Category Archives: Teaching

Coming soon to six classrooms near you! Tentatively on Tuesday. Live squiggly decomposing machines. Because we want student engagement when we talk about breaking down organic material. And recycling of nutrient. And nourishing our garden soil. And what the big deal is about the plants that depend on nutrient in that soil (you know, like giving us every bite we’ll eat, directly or indirectly, from birth to death, and producing the oxygen we need to breath — through that amazing chemical reaction known as photosynthesis — and simultaneously converting the sun’s energy into a form that powers most of the growth and activity of the planet’s living organisms).

(If you are reading this in your email, you may need to click through to our website to see what this all about.)

Now, that may be way more than most students will capture and absorb immediately. But our experience suggests that touching and experiencing opportunities, even yucky ones, can help build engagement that supports deep and memorable learning. And if we at the Vegetable Project can contribute a bit deep and memorable learning when we introduce these red wigglers to students, it would be a day well spent.

Will everyone want to hold a few worms? Highly unlikely. Will everyone want to get close enough to get a really good look? We’re not counting on that. Will most students come around in time? Good chance if we are patient.

And then, wouldn’t it be cool if students grab opportunities to show the worms off to classroom visitors down the road sometime, you know, like maybe the school principal? And talk about what they have learned about breaking down organic matter, recycling nutrient, nourishing our garden soil and what the big deal is about the plants that depend on nutrient in the soil?

It seems like a good possibility from our vantage point.

–Bill Stoneman

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Those are tomatoes in the picture, in case you can’t tell. They haven’t been totally exposed to the elements. But they have been in the cold, in a shed, for the past few months. And when we suggested to middle school students on Tuesday cutting into them to remove seeds, most balked – at least initially. With observations like, “ew!” and “gross!” and “disgusting!”

Many students, however, quickly overcame Continue reading →

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The teacher who we hope we’ll be doing some work with said almost the moment she came into the conference room that she doubted we could take her students outside, given their poor behavior. She was clearly upset, seemingly because she was asked to meet with us. It wasn’t a good start to a conversation.

Whether we will get the chance to take this teacher’s students outside wasn’t resolved. And that was disappointing.

We make no claim to working miracles. We do not have a magic Continue reading →

Educators are tasked with daunting challenges, and especially in communities with significant numbers of disadvantaged students. This is presumably obvious to everyone who has spent more than a few hours in a classroom lately – professionals themselves, parent classroom volunteers, guest presenters, service providers and perhaps others.

And still, we would urge policy makers and professionals and people in the college and university teacher training programs with all our might to take note of incredible research speaking to the benefits of exposure to nature. Articles in scholarly journals are not so easy to wade through. Two Continue reading →

The Vegetable Project, which leads hundreds upon hundreds of Albany students in getting their hands dirty each year, invites its friends to show their support for the organization’s research-based efforts by sponsoring a garden bed for the 2025 growing season. With gardens at Albany High School and Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School and a partnership with the Friendship Garden of the Delaware Community, we will mount a handsome sign, 4 inches by 12 inches, on the side of a raised Continue reading →

The mission of the Vegetable Project is to create hands-on learning experiences for Albany children and especially children the great needs, by building gardens, growing plants and harnessing the power of exposure to nature. More than we even realized when we adopted this statement in 2015, the last clause – about harnessing the power of exposure to nature – may be the most important part of what we try to do.

Nine more years of experience, anecdotal as it is, and nine more years of reading what scholarly research Continue reading →

We took a dozen students out to our garden at Myers Middle School on Wednesday to harvest collards, kale, Swiss chard, a few tomatoes, a couple of peppers, cucumbers, beans, some lettuce, basil, scallions and generally whatever could be found on this early October day. And the students returned quickly to their five family and consumer science (home economics) classes, where classmates and teacher Larry Drew set up for cleaning and preparing for cooking on Friday – and a bit of tasting at the same time.

This, we suspect, made learning feel especially meaningful for one class period of one day for most of about 90 students. This surely was experiential teaching and learning. We gave students close-up attention, which we know is valuable. And this is what we have in mind when we talk about harnessing the power of exposure to nature. Students appeared engaged both outdoors and back in the classroom.

Will reading and math scores rise next week as a result? Of course not. Can initiatives like Wednesday’s contribute to positive outcomes? Well, with research linking soaking up fresh air, real smells and the sight of living plants to wellbeing piling up by the month, we think the answer is yes, over time, and probably especially so among students who have the fewest opportunities to relax in backyards, visit parks nearby or vacation at the seashore or in the mountains.

Did it take much to pull this off? Sort of: caring for a garden since the days warmed up last spring, building a team of both volunteers and very-part-time employees, cultivating relationships with community partners like Albany Medical College and the Honest Weight Food Coop, searching high and low for volunteers to help out with watering and bringing the same 90 students out the garden three weeks earlier to touch and taste everything we could offer.

And was it worth the effort? Or maybe rephrase, did we see a suitable return on investment? These are more difficult question to answer. The Vegetable Project can plant seeds in the thinking about meeting kids’ needs, but cannot alone turn exposure to nature into broad-based, long-term, meaningful support for child and adolescent development. Maybe school districts can. Surely the prospects would be better if the state Education Department signaled some interest. Perhaps the thinkers in teacher preparatory programs could have some influence, if they thought we had a good idea here.

The day was certainly a wonderful one for all the adults involved. And as suggested a couple of paragraphs up from here, students appeared engaged, which feels like an important marker.

–Bill Stoneman

We missed the photographic opportunity of the season the other day. Hours before capturing the beauty of two dozen sunflowers at our Albany High School garden on Tuesday, Sept. 17, scores upon scores of bees were buzzing around the giant yellow flowers pictured here. They must have finished their meals. We did not see many again after that glorious moment.

So, here’s how we want to ensure that we maximize the value of the moment 12 months from now: We would like to invite Albany High living environment teachers and environmental science teachers and, well, every other teacher who thinks this sounds worthwhile, to bring classes out to Continue reading →