Jennifer Nesmith from Cherokee School in Orlando, Florida promotes Global WORMing, with her new Worm Farm project at Cherokee school. She purchased the worms from an online vendor and the students and staff add lunch scraps to the farm to help fatten up the young worms. Students will study how the worms grow and develop, learn about composting and soil nutrients, and use their worms for fishing in the spring. Great activity Jennifer!
What are YOUR students learning about the environment?
13 comments:
I have a personal project, which I have worked on over a period of years, that I show and explain to the kids.
I've always looked at farmers as the caretakers of the soil and environment. In our area, farms and farming are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Grandpa had a farm but Dad worked in the factory. The land, once farmed, becomes a site for a new home once grandpa dies. The once productive land becomes lawn and buildings. Not only is there an environmental loss, but the stewardship people had for the land is gone also.
Anyway, I am a photographer, as well as a teacher. For years I have (from time to time, as the mood presents itself) photographed the few farmers left in my township. I have stalked them, (with loving care), and tried to locate them in their natural habitat. I never call them in advance, nor in many cases do the people know me. I just show up. The deal is, I take pictures of them as they are when I find them. (In their barn boots, or torn jeans) I pick the picture I like the best and make a copy for each of us, no charge. I let them know that I think that the role they have played in the community and caring for the land is pretty special. I have always talked to them if possible, so that I have somewhat of a history about them. I have only been turned down for a picture, once. People allow me into their homes and barns to take their pictures with very little talking on my part. I think people allow me to take the pictures because I really do respect them and it shows on me.
When the mood takes me, I get out some of the pictures and talk to my kids about the people and the role they have played in the community. The kids cannot come away from the "fire side chat" we have without knowing that I really think that the people in the pictures should be respected. They have cared for the land throughout their lives.
I feel that by sharing my personal project with the kids, and being openly respectful of the role the people in the pictures have played in our community, the kids may just develop some respect themselves. In some cases, the kids can go home and tell their parents, that their teacher "talked about grandpa in class today".
Thats an outstanding Idea Vance. I'm going to visit an outdoor classroom tomarrow in another district. I am hoping to come away with some ideas of my own. I'll let you know how it turns out.
One of the things the Wisconsin DNR does is a stencil program. With it, they send you the stencils and then you can go around and paint the storm drain with them showing that a storm drain is not a disposal for garbage. I have been thinking about doing this, but again, with time, don't know how to get it into our program. I wish I had my kids for more than 36 days!!!!!
Currently we are working with the Mayor's Office on expanding the school's garden. There's a huge push for 'Green' projects here in San Francisco. They even pulled up the flower beds at city hall and planted vegetable gardens over the summer!
Our school's garden is a low key project but it allows us to educate students in an experientially focused classroom. As a reward for some of our PE classes, I allow students to garden and take home some of the veggies. So many of our city students have never had the opportunity to get dirt under their finger nails. It's a start!
A couple of years ago, I took some of my kids on a hike, back into our old state home property. There is a grave yard of sorts back in the woods, that was used for burying those with no family to claim them.
The kids cleaned up around stones that had been covered with leaves for years. We had been working a while when one of the kids discovered a Bible laying open on a stump. Through it had rained for several days before our hike to the grave yard, the pages of the Bible were dry.
I don't know if there was a message there or not, but we all decided that we had picked a good project to work on.
I get some of my environmental lessons from this web site. Check it out.
http://www.kidsforsavingearth.org/index_high.html
This is a great idea. My uncle raises worms and then sells them to landfills. I didn't even think about using him as a resource. He will be getting a phone call from me. I hope to incorporate his knowledge and resources into our fishing.
Give me a call Jessica, i love talking about the worms. Some of the teachers have gotten directions from me and have started their own worm farms in their classrooms.
Also, i got another grant to do some environmental things in the area in which we will be testing water and soil. We have already located plant and wildlife species by using compasses (from Physh Ed) and GPS;s that I got from the newest grant. I just finished taking the 6th graders on a geocaching outing for several days in which they found the fact sheets at different locations and answered questions about different fish. They were really fired up and we all had a blast. We spent two days walking around the lake and picking up dangerous things to wildlife like plastic bags and fishing line.
We have a worm composting bin inour classroom. the kids only add apples, bananas, and veggies ccraps so it does not smell. if only i could figure out how to measure the wrom juice into a great fertilizer. we have diluted it and still foudn it to be to high and it kills the plants.
I also have help start an Americorp prgram in Cooper Landing. We have a postion that works on environmental issue and she is getting stuff together to do a community garden at our senior housing complex. it hsoudl be great fun.
Jennifer,
I am really interested in the geocaching outing you were doing. Do you have tips on how to set up something like that? How much and what kind of equipment is needed?
I grow up on a farm. My Dad also did a lot of grain trucking for other farmers. Sometimes the grain contained insects that needed to be killed before the grain could be sold. For that he had a chemical that was really deadly.
When I was 10 or ll years old, my Dad got really sick, and never recovered. It took years for him to finally die. This was an unpleasant time in my life. I started to run the farm at an early age and not knowing what was killing my father, used the same chemical myself.
Sometime, each trimester, I share a story with the kids about that troubled time in my life. I share with them my concern about using chemicals without knowing all the side effects they may have. I share the side effects that my Dad had, with them. Believe me, dieing was the easy part.
If you have never been in a room full of 7th graders where you could hear "a pin drop," join us, when I tell the story.
We have been working on a project at our school to plant a rain garden/outdoor classroom at the edge of school property around a drainage ditch. Water from this ditch runs off sports fields into a nearby lake that is "impaired". This is the lake we use for canoeing and fishing :( We will be getting grant funds from Project Learning Tree's Greenworks Program and Wild Ones Seeds for Education Program to assist in purchasing prairie plants for the project. Our students will be helping with the entire process, which we hope will help students realize they can make a difference!
Saturday, I met with a group of carp fisherman that I had been on the same Web forum with. (Michigan Carp Adventures) Andy and Nikki were kind enough to invite us all to their home so that we could get the year off to a good start. My thought is that this group really cares about the carp they catch and the environment they are in.
As an example, Don (a cop by profession) is going to have us all meet for a family camp-in weekend on the Saginaw river. When I asked him about the spot we would be meeting in and if there would be any problems with camping there, he said, "no." It is a spot that Don often fishes himself and he cleans the area of other peoples trash each time.
Andy gave us all some carp fishing magazines. One article that I happen to notice, talked about all the things that need to be done to insure that the carp you have caught is okay. That included, putting medicine on the hole made my the hook, before returning the carp to the water.
Many of the fisherman have kept accurate records about the weather conditions, water temperature, etc in their fishing logs. They know the berries that grow along the rivers and when they will fall into the water. They are aware of drop offs in the rivers and where the old river bed is located. They know their venue better than any group I had contact with.
When it comes to treating the fish with respect, you cannot beat carp fishermen. They use nets that don't have knots so they don't damage the scales on the fish. The have mats that they land the carp on and they clean it up for pictures. They are careful not to keep the fish out of the water so long that it is stressed.
I know that many of you look at carp as being trash fish. Assuming that were true, it shows that some people have respect for all living beings, regardless of its station in life.
If you want your kids to respect the environment, teach them to be good carp fishermen, the rest will come automatically.
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