The Biodiversity Protection Team hosted children from a kindergarten in Ruciane-Nida in October. Katarzyna Borońska, Anna Kononiuk and Anna Korzekwa prepared activities through which children learned about the research and other activities of the IARFR PAS research station in Popielno, including initiatives aimed at protecting the environment. The youngest visited the station’s animal pens with the scientists, where they could see cows, mules, sheep and other interesting animals. Another stop was a visit to the museum, located in a historic granary from the mid-18th century. The preschoolers also participated in experiments and could see what a scientist’s work looks like in the laboratory.
We would like to thank the preschoolers and educators for their visit and interest in the Institute’s activities, and the Biodiversity Protection Team staff for organising the visit for our youngest visitors.
Dr Radosław Kowalski from the Gamete and Embryo Biology Team of our Institute gave a guest lecture at the inaugural meeting of the Olsztyn Academy of Children (OAD), which is run by the Planetarium in Olsztyn. This time the students were introduced to water, and more specifically to its superpowers as the source of life and health for all living organisms.
A scientist intrigued the youngest students with a lecture about humans and oceans. What do we have in common, why are humans aquatic mammals and why can we say that every human being is a living drop in the ocean? – asked Dr Radosław Kowalski during the inauguration of the OAD.
More information about the Olsztyn Children’s Academy can be found on the Planetarium website.
„Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle (3Rs)” – these are the three principles that should accompany us every day if we want to take care of our planet.
As part of the InformPack project, implemented thanks to the EIT Food Knowledge and Innovation Community, Dr. Joanna Fotschki and Dr. Marta Kopcewicz conducted a series of workshops on responsible handling of food packaging. Pupils from the Polish Olympians Primary School Complex in Stawiguda were invited to take part in the workshops.
During the first meeting, which coincided with the first day of spring, the pupils had the opportunity to test their knowledge and deepen their environmental awareness. Through games, quizzes, and tasks, the students were introduced to the 3Rs principles (Refuse/Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle), indicating how to correctly deal with food packaging.
International Earth Day was celebrated with students under the theme 'Planet versus Plastic’. Pupils from the school in Stawiguda, together with Dr. Marta Kopcewicz and Dr. Joanna Fotschki, visited Zakład Gospodarki Odpadami Komunalnymi Sp. z o.o. (ZGOK) in Olsztyn. During a trip to raise environmental awareness of waste management, the students learned about the technologies used at the Municipal Waste Disposal Plant in Olsztyn and reiterated the principles of waste segregation.
On 23 May, a final concluding workshop took place, in which students saw with their own eyes what happens when rubbish is thrown away incorrectly. They also had the opportunity to demonstrate their artistic skills by decorating ecological shopping bags. The eco-bags were intended as a reminder to handle food packaging correctly and were given an additional function – a gift – for the upcoming Mother’s Day.
Raising consumer awareness and building the desirable attitudes needed to make conscious purchasing decisions – these are the goals of EIT Food „InformPack” education-culinary workshops at the Auchan hypermarket
The meeting was open to adults responsible for grocery shopping at their homes and young consumers who are still forming their shopping habits and will soon be responsible for shaping eating routines in their households.
During the workshop, participants had the opportunity to explore the need for food packaging and the problem of the amount of plastic packaging. Through interactive quizzes, they were able to test their knowledge of the symbols placed by manufacturers on food packaging. As part of the meeting, participants consolidated their knowledge on the principles of recycling.
As part of the InformPack activity, we implemented two tasks that involved applying the previously learnt knowledge in practice. Under the guidance of our scientists and educators – Dr. Joanna Fotschki and Dr. Marta Kopcewicz, participants were asked to do their shopping taking into account the newly gained insights on the packaging symbols. Then, during the cooking part at the Food Bank with Radek Lewandowski, they tried their hands in preparing healthy, plant-based dishes, including courgette spaghetti and pancakes with oyster mushrooms.
Is career planning a linear process? Can you think of an astonishing career that has been precisely scheduled before it even begun? In 99,9% of the time this is not the case. People say that change is the only constant, so why don’t get better at it?
Those kind of questions were flying around Career Days with Food Educators that took place in our Institute. Between December 5 and 7, three groups of high school students from Olsztyn (Uniwersyteckie XII Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Marii i Georga Dietrichów, IV Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie w Olsztynie, Gastronomik Olsztyn) in total number of 66 had a chance to learn and experience what scientific career can look like.
– Apart from visiting laboratories of Nutrigenomics (wet lab and bioinformatics), and those related to the Aquaculture (IAR&FR PAS, the Stanisław Sakowicz Inland Fisheries Institute in Olsztyn), students had a chance to talk with the scientists from all over the globe and witness their passion for research. It was a great opportunity to show that it’s more than possible to have a successful and fulfilling international career in Olsztyn – says Maciej Cieślik, Institute’s HR Business Partner and coordinator of Career Days with Food Educators.
But the most important takeaway was that it’s OK not to know what you want to do for the rest of your life, especially when you are young, as long as you are willing to try new things, new paths, and set your mind positively. First step of a successful career is to get to know yourself better, identify your strengths and build on them. It’s never too late to make a change in your career path when the final goal is your happiness. The Career Days, organised by the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, were held within the framework of Food Educators, a programme of the EIT Food, which spreads knowledge about food safety, healthy eating habits, responsible consumer choices, not wasting food and careers in the agri-food sector. Learn more: foodeducators.eu.
The use of yeast in the food industry, learning about and testing methods for examining milk, counting bacteria, preparing microscope slides – the laboratories of the Division of Food Science of the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences opened their doors to secondary school students from Olsztyn.
How do you get young people interested in food to help them shape informed consumer attitudes, develop critical thinking, and present exciting career opportunities in the agri-food sector that will lead to an active transformation of the food system in the future? Preferably from the practical side, as secondary school students found out during the Microbiology workshops with Food Educators.
The meeting started with an introduction to microbiology and the yeast 'strongmen’. Marzena Lenkiewicz from the Microbiology Laboratory of the IAR&FR PAS talked about these remarkable microorganisms and their use in the food industry. After the theoretical part, students continued in the laboratories, where they learnt about food safety and milk testing methods, conducted tests on their own, prepared microscope slides and counted bacteria.
– We are happy to show young people the world of science. Perhaps they will choose a career in science (…) Thank you very much for the opportunity to show the whole institute and for the workshop – concludes Ewa Stanisławska-Lepko, a teacher from the Wisława Szymborska Group of Catering and Food Schools in Olsztyn.
Food Educators is a programme of the European Knowledge and Education Community for Food (EIT Food), which creates and disseminates the materials essential to teach young people about healthy and sustainable eating habits. It enables the youngest consumers to make choices that are good for both them and the environment. Food Educators is also about promoting interesting career paths throughout the food supply chain and encouraging adepts to enter the agri-food sector. Join the international network at www.foodeducators.eu
Spaghetti bolognese, burgers, scrambled eggs, smoothies – these are dishes that are quite popular in a teenager’s diet. Is it possible to prepare them in such a way that they are delicious, easy to prepare, healthy and 100% plant-based? The Institute’s experts in the EIT Food 'Food Educators’ project have shown that it is!
Meatless Monday is a worldwide campaign encouraging consumers to reduce their meat consumption – for their own health and for care of the planet. The name of the campaign suggests that the challenge to reduce meat and zoonotic products should start by eliminating meat from our diet for at least one day a week.
While information campaigns outline the topic, a more effective method of supporting a change in consumer habits, especially for young people, is practical action. The Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, as part of the 'Food Educators’ project, organised a cooking workshop for secondary school students from Olsztyn.
During the event, students learnt about the idea of Meatless Monday, explored conscious consumer attitudes with experts, including dealing with food labels and food packaging, and then stepped into the workshop kitchen, where they learnt about plant-based alternatives to their favourite dishes under the guidance of a chef. The event culminated with a shared meal and space to share their experiences.
– Meatless Monday is a great action that can be successfully incorporated into school canteens. Importantly, the students respond to the idea very enthusiastically! – the organisers conclude.
Food Educators is a programme of the European Knowledge and Education Community for Food (EIT Food), which creates and disseminates the materials essential to teach young people about healthy and sustainable eating habits. It enables the youngest consumers to make choices that are good for both them and the environment. Food Educators is also about promoting interesting career paths throughout the food supply chain and encouraging adepts to enter the agri-food sector. Join the international network at www.foodeducators.eu
The “Meatless Monday” aims to encourage each of us to swap meat products for delicious plant-based products one day a week.
As part of the EIT Food „FoodEducators” project, high school students and their teachers took part in culinary workshops and prepared plant-based meals – beetroot burgers, tofu soup, power smoothie and zucchini spaghetti in tomato sauce. The meeting was also an opportunity to talk to young people about responsible consumer attitudes, including: in the context of conscious shopping behaviours, recycling food packaging and reducing food waste. Everyone took part in the InformPack „Recycle Hero” quiz and tested knowledge of how to handle food packaging in a sustainable way.
We are very happy that you were with us on 22 September during the #21 Olsztyn Science and Arts Days. The workshop took place at the University of Warmia and Mazury Library, 12 B Oczapowskiego Street, where we prepared a stand of the EIT InformPack project.
Each participant was able to take part in an interactive game that helped to test how you manage to correctly segregate food packaging materials. Together, we tested how you could decipher the symbols on food packaging. We also encouraged you to share your opinion on how you would like information on the purchase, management and disposal of food packaging to be communicated to you. Your opinion is very valuable to us, as it will help researchers and food producers to develop 'tailor-made’ educational campaigns to support the development of environmental awareness.
Cosmic food and the secrets of freeze-drying, testing the quality of milk, fermentation as a natural method of food preservation, the pyramid of healthy lifestyle and nutrition, food safety and food storage in the fridge, pro-health antioxidants in popular drinks, tips on handling food packaging with the EIT Food InformPack project – these were the topics we brought to the participants of the 21st Olsztyn Science and Art Days.
– We chose activities that would interest both younger and older schoolchildren. We wanted to show that food research is about the laboratory and food chemistry, but also about a broader context, i.e. food-related phenomena that affect us all – from food storage, through conscious consumer attitudes and drawing attention to the scale of food waste, to handling food packaging – sums up Iwona Kieda, the initiator of the idea of joining this year’s Olsztyn Science and Art Days celebrations and the coordinator on behalf of Inobiotek Ltd.
On 21 and 22 September, scientists welcomed both organised groups and individual visitors who wanted to broaden their knowledge of food or get the youngest members of their families interested in the subject.
