The Royal Norfolk Show returned for its 175th year and what a Show it was!
The Discovery Zone is the Royal Norfolk Show’s hub for educational activities, this year hosting over 8000 school children across the two days. In collaboration with the Food and Farming Discovery Trust (FFDT), the Discovery Zone marries science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) with food, farming and the countryside.
This year the theme for the zone was the potato, which is a staple Norfolk crop. The Potato Trail allowed students to learn how potatoes are grown, harvested and processed – ending in the students making their own chips! Planters were used to represent a potato field during each season, whilst some of the latest machinery was on display so students could understand the scale of potato farming and the technology and engineering that underpins modern agriculture. Frontier Agriculture Ltd had generously brought along a quad bike with soil testing equipment, whilst Tas Valley Contracting Ltd provided a potato harvester which was a real draw for many students.
As well as the potato trail, there was lots more on offer in the Discovery Zone. The Norwich Science Festival tent provided a range of activities and experiments, including understanding how to make potatoes blight resistant with The Sainsbury Laboratory, learning how to improve the starch content of plants with the John Innes Centre and extracting DNA from bananas with the Little Story Telling Co. Morrisons returned this year, allowing students to hear from one of their potato farmers about his work and to get hands on creating potato prints to take home.
The Papillon Project, which is a Norfolk-based educational charity that promotes sustainable living and environmental awareness for young people, allowed schools to learn more about school allotments and upcycling at this year’s Show. Joined by many of the schools that have taken part in their allotment programme, they chatted to students about growing their own produce sustainably and provided a short film about the valuable work they do.
The Wherry School, Freethorpe Community Primary School, Ashleigh Primary School and St Martha’s Catholic Primary School displayed their work as part of the On The Map project. The project, which is run by the SAW Trust and FFDT, encourages schools to connect with a local food producer to allow students to learn more about food production and careers in their local area.
Finally, the SAW Trust was present in the FFDT mobile classroom. ‘Wimpy Weeds and Ugly Bugs’ focused on the role that insects and biodiversity play in agriculture. There was an opportunity to have a go at some microscopy, learn more about dung beetles and even a chance for students to create their own seed bombs and leaf prints to take away.
We would like to thank all of this years Discovery Zone partners for taking part and we look forward to next year’s Show!
