North Park Elementary

Last Friday (April 26th) Aaron and I went to North Park Elementary in Fridley.

We met with 2 - kindergarten classes we took the lead and taught the classes individually how to plant chili peppers and cauliflower. They were so excited to get their hands dirty and one of the little girls asked me "Can you stay here?" They loved having visitors and getting the opportunity to switch up their "normal" schedule. We also met with a 1st grade class who had planted Marigolds. We spoke to them about the requirements for seed germination. They enjoyed being able to interact with us and were interested in what we had to say. We also talked about how not all plants need the same requirements (cactus), and what plants look like (all of them are different of course!). They also wanted us to talk about college (why it's important, what we do, what it's like, etc). Over all it was a great experience interacting with the children and hearing the joy in the classroom.

Last Wednesday was another successful day at the MNIC school.  The class size was a little smaller than we expected, but the lesson plan still ran smoothly.  At the beginning of the class period, we looked at the micro-greens the students planted two weeks ago. We discussed how they grew and then the class planted another batch of micro-greens.  In our next activity, we asked the students to make posters that demonstrated what plants need to grow. The students got very creative and made some great posters. My favorite part of the lesson was determining the parts of the plants that we eat. For example, broccoli is the flower portion of the plant.  Overall, the lesson was a success. The students now have a better grasp for parts of a plant and what plants need in order to grow.

In the following pictures, the students are trying to decide which part of a plant the coffee bean and a head of lettuce belong to.

   

School Garden Criticism and a movie

Hey All,

I mentioned this article once in class.  "Cultivating Failure" It's about how school gardens don't prepare students properly.  I think most people who know anything about education theory or school gardens disagree with the points in this popular 2010 article in The Atlantic, but it's always good to be familiar with your opposition!

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/cultivating-failure/307819/

This next one, is a St. Paul teacher/volunteer talking about The Atlantic article and other criticisms she has experienced from urban students

http://grist.org/food/2011-11-09-food-studies-talking-about-race-in-school-gardens/


On a totally opposite note, this documentary "Food Beware" is about a town in France that has all food in it's cafeteria and hospitals local and organically produced.  I should warn you that it is very one-sided, but it's super inspirational and I highly recommend it.  My favorite quote from the mayor of this town is something like:  "Many people ask me how we can afford to eat organic and local food in our schools and public institutions, and I tell them 'you can't put a price on your conscious.'"

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/70124890?strkid=859220590_0_0&trkid=222336&movieid=70124890

Enjoy the next couples days of good weather! Jake told me it's going to drop down again starting Wednesday :/  See y'all in class tomorrow

Jenny

Honeycrisp!

Since a few of our partner schools are getting Honeycrisp apple trees, I thought I would write up a post about one of the most famous fruits developed at the University of Minnesota.

Photo courtesy zomppa.com

Malus domestica 'Honeycrisp' was originally bred in 1960 at the University of Minnesota's Horticultural Research Center and designated as MN 1711.  It was released for commercial production in 1991 and has been a big hit ever since.  In fact, the Honeycrisp was designated the official state fruit of Minnesota in 2006 after a petition from a group of elementary students was sent to the state legislature.  They are growing in popularity worldwide, with production really taking off in New Zealand and parts of Europe.

Honeycrisps are great for storing over long periods and are known for their crisp bite and mixture of tart and sweet taste.  They are good for eating raw or in baked goods. 

Hopefully the trees going to our partner schools will be highly productive and shower them with crisp, delicious Honeycrisp apples!

Champlin Brooklyn Park Academy Microgreens Project

I visited Champlin Brooklyn Park Academy on Wednesday to plant microgreens with the first grade class.  We had a blast!  They have a beautiful greenhouse with lots of projects getting started. When we arrived, some fourth grade students were doing their daily job watering all the seedlings.  

I met with three first grade classes, so about 60 students throughout the morning. We went through the steps of planting the microgreens while talking about what plants need to grow.  The students had very thoughtful answers.  We also talking about what the word "micro" means so that the student could figure out on their own what a microgreen was.  

For our microgreens, we planted black oil sunflower seeds. I was really impressed by how many students were able to guess what the kind of seed it was.

The first graders were really excited to get their hands dirty.  It was great to see how engaged they all were.  There wasn't a singe student who wasn't interested in the activity in some way.  They worked well in their groups and were proud to show us their finished flat of seeds.

The kids dirty hands show how hard they worked!

I learned a lot about what works with kids and am really excited to plan the next visit, when we will harvest the microgreens and talk about the different parts of a plant.  I think the most important thing that I learned is that kids LOVE playing with soil.  Next time, I want to give them as much time as possible to do that.   Also, the more people you have there to help, the better. I'm glad that Mary was able to come along and lend a hand.

 Overall, I think the day went well!  My objectives for the lesson were to help the kids learn about plant needs and provide teachers with a fun indoor gardening activity and I feel like I accomplished that.  We had a fun day and I look forward to our next visit!

As Jenny mentioned earlier, visiting the Minnesota Internship Charter School was a success. We got to meet some great students with a genuine interest in horticulture.  It was a fun experience to look at the school's aquaponic system and see what the students knew about horticulture. We will be meeting with the YEA corps again this Friday to discuss our lesson plan for next week.

The whole class got a chance to grow their own micro-greens.

Tierney got to sit down and talk with students about the anatomy of seeds.

Jenny was showing a student how to sew micro-green seeds.

Tierney created a fun game where the students were shown a picture and had to decide if it was a micro green of a sprout.

MNIC First Teaching

Abby, Tierney, and I did our first teaching at MNIC yesterday, and I thought it went really well.  I think Abby took some pictures so maybe she can add them :)

We started by going around the room saying our names, where we're from, and something we did over spring break.  If we repeat this activity again (which I think we should because the students really enjoy discussion time), we need to make it faster and a more engaging/less distracting topic.  Tierney had the idea in the car on the way back that we should have everyone say name and one idea for marketing microgreens.

Next, we asked everyone what they know about microgreens.  We wrote the discussion points on the board.  After that I taught basic seed anatomy (seed coat, plumule, hypocotyl, radical, cotyledon) with a drawing on the board.  We discussed what each was and its function in the seed.  After this we planted microgreens in small Driscols quart containers.

Next, Tierney led a discussion about the differences between microgreens and sprouts.  After the discussion, we did an activity that I thought was really successful.  Tierney passed out pictures of sprouts and of microgreens and students had to say whether or not their picture was a sprout or a microgreen and why.  The students were paying attention and participating the whole time and it tied in really nicely to the seed anatomy lesson. 

Finally we ended the hour with a review game for seed anatomy.  I thought this activity was also really successful because the students were paying attention and participating.  I passed out 10 cards--5 had definitions of each part of the seed, and 5 had pictures and names of these parts.  Students had to find their matching card and then we reviewed all the answers as a class.  


We gave MNIC the rest of our soil and seeds, and as we were leaving students from the class were showing some late comers how to sow the microgreens :)  Overall, I thought we did pretty well.  We are meeting with YEA corp again on Friday to plan what we will be doing next time!

How is everyone else doing with teaching?

Have a great weekend!


Jenny