Contact
Þóra Valsdóttir
Project Manager
thora.valsdottir@matis.is
Food Imaginarium is a Proof of Concept (PoC) within Public engagement the focus of EIT Food and is the theme; Obesity in children. Matís leads the project.
The need for more sustainable and environmentally friendly methods of food production and consumption is urgent at the moment. Knowledge of food is also fundamental to the development of healthy and sustainable eating habits and to the prevention of overweight and lifestyle diseases. The origin of food is unclear to many children today, not least because they are used to food being packaged from supermarkets. It is important to change this with targeted and effective education for children.
The project Food Imaginarium offers teachers and children (in this cycle at the age of 10-12 years) a path to food education, which is both fun and educational, where all the children's senses, imagination and creativity are activated. The project will cover different types of food and related topics, but in the preliminary project the focus is on tomatoes. With the help of virtual reality technology, students travel around a sustainable tomato growing station in Iceland where they watch, among other things, 3D videos and answer questions. In addition, the children get to see different types of tomatoes and taste them. In this way, they get a chance to perceive what makes tomatoes healthy, how they are grown, smell and taste.
The project aims to reach children at the age where they are most likely to start developing obesity, by approaching them in an interactive and engaging way, thus arousing interest and increasing their knowledge of choosing a healthy diet. In this pilot project, the potential impact on children's knowledge and indirect attitudes will be measured. The responses of teachers and other participants to the content of the project and its various components will be sought, with the aim of guiding further development and improvement of the overall experience.
You can watch a video from one of the activities made within the project in the player below:
