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National Science Week is Australia’s major national celebration of the sciences each year in August.

This year Material Institute and 24 Carrot Gardens hosted a Science Week extravaganza over 4 days at Material Institute, out in Bridgewater.

The learning was great and it was wrapped up beautifully in the different activities. Surrounding the kids with so many passionate, respectful, understanding adults was gold.

We invited our four 24 Carrot Garden high schools – Bayview Secondary College, Jordan River Learning Federation Senior School, Kingston High School, and Montrose Bay High School – to participate in eight workshop offerings with themes of ecology, innovation, sustainability, waste minimisation, regeneration and circular thinking. Up to 50 students visited each day, and the interactive, hands-on workshops were delivered by staff and industry leaders in their fields.

It was fantastic to see students who do not usually readily engage with learning participate with such enthusiasm. The highly practical nature of the activities was a key contributor to this.

— Assistant Principal, Jordan River Senior School

Workshop activities included some talented folk facilitating cultural burning, natural dyeing, making biochar, bokashi compost making. With healthy cooking from the garden and ice-cream making using dry ice with Chef Vlad, seed saving and propagation with our horticulture team, ceramics with our art team, and making a Beeluxe Body Bar in our Beauty Lab with Bodie. We also had an epic music lineup, with a special act playing each day including Atomic Deluxe, Rose Turtle Ertler and Tiff Norchick.

In here [clay studio] I feel good. It is relaxing and I have freedom to think of new things to make which is pretty cool. Natural products make me want to use it more.

Science was interwoven with art throughout the week, and a communal long-table lunch was shared. It was an enriching four days, and the feedback from the participating schools has been heart-warming!

The majority of students enjoyed their day thoroughly, with some still talking about it a couple of weeks later.

We would love to thank our 24 Carrot Garden team member Andy Rushton for his mighty effort in bringing this all together as well as all the team members working hard behind the scenes, and the following businesses and people for sharing their knowledge and skills with us all.

Palawa man and traditional fire practitioner Jason Andrew-Smith

Christina Guidici / The New Black Biochar

Jimmy Corrigan / The Regenerative Gardener

National Science Week

At this year’s 24 Carrot Carnival in November, Year 3 and 4 students will celebrate the incredible resources our planet provides, and ways we can use them wisely.

Our Carnival will consolidate learnings from Material Institute workshops, kitchen garden sessions at school sites, and classroom learning throughout the year. Through immersive performances and activities, we will explore waste minimisation, regeneration, and circular thinking — learning from nature’s own cycles. From reducing rubbish and cleaning up our spaces, to using and re-using materials creatively, we will discover how small actions can make a big impact.

For our Carnival poster design, we extended an invitation to Year 3 and 4 students to design an eye-catching poster for this year’s Carnival, exploring our theme of MAGIC MATERIALS.

Nature’s cycles (seasons, the water cycle, plant photosynthesis)

Healthy soils and helpful critters (worms, microbes, pollinators)

Compost (transforming food scraps and garden waste back into nutritious soil)

Embracing wonky fruit and veg (using all parts, pickling, preserving)

Zero waste (how can we produce less rubbish?)

Despite only being able to choose one entry for our final poster, we received so many amazing entries, and we just had to share some of our favorites and the final poster selection.

A big congratulations to Mia C from Brighton Primary School who took out the winning spot (as seen at the top) with votes from the 24 Carrot team!

We are thankful for everyone who went to the effort to create something and think about all the magic materials we have around us!

24 Carrot Carnival Poster Comp

We’re celebrating the many uses of the humble broad bean - a spring hero that’s easy to grow, delicious to eat, and full of surprises. While its reputation has long suffered thanks to memories of mushy, over-boiled beans, our 24 Carrot Gardens schools know better. To help us show just how versatile and wonderful this plant can be, we visited our friends at The Agrarian Kitchen, one of Australia’s top restaurants, to chat with founder Rodney Dunn and head gardener Mitch Thiessen.

Each spring, our 24 Carrot schools are busily picking, podding, cooking and devouring broad beans. It’s not uncommon to hear a groan of “Yuck, broad beans!”, unfortunately this is usually from adults! But once you see how Rodney and Mitch use them, it’s impossible not to fall in love with this plant all over again.

Rodney’s passion is infectious. “It’s such a great plant for our climate, and the beauty of it is that the whole plant can be used,” he says. From leaf to flower to bean, everything (except the roots) is edible - and delicious. “We take out the growing tips and use them raw in salads or grilled over a really hot fire,” he explains. “When the beans are young, as big as your pinky finger, we cook them whole over a nice hot fire for a bit of smokeyness - not too much, the fire equivalent of a blanch. Larger than that, we pod them once, and then pod them twice.”

Even the side leaves have a place on the plate. “They still get used in salads,” says Rodney. “A lot of people never think to use the leaves.” And of course, the flowers? Yes they are edible too, but “We prefer the flowers to turn into beans,” he laughs.

Out in the Agrarian Kitchen’s one-acre market garden, Mitch explains how broad beans aren’t just a kitchen star - they’re a soil champion too. “Plants are the best soil builders,” he says. “Whether we’re using broad beans as a crop or a green manure, they’ll always be one of the additions.”

Before leading the Agrarian Kitchen’s garden, Mitch was a Kitchen and Garden Specialist with 24 Carrot Gardens - so he knows first-hand the joy and excitement broad beans bring to students. “If you put a plate of food down with lots of green things, kids might not be interested,” he says. “But when they’re in the garden, they pick it, smell it, and taste it - they’re so much more open to trying things. Being part of that process makes all the difference.”

That hands-on connection is exactly what 24 Carrot Gardens is all about — joy, wonder and delicious learning. Across our schools, broad beans spark curiosity and confidence as students discover how good fresh food can taste straight from the garden. The simple act of planting, picking and cooking these beans connects students to the food they eat and intrinsically to the value of healthy, local, sustainable eating.

Rodney took us into the kitchen to show us some of the more sophisticated places their broad beans end up. “Shoyu is a Japanese word for a soy sauce, but it’s a better word then ‘soy sauce’ because you can then say it’s a ‘broad bean shoyu’.” he says. “As our culinary landscape has expanded, and we deepen our understanding of other cultures we start to adopt their words in our kitchen.” He gives us a taste of this aging shoyu and it already has a complex flavor.

They not only have their broad bean ‘soy sauce’ but also a broad bean ‘miso’! “Quite often we will use dried broad beans to make an amino paste or a miso, typically miso is soybean based but we are using broad beans to create a deep umami flavoured puree which can be used in a number of ways.” Rodney explains. “It’s quite nice smeared on a carrot, radish or kohlrabi from the garden as a canapé or snack. It’s quite nice adding a spoon to a sauce. It’s lovely, as miso is, made into a soup!” We had a taste of this fermenting paste and it tasted like it would go perfectly on toast!

So next time you see broad beans popping up in the garden, think beyond the pod and enjoy the whole plant! Leaves can be eaten raw in salads, tips are delicious raw or cooked, baby beans can be enjoyed whole, and larger beans are double-shelled to remove any bitterness. It’s one of many plants that’s helping our students grow healthy minds, healthy bodies, and a lifelong love of good food.

Sow seeds directly from April to September, avoiding sowing in the depth of winter (June-July).

Space plants 30-40 cm apart and rows 50-60 cm apart.

Make multiple sowings for an extended harvest.

Support plants as they start to grow tall - a few stakes and some twine does the trick!

Pinching out the growing tips (and eating them) helps to grow compact and productive plants.

Search for rare and colourful varieties like ‘Crimson Flowered’ or ‘Chocolate Flowered’.

For seed saving simply leave beans on the plant to dry out.

National Science Week

24 Carrot Carnival Poster Comp

The Humble Broad Bean