Group Presentation #1: Vertical Gardening

Over the next week or so I am going to post the presentations that my students are doing for the Urban Agriculture elective.  They were to research and create a  presentation before they were able to build their idea.

This is the first group that presented.  They are there young woman (7th and 8th grade) who research cheap (recycled) ways to grow food vertically for people with a tight budget and limited space.  They did a wonderful job.  Here is the video:

A Lettuce Party

It is still cold here in Michigan, so teaching an Urban Ag class consists of a lot of research and not a lot of doing yet, but we were able to have a pretty exciting day.  

We ate food we grew as a class, for some students this was the first time that they had eaten something they had seen grow.  It was kind of a big day.  For the last five weeks we have grown lettuce in 2 liter bottles using the Kratky method of hydroponics and yesterday we had a lettuce party where we all had salad using the lettuce we grew.  I have never seen middle schoolers excited about eating a salad before but these guys were pumped.  Here are some pictures from the day:

A student cutting his lettuce into the bowl.

Proud of her huge lettuce plant.

Romaine lettuce ready to eat.

Wearing his root mass as a beard.

Eating the salad.

Lettuce from California?

As I teach this class I am trying to expose the students with some problems with our current food system. One of those problems is food mile or the distance our food travels before we eat it. I have seen many figures when it comes to how far our food travels but it seems like 1500 miles is a pretty common figure. That is pretty crazy to think about, that is the average!

 So as a class we read an article and had a discussion about why our food system is this way and the negative effects of our food traveling so far. After this I wanted to show them that it was not necessary to grow our food in California so I had each of them plant a lettuce plant following the Kratky method. He is a professor that developed a hydroponic system that needs no water circulation or air pumps. In other words it can be off the grid. I installed a shop light in the back of my room, got the supplies and we were in business.  Here are some of my students working on it.
 

And here are a couple of real cool pictures. This is one of my students holding his plant just after planting it and one of him 13 days later. Look how much bigger the lettuce is, it is amazing.


 

 If you want to know more about the Kratky method and what I did message me. It is so simple but very powerful for kids to experience.

We are just a bunch of hypocrites!

I am very blessed to work for people who trust me enough to try this crazy idea of an urban agriculture elective, but I still had the issue of coming up with the money to do the cool things that I hope to do in the spring (everything from chickens, to vermiculture to some aquaponics.) I was offered a little money from my administration, but I really wanted enough to truly explore urban agriculture so I had the idea of letting the students figure out how to make the money. This is problem based learning at it's core. I told them one day that I thought we needed about $1200 for this semester and that I would personally loan them $300 of my money. Their task was to turn that $300 into $1200 over the next 7 weeks. I told them that anything was on the table and then I said "go." It was fun to watch as they started talking to each other and bouncing ideas off each other. Some started with really small ideas like we could collect pop cans or ask their parents for donations and some started with crazy big ideas like selling Ipads, but as they talked with their peers their ideas were filtered and dissected and reasonable ideas started to surface. On group went to the old standby of having a "candy cart." It is not the most creative idea but it works. One group had an in with someone who had carnival supplies so they were going to bring in a cotton candy machine and a snow cone machine. The last group made Hershey kiss roses for Valentines day. I was impressed how they work through this very basic problem of needing money and came up with very reasonable ideas. Of course there was one problem...we are a class that talks about the importance of good natural food and we are selling all kinds of candy. I guess that makes us hypocrites? But if that's what it takes I am OK with that, because this money will allow them to do some really cool things in the spring and they are learning so much running a little business. Of by the way, they are doing really good they have earned over $700 in the first three weeks. Pretty cool!

The Idea

I enjoy teaching, but I love growing things. From my garden, to my basement, to the urban farm some friends and I started last year; growing vegetables is my passion. It is what I think about while I am laying in bed at night and it is often what I am thinking about as I eat my cereal in the morning. So I had an idea that maybe I could somehow combine my passion with my job. The reasons for me wanting to do this are more than my selfish dream to do what I love at school. I believed that if I could do this I could grow engagement in students. I will talk about this more later, but to me it is the missing piece in all the new educational experts plan for reforming schools. I believe that learning only comes from engagement. That is how it was when I was a kid. If my teacher engaged me I learned and I loved to learn, but if he/she didn't I went through the motions yet I didn't really learn. At my school I see the majority of the kids going through the motions. Many of them have motivations to do well in class, some are motivated by their parents, some by the desire to get a grade and some by peers, but I do not see many students that are motivated by their desire to learn. Why? Have kids changed that much since I was a kid? Or has school changed that much since I was a kid? I sometimes wonder if between all the objectives and testing we have cut out the stuff that leads to curiosity and discovery. Anyways I approached my vice principal with the idea that instead of me teaching study hall next semester maybe I could teach an urban agriculture class, where kids would be encouraged to explore and discover the beauty of food and growing things. He liked the idea (I love working for people who trust me) and we started the process. I told the students about it and created an application that had to be filled out in order to be in the class. I wanted to have no more than 20 people but I had 23 applicants that qualified (based on classes they need to take yet,) so next week I start my journey of teaching urban agriculture to middle schoolers, everyday from 2:15 to 3:00. I have ideas for what I hope will happen but I am going to try to enter this with an open mind and let the kids lead us to where they want to take it. That is what this blog will be about. A journey...I can not wait to start.