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| Agriculture In The Classroom in Action: Connecting Cabot 7th Graders with Their Agricultural Heritage Five afternoons a week, from 12:15 to 2:45, teacher Tim Howe works with a small group of 7th grade boys in a special program at Cabot School called “Project Explore”. On four of those afternoons he takes his class out into the field to conduct or participate in agricultural studies, natural resource studies, mapping and orienteering, and other projects that involve hands-on engagement in the community. On Fridays, his group edits their digital camera photos, evaluates the week, and makes plans for the week to come. Tim listed some of the engaging projects they have done or plan to do below. Agricultural Studies: We interview and participate in agricultural studies around food production in Cabot, including dairy, fruit, maple sugar, honey, vegetables, goats, and perennials. We study the technologies that produce these products, and the occupations and lifestyles of the people involved. Our agricultural studies this year will involve building a low-tech greenhouse and growing flats of vegetables and flowers to sell and for use in student/family gardens this summer. The students have been involved in cooking with locally produced food on inclement weather days, and they will be preparing several meals at a community site for parents and/or staff using only locally produced food, with exhibits for each product. Natural Resource Studies: We interview and visit individuals involved in occupations connected with natural resources, and conduct site visits of natural resource areas. For example, we’ve done survey and boundary lines of the wilderness area at Buck Lake Conservation Camp, which involved mapping and orienteering. We have visited loggers and logging operations, including horse logging, and we studied wood lot management with foresters and loggers, visiting two sites that were technologically very different. We also conducted site visits with builders of three different solar homes, comparing their technologies. We have visited abandoned quarries, and we have planned visits to the granite industry as well as to a large abandoned area of several quarries with the company of a local historian. We have done natural resource studies of trees, including identification, use and finished products. We have also enjoyed resource-based studies of animals, including tracking, trapping, leather tanning and clothing. Finally, we are planning to do some land conservation studies this spring. Other Activities: We have planned two-hour counseling sessions around student issues such as transition, anger and prevention. We are learning about prisons through a prison project, which involves a presentation by inmates, and we are involved in community service for elderly residents, including help with cutting and stacking wood, sugar operations, and home security (with installed lighting through a grant from the Council on Aging). The students involved in “Project Explore” have had difficulty in the traditional classroom setting. Tim says that the both the seventh grade teachers at Cabot report that these students are doing much better on their academic work in the morning, and have shown improved behavior as result of their involvement in the afternoon program. The students’ parents report that their children are much happier when they come home from school. The farmer pictured in the sketch above is Melvin Churchill of Cabot. For Tim, one of the especially rewarding moments of his work in this program was observing the rapt, respectful attention with which his students listened to Melvin explain the process of artificial insemination, a vivid, articulate description of the whole reproductive cycle so essential to efficient management of a dairy farm. For a free copy of the “Cultivate the Seeds of Knowledge” newsletter, contact Erin Brannen at VT Agriculture in the Classroom Partners. For more information about AITC, contact Kristen Thurber (AITC Coordinator) or Erin Brannen (AITC intern) at: |
