Ecoliteracy thorugh practice: a outdoor classroom, where plants from “San Michele” detention facility in Alessandria, Italy produced through the “Riseminare il proprio destino” (“Resowing One’s Destiny”) project funded by the Italian Hindu Union’s 8×1000 funds, were planted in the garden of the “Ignazio Vian” State Scientific High School in Bracciano during an inclusive gardening workshop.

The project was implemented in December 2025 thanks to the support of the Italian Hinduist Union.

The Green Classroom is a project for the Anguillara Sabazia campus of the Ignazio Vian State High School. Over recent years of educational activity, we have learned how, beyond content itself, the space in which learning takes place is fundamental. The Green Classroom aims to bring a little of the nature that students come to know during our field trips into the school itself.

Through the participatory design of a green space within the school grounds, Navdanya International launched a process of designing and creating a place for teaching and informal gathering in the open air—one that celebrates the relationship between people and nature and is accessible to all students within the school’s perimeter.

The project involves enhancing a green space identified by the school, within its grounds, through the planting of a hedge to enclose the green classroom, the planting of trees, a Mediterranean garden featuring local flora, and a small vegetable garden. This raised, accessible garden, with perennial plants and edible flowers, will allow students to experience the life cycles of plants firsthand and learn to grow vegetables. Benches, tables, and bird boxes complete the setup. Following the principles of regenerative agriculture and gardening, the project will generate a micro-ecosystem that allows local biodiversity to be observed without leaving the school. Garden care will be organized effectively to ensure it is well maintained over the years, according to the needs of students and teaching staff.

Designed and built as a living organism, the Green Classroom will grow alongside the community of students and teachers it hosts. The growth of the trees, the increase in biodiversity, and all the changes that such a landscaping intervention brings will bear witness, over time, to the themes Navdanya International promotes: the care of biodiversity, food sovereignty, ecosystem services, and benefits for the community.

• 3 groups of young people meet regularly.
• Each group joins 8 participatory sessions, 2–4 hours each.
• Sessions are co-created spaces (not traditional lessons): participants bring questions, experiences, and ideas.
• Learning develops through farm visits, ecosystem observation, dialogue, hands-on practices, and creative expression.
• Artistic practices help transform experience into shareable narratives.

• Visits to agroecological farms.
• Encounters with animals rescued from harmful conditions.
• Ecosystem walks and field observation.
• Cooking, planting, listening, and group reflection.
• Collective storytelling through visual and artistic practices.

• A public final exhibition with visual materials, stories, and artistic outputs developed during the journey.
• Ongoing documentation (photos, short texts, reflections) that keeps the process open and shareable.
• Public presentation and discussion of what participants have learned together.

• 3 youth groups involved in the learning pathway.
• 50 young participants directly involved as co-creators.
• 8 meetings per group, 2–4 hours per meeting.