Sunlight and Rainwater: Lesson Plans or Lack Thereof...
Questions from the last post...
We got a couple of really great questions from our last post. Thank you all for asking them!
Marianne S. asked if we had any concerns about the crates being made of plastic and whether there would be any contamination.
No, not really. The crates are food grade and we get them from local supermarkets. We know there has never been anything in them except for food and they do not break down or off-gas.
Thorne asked why we don't use milk crates.
We stick to produce crates for a number of reasons we stated in the last post but we choose produce crates over milk crates because they are less porous and do not require a liner or a bag. Milk crates have larger holes and can't really hold soil by themselves without some sort of a bag or something. Milk crates are cubes and a lot easier to deal with mathematically, but they are recycled and reused by most dairy companies. In fact, they are often illegal to take. There are a number of sites dedicated to how to steal them. Produce crates, on the other hand, are often thrown away. They are made of the same material, yet are a bit thinner and lighter. Thus the goal is to use something that solves imminent problems and that would get thrown away into landfill anyway.
That leads us into today's topic and a lesson on lesson plans. Some people have asked whether or not we have strict lesson plans. Since the focus is on solving problems, we have goals but not plans. Making plans is very hard with the garden as a learning platform. To go into a garden and say, "today, I will do x or y" is often pretty difficult. Don't get me wrong, we have ideas and ideas are always good, but the goal is often to get in tune with nature and nature often has its own ideas.
The weather, by and large, here in the Chamblee GA area has been very sporadic. Many gardeners like us have found themselves sweating one day and bundled against the cold the next. For many people this is a bad thing with many days spent longingly staring out the window. For others, though it is a challenge, where we focus on how to get things out of the ground sooner (or at all).
This also defines itself as a teachable moment. With students in Seattle still dealing with temperatures in the 50's and little sunlight while students in Puerto Rico are dealing with temperatures in the 80's we find ourselves in the middle of vast environmental differences. Temperatures here are in the mid 60's and sunny. We were able to get out into it. We were able to get some planting done and make some plans for the next couple of weeks. We were also able to explore some of the information gathering techniques.
Task: create a spreadsheet to track the weather in various locations. Take the opportunity to meet other people on line and invite them to contribute data so that we can create a comprehensive database of information.
We built a simple Google spreadsheet using three simple parameters. We were looking for the date, location, and the temperature in specific locations. In Seattle, the high temperature is 57. In Puerto Rico, it is 82. Right outside our door, the high was 67 degrees.
We now have a point for learning. What grows in those particular environments? How do people adjust to those environments? How do things like the foods people eat differ?
How can we manage the spreadsheet? What additional data would be useful?
We can now build a database and an environment for collaborative learning about the environment! If you would like to contribute to our spreadsheet, let us know at life@thelifecooperative.org
We got a couple of really great questions from our last post. Thank you all for asking them!
Marianne S. asked if we had any concerns about the crates being made of plastic and whether there would be any contamination.
No, not really. The crates are food grade and we get them from local supermarkets. We know there has never been anything in them except for food and they do not break down or off-gas.
Thorne asked why we don't use milk crates.
We stick to produce crates for a number of reasons we stated in the last post but we choose produce crates over milk crates because they are less porous and do not require a liner or a bag. Milk crates have larger holes and can't really hold soil by themselves without some sort of a bag or something. Milk crates are cubes and a lot easier to deal with mathematically, but they are recycled and reused by most dairy companies. In fact, they are often illegal to take. There are a number of sites dedicated to how to steal them. Produce crates, on the other hand, are often thrown away. They are made of the same material, yet are a bit thinner and lighter. Thus the goal is to use something that solves imminent problems and that would get thrown away into landfill anyway.
That leads us into today's topic and a lesson on lesson plans. Some people have asked whether or not we have strict lesson plans. Since the focus is on solving problems, we have goals but not plans. Making plans is very hard with the garden as a learning platform. To go into a garden and say, "today, I will do x or y" is often pretty difficult. Don't get me wrong, we have ideas and ideas are always good, but the goal is often to get in tune with nature and nature often has its own ideas.The weather, by and large, here in the Chamblee GA area has been very sporadic. Many gardeners like us have found themselves sweating one day and bundled against the cold the next. For many people this is a bad thing with many days spent longingly staring out the window. For others, though it is a challenge, where we focus on how to get things out of the ground sooner (or at all).
This also defines itself as a teachable moment. With students in Seattle still dealing with temperatures in the 50's and little sunlight while students in Puerto Rico are dealing with temperatures in the 80's we find ourselves in the middle of vast environmental differences. Temperatures here are in the mid 60's and sunny. We were able to get out into it. We were able to get some planting done and make some plans for the next couple of weeks. We were also able to explore some of the information gathering techniques.
Task: create a spreadsheet to track the weather in various locations. Take the opportunity to meet other people on line and invite them to contribute data so that we can create a comprehensive database of information.
We built a simple Google spreadsheet using three simple parameters. We were looking for the date, location, and the temperature in specific locations. In Seattle, the high temperature is 57. In Puerto Rico, it is 82. Right outside our door, the high was 67 degrees.
We now have a point for learning. What grows in those particular environments? How do people adjust to those environments? How do things like the foods people eat differ?
How can we manage the spreadsheet? What additional data would be useful?
We can now build a database and an environment for collaborative learning about the environment! If you would like to contribute to our spreadsheet, let us know at life@thelifecooperative.org
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