Personal Goals: Christina

In my last semester at St. Olaf, I am naturally giving significant thought to what I want to do after I graduate, and what my vocation will be. There are many options including careers in ecology research, natural resource management, environmental non-profit work, conservation or environmental education. This last option is why I have chosen to work with the elementary schools in Northfield; I want to get experience in an education setting. I have very little formal teaching experience, so I don’t know yet if that would really suit me, and I am hoping this semester will allow me to try it out. I think environmental literacy is extremely important, and setting the groundwork for healthy behaviors (for both the individual and the environment) needs to start at an early age. Will I know how to relate to the third graders? Will they respond well to what I have to teach them? Will they exhaust and frustrate me, or inspire and invigorate me? These are questions I hope to have answered by this project.

Personal Goals: Kateri

Over the last couple weeks, I've had the chance to sit and think about why I'm doing this project, what I'd like to get out of it, and what I want to put into it. As with any multidisciplinary project, my goals cover a wide breadth of topics that are important for my development as a scientist, communicator, citizen, and nature-loving being. Here is a summary:

• Learn how to effectively communicate ecological concepts to non-scientists
• Develop a curriculum related to organic gardening that can be shared with teachers in other areas
• Set the project up so that it can be repeated year after year with the Northfield elementary schools
• Gain an understanding of the world from a child's perspective
• Prepare for my summer job as the Nature Director at a camp (testing out activities, teaching in an engaging way, getting kids excited about the world around them)
• Learn more about all the steps it takes to grow food (especially because I'd like to keep a garden next year)
• Have fun! 

All for now,

Kateri

Week 2 Update

The planning stages have begun! Over the past few days, we have submitted a grant proposal to kidsgardening.com to receive a grant for gardening supplies and curriculum support. This grant really helped us to iron out exactly what we wanted to do with the students and what we wanted to come from the project (in terms of curriculum sustainability, concepts learned, and tools gained). We also met with Tony Seidl, the third grade teacher at Greenvale Park Elementary. He emphasized to us the value of keeping kids engaged with activities, and he also talked with us about what kinds of concepts he'd like us to cover over the course of the spring. We'll be meeting with Cindy Green, the third grade teacher at St. Dominic School, tomorrow to discuss the same things. Over the next couple weeks, we'll be preparing lesson plans, getting the logistics worked out on indoor and outdoor planting, and planning a field trip to a local organic farm. Stay tuned!

Kateri

Eggplants, in progress

This blog will cover the progress of Kateri, Christina and Sheila, as we progress through our Senior Spring at St. Olaf college. As seniors in the Environmental Studies department, part of our senior seminar involves a civic engagement project. We will be working to continue the development and implementation of "Eggplants," a youth gardening program developed by our fellow Senior, Anne Daily, last year.

We have hit the ground running, preparing for a wonderful spring of gardening with 3rd graders at Northfield Elementary Schools, Greenvale Park and St. Dominic's. We are currently in the process of applying for a grant which will give us $500 for gardening supplies (cross your fingers!), and are analyzing the previous curriculum to develop it as to include our own personal flair.

It has been a great process to apply for a grant, primarily because we have to work to define exactly what we want to achieve with the program. So far we have decided that we want to inbue our environmental beliefs on young minds, encouraging young students to take time outside, building intrinsic connections with the natural world. We will do so through gardening. By planting a garden and caring for a garden the students will get their hands dirty, learning of the earth's amazing capacity to provide for our needs. We will ensure that our program is not merely some environmentalist evangelizing, but that it is also based in science. As science students we are excited to explore ideas of plant morphology with students, the importance of weeding and the competition for nutrients, and the issues of monoculture and plant diversity as well. We will discuss the capacity for organic growth of plants in comparison with the preferred and chemically-intensive industrial methods.We will also bring in issues of local farming by taking a field trip to a small local farm.

Wish us luck! Let the gardening, and the blogging, begin!