Ramallah – Under the theme Food Revolution 2050, the Science Days Palestine (SDP) 2018 Festival launched its activities for kindergartens (KGs) on Tuesday, 30 October 2018. Ten KGs from different areas are targeted by the SDP Festival 2018. Events, scientific activities and exhibits reflected the main theme of this year’s edition of the SDP Festival, namely, food revolution. The SDP Festival was launched at the Abwein Kindergarten and Mixed Primary School.
The SDP Festival will last for a whole month. Vivian Tannous, Researcher at the Early Childhood Professional Development programme, said that this festival, implemented for the third year in a row, was part of the Early Childhood Professional Development programme. Work began with early childhood educators months before the festival was organised in order to introduce and discuss this year’s theme and its relationship to kindergarteners.
Tannous highlighted the amount of research effort invested to ensure that this year’s main theme could match the awareness of kindergarteners. Research focused on how to present and simplify a global idea to these children. For example, researchers engaged in concepts that spotlight the importance of preventing food waste and paying attention to the quality of food. Other concepts were linked to consumption values among people. Researchers also drew children’s attention to the idea of cultivation, having a direct contact with soil, and finding different agricultural alternatives, such as using empty pots for cultivation with a view to consolidating recycling approaches.
Since kindergarteners are the main target group of the SDP Festival 2018, Tannous indicated that researchers were always stunned by the reactions of these children, as well as their parents and local communities. This is because the festival themes are introduced to them for the first time. They do not have any prior information about these themes. The creative idea here is that the children themselves go ahead, host their parents in the SDP Festival, and take them on a tour around various scientific stations of the festival.
Preparations for this year’s edition of the SDP Festival began in July 2018 in collaboration between KG educators, who engaged with the Early Childhood Professional Development programme. Preparations were supervised by Malik Al-Remawi, Manager of the Languages and Humanities Track, and Vivian Tannous, Researcher at the Early Childhood Professional Development programme. Tannous commended the educators’ efforts and dedication to communicate the message of the SDP Festival.