tabea takes the idea to the end: “The pumpkin is the smallest sister. By the large leaves, the earth remains moist, and it grows no weeds.” With a shy Smile, you harvest the pumpkin, on the shows during your little lecture.
“The students are learning in our cultivation of the mixed culture, as a variant, in contrast to the mono-culture, as in conventional agriculture is practiced. As a result, the understanding of the fact that our agriculture has gone from mono to grow them culture towards more mixed farming,” explains Mahrenholz.
Tabea holds your harvest – the smallest of the three sisters
The learning success melts sometimes even on the tongue: If all cook together with the vegetables and herbs that you have harvested previously in the school garden.
Earlier in the afternoon, a couple of students sitting on the Playground and let your legs dangle. The court does not, of course, is simply a courtyard On a portion of the surface of the reed sways in the Wind and has a clear view of the school building.
The other part is directly in front of the school buildings and barren concrete desert, but that should change soon. Even if it sometimes goes very slowly, as Claudia toads heerdt says. Because resources are scarce. Financial support comes from the district office and the Association, but that alone is not enough, the award-winning project Hagenbeck-bring school.
“There’s a lot of self-initiative,” says the Deputy head teacher. “We need very much creativity.”
And the application of parents, teachers and staff in the future. Because they all want the three goats and the three sisters continue to belong to the teaching of the Hagenbeck school.
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