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!