Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom Fall Conference for Educators
Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom Fall Conference for Educators, Saturday, November 7th from 9:00 a.m.to 3 p.m. at the Clay Center of the Dexter and Southfield Schools in Brookline for only $45. Four concurrent workshops/tours will be held during each of the four workshop sessions. All workshops will focus on composting, gardening at the school, taking the garden into the classroom, herbs, recycling and other green initiatives. Your may also choose to Tour Allandale Farm and the solar panels, wind turbine and planetarium at Clay Center. The $45 fee includes all workshops; workshop materials; breakfast snack; beverage and dessert at lunch, and 10 pdp’s for those who attend the full day conference, carry out a related classroom activity, and send in a brief report of their experience. Sign up early, while the all sessions are still available. You can register by sending your workshop choices and the registration fee to me at MAC P.O. Box 345 Seekonk, MA 02771. The full conference schedule is below. This isour first fall conference and we hope to make it an Annual Event in the future. Help us succeed by Spreading the Word about the Conference.
We are also now making plans for our Winter Conference on Saturday, February 6th in Ludlow. There will be six to eight workshops during each of the four concurrent sessions. Please send me suggestions for workshops that you would like to attend. Also if you are willing to present a workshop to other educators, I would like to hear your ideas.
Debi Hogan
Conference Schedule – November 7th, 2009
8:00 a.m.: Registration, coffee, tea and breakfast snack
8:30 – 9:00: Introductions & Welcome Presentation
9:00 – 10:10: Workshop Session 1 (Concurrent sessions, choose one of four workshops/tours)
Workshop 1: Gardening on the Rooftop
The students at the Josiah Quincy School in Boston have been gardening on the rooftop for the past 11 years. Aided by a mini-grant from MAC in 1996, Lai Lai Sheung and other teachers at the school created an urban container garden on the rooftop that became an extension of the classroom for hands-on science, math, writing and visual art learning activities. Children learn about nutrition and experiment with seeds indoors to prepare for transplanting in the garden. In 2007, they expanded the garden by installing 50 state-of-the-art greenroof modules built by the children. The low maintenance modules help to reduce the temperature of the rooftop as well as reducing surface runoffs. Learn about this exciting program.
Instructor: Lai Lai Sheung teaches at the Josiah Quincy School in Boston where she has gardened on the roof for 11 years.
Workshop 2: Vegetables – Seed Starting to Harvest
Yes, you can grow vegetables in the classroom! In this step-by-step hands-on workshop Marlo Pedroso, Marisol Pierce-Quinonez and Jo Ann Whitehead from the SLUG Program of the Boston Natural Areas Network will share how to start seeds, when to transplant seedlings, the care vegetables need indoors, the kinds of vegetables that will grow indoors, when the vegetables are ready to harvest. You will participate in a brief interactive session to connect the vegetable growing activities to learning standards – math, science, language arts!
Instructors: Marlo Pedroso, Marisol Pierce-Quinonez and Jo Ann Whitehead from the SLUG program with the Boston Natural Areas Network
Workshop 3: Worm Composting in the School
Take a step towards developing your own green classroom. Learn how food wastes from snack time are composted in worm bins right in the classroom.Janice McPhillips from Holly Hill Farm in Cohasset has taken composting programs out to as many as ten schools in south coastal Massachusetts. She’ll offer an overview of how to get started, setting up waste separation, student involvement and following the waste materials from the school to the garden. Activity ideas related to composting will also be offered.
Instructor: Janice McPhillips, Holly Hill Farm, Cohasset
Workshop 4: Tour of Alllandale Farm
Allandale Farm is Boston’s last working farm located in Jamaica Plain and Brookline. The farm follows practices that meet the growing methods, following the National Organic Program, although they have chosen not to pursue federal certification. They rotate crops, amend the fields with organic fertilizers and their own compost and do not use herbicides or conventional fungicide. The farm offers Community Supported Agriculture Shares, a farm market featuring farm grown and other locally grown and artisan foods, a summer youth camp and there is even a school on the property.
Tour Guide: John Lee, Manager of Allandale Farm and Past President of Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom.
10:20 to 11:30: Workshop Session 2 (Concurrent sessions, choose one of four workshops/tours)
Workshop 1: Getting Started With Composting
Karen DiFranza has taken her composting efforts to local schools implementing an active composting and gardening program at theHubbardston Center School and nearby Quabbin Regional High Schoolin Barre. Using images from the programs at these two schools and a small, portable compost bin, she will show how 6 tons of food and yard wastes each year are recycled into rich compost, which is then used to grow food for student consumption. Learn how the compost bins were built, about working with teachers and cafeteria staff, how the students divide the duties and about the garden that is a result of the labor. Try some interdisciplinary classroom activities. Continue the composting demonstration into lunch.
Instructor: Karen DiFranza of Hubbardston is a small-scale organic farmer/ gardener and avid composter, as well as an educator. She has developed composting programs at the Hubbardston Elementary School and Quabbin Regional High School in Barre.
Workshop 2: Vegetables – Outdoors in the Cold
Yes, vegetables really can grow outdoors in the wintertime! This workshop will show you what vegetables will thrive in colder weather, what kind of cover will keep them healthy through the coldest winter, when and how to plant and harvest. Instructors Marlo Pedroso, Marisol Pierce-Quinonezand Jo Ann Whitehead from the SLUG Program with the Boston Natural Areas Network will use the example of setting up an indoor-outdoor thermometer, you will participate in a brief interactive session to connect the vegetable growing activities to learning standards – math, science, language arts!
Instructors: Marlo Pedroso, Marisol Pierce-Quinonez and Jo Ann Whitehead from the SLUG program with the Boston Natural Areas Network
Workshop3: Incorporating Solar Energy Into the Curriculum
Students from Lexington High School and their teacher, Steve Wilkinswill bring ideas and resources that they are using to incorporate Solar Energy into their curriculum. Try out some of the activities and equipment that they use in the classroom.
Instructors: Steve Wilkins and students from Lexington High School
Workshop 4: Tour of Alllandale Farm
Allandale Farm is Boston’s last working farm located in Jamaica Plain and Brookline. The farm follows practices that meet the growing methods, following the National Organic Program, although they have chosen not to pursue federal certification. They rotate crops, amend the fields with organic fertilizers and their own compost and do not use herbicides or conventional fungicide. The farm offers Community Supported Agriculture Shares, a farm market featuring farm grown and other locally grown and artisan foods, a summer youth camp and there is even a school on the property.
Tour Guide: John Lee, Manager of Allandale Farm and Past President of Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom.
11:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m.: Lunch, and Speaker (bring your own sandwich, we will provide the drinks and dessert)
Key Note Speaker: John Lee from Allandale Farm in Brookline/Jamaica Plain
12:50 to 2:00 p.m.: Workshop Session Three (Concurrent sessions, choose one of four workshops/tours)
Workshop 1: Authentic Agricultural Curriculum Connections
Properly connected to the curriculum, school yard agriculture can provide unique, memorable, and relevant learning experiences at all grade levels. By starting with your learning objectives and working backwards to what you plant and what you do with what you plant, you can develop an agricultural program that is both efficient and effective in teaching many aspects of just about any subject. Years later, students will remember and be able to apply concepts that were learned through agricultural connections. The workshop presenter Bill Cassell teaches 3rd grade at the L.D. Batchelder School in North Reading where he works cooperatively with the other 3rd grade teachers in his school where students grow a small farm plot on the school grounds of wheat, potatoes and three sister crops and then bring their harvest into the classroom.
Instructor: Bill Cassell teaches third grade at the L.D. Batchelder School in North Reading. He is the 2007 Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year.
Workshop 2: Healthy Local Foods Go to School
Learn about the Massachusetts Farm to School Project and the great work that they are doing to connect school cafeterias to local farmers. Ann Cody will also describe the new kindergarten gardening initiative that they are conducting in Worcester.
Instructor: Ann Cody, Massachusetts Farm to School Project
Workshop 3: The Science of Compost
This workshop will offer an overview of the science of composting. Learn how to get started, construct the compost pile, balance nitrogen and carbon materials, and reach optimum moisture and temperature in the bin. You will also study the organisms in the compost, such as red wigglers, mold, and bacteria. Karen Kullas will also offer tips for presenting compost to students and ideas for what works and captures their attention.
Instructor: Karen Kullas of Berkley, MA has been a DEP certified home composting coordinator since 1994
Workshop 4: Tour of The Clay Center
The Clay Center for Science and Technology is a state-of-the-art astronomical observatory and learning center. In addition to the observatory’s seven research-grade telescopes, this five-story building contains sophisticated computer and science laboratories, a multi-media lecture hall, classrooms, dining, and meeting spaces, and a solar energy roof deck and wind turbine.
Tour Guide: Bob Phinney, Manager of the Clay Center for Science and Technology of the Dexter and Southfield Schools in Brookline
2:10 to 3:20 p.m.: Workshop Session Four (Concurrent sessions, choose one of four workshops/tours)
Workshop 1: Student Driven Biofuel Project
The environmental science students at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School are working on a new biofuel project under the direct of teachersBrian Dempsey and Fred Hohn. The students received a grant for a biofuel processor and are converting fry oil into biodiesel to run one of the school buses. They also have plans to purchase an EcoVan that will run on biofuel or used cooking oil. meet the students and learn about their efforts and how they got started.
Instructors: Brian Dempsey and Fred Hohn and students from Acton Boxborough Regional High School
Workshop 2: Using Herbs to Enhance Your Classroom Experience
Want to learn more about herbs? How can you use them in your classroom and tie it into the Massachusetts Curriculum Standards? Herbs are a wonderful addition to the classroom! Pots of herbs around the classroom add aroma, color and an opportunity to have many hands on activities. I will show you how they can be added to your science or history lesson. Also, we can look at the historical uses of some herbs. You might be interested to know what herbs can help you in the upcoming flu season! The workshop presenter Deb Galanos is a preschool teacher at the Head Start program inLeominister. She is also an Herbalist, Reiki Master and Reflexologist. She believes bringing herbs into the classroom is one way to reconnect today’s children to nature. (Limited to 12 participants.)
Instructor: Deb Galanos is a preschool teacher at the Head Start program in Leominister. She is also an Herbalist, Reiki Master and Reflexologist.
Workshop 3: Agriculture, the Sun and the Heavens
John Briggs, a faculty astronomer at the Dexter and Southfield Schools, will introduce teachers to the astronomy program at the Clay Science Center. He will connect astronomy to agriculture, the seasons, the natural growing cycles, and interesting issues in physics. Discussion will include a demonstration of the approximately 1000 watts per square meter rate of solar power present at the Earth’s surface. The focus will be on terrific shareware software called Stellarium, which any teacher or student can install, and use, free. It offers terrific demonstrations of the seasons and the harvest moon and is great for demonstrating historical and multicultural issues in astronomy and star lore, which connect nicely with the early history of agriculture and the development of the different calendrical systems. If possible, have your laptop and pre-install the Stellarium software from http://www.stellarium.org/. The presentation will be useful even if you do not have a laptop. (Limited to 16 participants.)
Instructor: John Briggs, a faculty astronomer at the Dexter and Southfield Schools.
Workshop 4: Tour of The Clay Center
The Clay Center for Science and Technology is a state-of-the-art astronomical observatory and learning center. In addition to the observatory’s seven research-grade telescopes, this five-story building contains sophisticated computer and science laboratories, a multi-media lecture hall, classrooms, dining, and meeting spaces, and a solar energy roof deck and wind turbine.
Tour Guide: Bob Phinney, Manager of the Clay Center for Science and Technology of the Dexter and Southfield Schools in Brookline
3:20 p.m.: Evaluation and Wrap Up
Debi Hogan
Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom
P. O. Box 345
Seekonk, MA 02771
508-336-4426
debi.hogan@earthlink.net