School news
Interpreting our local National Park's stories in Spanish
Advanced Spanish students recently took a deep dive into the story of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park through the lens of questions such as: 'If the trees in this forest could talk, what would they say?', 'How does the art in the mansion reflect the fundamental values of the family MBR and the national park?', and 'How did the changing management of the Marsh Billings Rockefeller property over three generations reflect the evolution of the American conservation movement?'. Students visited the park, questioned park staff, and reviewed primary sources to conduct their research. They synthesized their learning in a 3 minute presentation that they delivered IN SPANISH to an audience of their peers and other spanish speakers at the National Park. This type of project takes perseverance, dedication, and courage toward skillful communication, which these students displayed proudly.
Growing food in a shipping container?
AP Environmental Science students travelled down the prettiest dirt road to an unsuspecting farm tucked in the Woodstock woods. There they encountered Ferndean Farm where a small collective of farmers is working on a microscale toward solving the problem of food insecurity in our community. Madeline Raynolds introduced the concept of hydroponically growing greens using a high-tech Freight Farms shipping container system. Students assembled and installed new growing panels, transplanted nasturtiums, and cleaned the foam strips used as a growing medium. They weighed the pros and cons of using energy and water-intensive systems like this against the compact land-use and dense growing capacity that these panels offer. Biosecurity, food sovereignty, and resilience were all discussed. Thanks for hosting us, Ferndean!
Protecting the pollinators that help us survive
In MS Gardens and Greenhouses classes, we have been exploring the question, “What do we need in order to survive and thrive?” by learning about biodiversity, native plants in our pollinator hedgerow, and specialist native pollinators. Students had some incredible reflections on their work and learning.
Kylie explained, “Biodiversity is a wide variety of life and it matters so that we have shelter for the pollinators and then in return they pollinate the plants we eat so if there wasn’t a lot of life we wouldn’t get the things we need to survive and thrive.”
Max pointed out, “...we have a lot of grass for fields and that is like an ecological desert. The pollinator hedgerow definitely helps.”
Greta A.M. shared, “I felt calm and curious because I wanted to learn more about my plant…”
Eloisa reflected, “It (biodiversity) matters to my life because if there wasn’t biodiversity, the whole ecosystem would be thrown off and it would be hard to live…”
Sloan added, “Biodiversity and native plants help me survive and thrive by supporting ecosystems that give me food, clean air and resources.”
We have also created some delicious pizzas with ingredients freshly picked from our garden. Students were challenged to make pizzas that scored high on taste, appearance, and best use of our garden ingredients. As the judge, I was amazed by all the incredible flavors and aesthetic appeal…and also incredibly full!
CRAFT Fall retreat was a success
“Fun, friends, joyful, hopeful, sunny, experience, growth, interacting, engaging, community, communication, connections.”
These are some of the words that CRAFT students used to describe their afternoon spent at the Vermont Land Trust's King Farm. We use this time to connect across all grade levels and peer groups to collectively build our program.
Sustainable Food Systems students had harvested apples from the Billings Farm and Museum that we joyfully turned into 30 pints of bright pink applesauce!
We reflected on our current emotions toward the environment and climate while setting personal goals. Some of these goals include: applying what we learn to life outside of school and new places, developing more sustainable kitchen skills, increasing ability and knowledge to make sustainable decisions and solve problems, understand how to apply systems thinking to the world, increase effective communication, and develop the ability to see how small actions can lead to bigger change.
This commitment, compassion, intelligence, and open-mindedness is surely what will, and already is, make the world a better place.
CRAFT immersive semester at King Farm
In the CRAFT Immersive Semester students have been getting grounded to this place, learning about its past and visioning its future. Students have had time to tune into the land, listen to each other's ideas and share what they are learning from our anchor text, “What If We Get It Right?” Tobi from Bird and Bee native plants connected with our native plant specialist, Abbie, to collect wild bee balm seeds at the King Farm. We have also been honing our interviewing skills with a real life video crew from Vermont Standard’s In the Spotlight. Students did an amazing job sharing about the King Farm, CRAFT and why all of this learning is so important to our future. The video will be released in a few months as a way to share the mission of the Vermont Land Trust, its conservation of the King Farm and CRAFT’s partnership for education on the land.