“Olive Tree Planet” brings the olive culture to young people

Juan Ramon Guillen Foundation, along with the Institute of Fats (CSIC) and “Ludociencia” Group, promotes an ambitious didactic program aimed to get scholars to know the olive reality and the olive oil as an inseparable element of the Mediterranean culture they belong to.

Juan Ramon Guillen Foundation is one of the promoters of “Olive Tree Planet”, an ambitious and interesting program with many educative extracurricular activities aimed to bring the youngest closer to the Andalusian olive reality. This initiative, presented on October 25th, is also promoted by Ludociencia Group and the Institute of Fats from the Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC).

Most of this Project will be carried out, of course, at our Hacienda Guzman, where the scholars will discover their close connection to the olive field culture, not only regarding dietetics (with the so well known Mediterranean Diet) but also regarding the landscape, as the olive tree is representative of our homeland. Ludociencia Group is in charge of the development of this project based on the so called “Funny Science”: designing experiments, dynamics and games, carefully selected and grouped in different areas of knowledge with the sole objective of learning and have fun at the same time.

On the other hand, the Institute of Fats (CSIC) centers its participation on three different aspects: first, it provides the necessary consultancy, supervision and scientific information to elaborate the contents of the different workshops; second, it offers its Experimental Mill located at the Institute of Fats to be visited by the scholars; finally, it evaluates the quality of the activities carried out in this program.

Among the different equipments, facilities and other places that will make the “Olive Tree Planet” project possible, worth is to mention our Olive Tree Museum, the Andalusi gardens adjoining the main building, the classrooms and the multifunction room, all of them located at the Hacienda Guzman.

Some of the issues raised on the “Olive Tree Planet” Project (all of them with clear pedagogical dimensions) are, among others, the importance of a balanced diet, the most representative characteristics of the crop farmer profession, the different stages of olive oil extraction and its main physical principles, the food chain within the olive field ecosystem, and the cultural legacy brought home by old Andalusian civilizations to the olive field landscape.

This program is quite complete, rigorous and entertaining anyhow, and aims to encourage the young people’s awareness on the olive oil culture they belong to and gives them, to a large extent, their own identity signs. Through Juan Ramon Guillen Foundation, Acesur is delighted to take part on this initiative.