al-Jazaer Primary School - EN — Center for the Study of the Built Environment

Urban Agriculture Installation at al-Jazaer Primary School for Girls in Amman.

As part of CSBE’s urban agriculture project that is being carried out in association with the Fredrich Ebert Foundation in Jordan, CSBE installed during 2019 – 2020 facilities relating to urban agriculture in al-Jazaer Primary School for Girls in Amman’s Jabal al-Hussein District. We had previously worked with al-Jazaer School in 2017 on our Enhancing Civic Responsibility of Youths in Schools project, and we usually aim at maintaining, whenever possible, connections with schools we had worked with in the past.

Our overall urban agriculture project aims promoting and disseminating the practice of urban agriculture in schools and bringing with this a re-establishment of the various social, economic, environmental, and health benefits that come with it.

We accordingly installed five wooden planting beds that depend on capillary irrigation (a form of subirrigation that relies on capillary action to deliver water to a plant from a water source located at or below the base of the growing bed). These planting beds are located in the school’s southwestern setback. We also installed hydroponic kits next to the wooden planting beds, and also supplied the school with a composting tumbler that is connected to a stationary bike so that the tumbler would turn when pedaling the bike.

The costs of installing the wooden planting beds were supported by the Jordanian bank Investbank, and their design and installation was carried out by the Greening the Camps organization. CSBE covered the costs of fabricating and installing the hydroponic kits and the composting tumbler / stationary bike. The hydroponic kits were designed by one of the project’s hydroponics specialists, Kevin Schiltz, and the composting tumbler / stationary bike was designed by the project’s composting specialist Hala Bdeir in association with the blacksmith.

We moreover initiated a training program at the school that involved the group of specialists on hydroponic planting, conventional planting in beds, and composting with whom we have been collaborating. The training is based on the extensive interactive illustrated training manual we had developed for schools. The training was initiated in February 2020, but unfortunately was interrupted when in-class teaching has been suspended as a result of the Covid-19 epidemic.

The rehabilitation of the grounds of al-Jazaer School as carried out by CSBE through a participatory design process that involved the school’s students.

A design drawing of the planting beds that were installed in the southwestern setback area of the school-building site.

A view of the planting beds as installed in the southwestern setback area of the school-building site.

A view showing the planting beds in the background and hydroponic planting kits in the foreground.

students operating the composting tumbler connected to a stationary bike that was installed at the school. Click on the picture to view the video.

Students planting seedlings in one of the hydroponic planting kits that CSBE provided to the school.

Lettuce growing in the school’s hydroponic planting kits.

Students carrying out planting activities relating to one of the planting beds installed in the school. The pipe that appears in the foreground of the photo is where the water supply for the planting bed’s capillary irrigation system is poured.

Images of a training session in hydroponic planting carried out in the school by Kevin Schiltz, who is one of the planting consultants that CSBE has worked with on its urban agriculture project.