Please check out the image here that explains the difference between dirt and soil and why we shouldn’t treat one like the other. Published recently in the New York Times, it gets to the essence of one of the Vegetable Project’s favorite hands-on learning opportunities and thus the core of what the Vegetable Project is about.
We know that kids learn on a more meaningful level when we educators get Continue reading
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Another school year is winding down. Another growing season is shaping up. And the Vegetable Project continues to build hands-on learning opportunities, seeking more than anything else to make a difference in the lives of kids with great needs.
We know from our own experience and from voluminous scholarly research that contact with nature can be a force for good health – physical, mental and emotional – and thus support vital outcomes that range from sense of purpose to Continue reading
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Learning, like any other slice of human development, is far too complicated to explain successes or failures in terms of a single factor or two. But contact with nature appears to be a very important one. And education policymakers ought to get their hands around this, starting with a peek at voluminous research supporting this notion.
Goodness knows, sitting at desks in traditional classrooms is not working Continue reading
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Please take a look The Healing Power of Gardens, a posthumous publication of an essay by Oliver Sacks, the late physician/writer, in this morning’s New York Times.
We try from time to time to answer such questions as Why a garden? Why the Vegetable Project? And Why do we work so hard to get kids outside? And Why build outdoor classrooms at Albany Schools? Dr. Sacks does it for us even better than we do.
What does healing have to do with teaching and learning? Well, for starters, it could make an incredibly valuable contribution in in-school suspension rooms in schools where we work, where disillusioned, disengaged and angry students, each with a personal story behind all of that, spend time when they disturb the peace of hallways and classrooms.
–Bill Stoneman
Time is running out to buy seeds from the Vegetable Project for this summer’s garden. Please click here for all the details. Please place your orders and make payments by Friday, March 15, so we can get seeds to use by the first week of April.
We get our hands dirty with Albany students. We prepare tasty dishes with what we grow and teach about scientific method. But most of all, the Vegetable Project engages kids. Please share this post to help spread the word about this great opportunity to make a difference in the lives of Albany kids.
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The Oakland, Calif., school district intends to transform asphalt-covered school grounds into “living schoolyards” that promote children’s health and wellbeing.
The initiative, in partnership with The Trust for Public Land, Green Schoolyards America and the Sierra Club, ties in with plans to “address the challenges of the future related to climate change” with environmental literacy.
“We expect it to change the way they view the world,” says Kyla Johnson-Tramwell, district superintendent, in a statement issued by The Trust for Public Land, “and give them a deeper appreciation for the natural environment around them.
With hope to develop an outdoor classroom at Myers Middle School here in Albany, we say, “Pretty cool.”
Especially glad to see the connection made between contact with nature and wellbeing and by extension between wellbeing and the kind of outcomes we all want to see in young people.
–Bill Stoneman
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Start your own garden this year, maybe in a couple of planters on the back deck, or maybe add a few square feet to that special space – for the beauty you’ll create, for the hope you’ll inspire and for the stewardship of our environment you’ll provide. And please support the Vegetable Project when you do by buying High Mowing Organic Seeds from us from now until Friday, March 15.
Please click here for a printable list of our offering brochure and order form, Continue reading
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Teaching outdoors, a big Vegetable Project priority, continues to gain steam.
The Grand Rapids, Mich., school district plans to “create outdoor educational experiences” for all of its 16,700 students, according to an account at mlive.com. (Thanks to the Children & Nature Network for bringing the news article to our attention.)
With leadership from a nearby teachers’ college and local foundation funding, a three-year pilot project is slated to start next fall.
Clayton Pelon, associate director of the Center for Educational Partnerships in the College of Education at Grand Valley State University, explained, according to the mlive.com article, that schools are moving to “offer an outdoor education experience because research shows there are benefits to moving students outside of the four walls of a classroom to explore and discover the world around them.”
That’s our reading as well.
–Bill Stoneman
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The Vegetable Project has begun development of the outdoor classroom that it proposed creating at Myers Middle School. We purchased and assembled seating that can swing back and forth between benches with backs and benches with tabletops.
With conviction that a change of scenery now and then, and especially one that bolsters contact with nature, can transform academic lives, we will be Continue reading
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Posted in Contact with nature, Greenhouses, Outdoor classroom, School garden, Teaching, Uncategorized
The Vegetable Project has been working to create hands-on teaching and learning opportunities in Albany schools since 2009. With help from friends like you, we will build more lessons in the year ahead the joy of discovery. We will ensure that more students learn a bit about where our food comes from. We will work with professional Continue reading
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Strut your stuff in a stylish Vegetable Project T-shirt for $15. It's a great way to show you support creating hands-on learning opportunities for Albany kids.
