Committee Members: Ned Houston, Allison Van Akkeren

1

SARP I

Spring Semester of 2007

SARP Advisor: Ann Spearing

Committee Members: Ned Houston, Allison Van Akkeren

Proposal for Craftsbury Elementary School’s Project Seasons Pilot Program

By: Kacie Breault

Summary

The importance of agricultural, and nutrition education in schools has become increasingly important where in present times people rely heavily on a globalized food system (Feenstra, 1997). In contemporary culture, there has been a disconnection between farmers and consumers and lack of awareness of where food come from, how it is grown, who grows it, how it is processed, and what effects foods have on our health. One way to educate and re-connect people to their food sources is via elementary education. Agricultural education can be teamed with “Placed-Based Education” in which teachers and community members plan and work together to create a curriculum to teach their students about local natural and cultural community that surrounds them (Plumb, 2003).

The state of Vermont been a leader in incorporating many efforts toward implementation of agricultural and food education. A core of dedicated organizations surrounding Burlington called Food Education Every Day (VT FEED) has been a huge influence for changes in Burlington’s school food programs in the last 10 years (Hudson, et al., 2006). Nutrition and fitness policy guidelines were created in Vermont legislation in 2004 to raise standards of health and nutrition in both the urban the rural areas of Vermont (H. Res. 272, 2004). Rural areas such as the town of Craftsbury have a rich agricultural culture that surrounds them. The proximity of farms and food production at the primary level makes it especially important to incorporate agriculture and nutrition education in the classroom to insure the cultural awareness, health, and well-being of their children. In Craftsbury the question I will be addressing with my research will be how can this pilot program (see information concerning my sponsor on pages 3- 4) be implemented into the elementary classrooms to be used as a full effective learning tool and not infringe upon the lessons currently taught?

Introduction

The overall health of a community is dependant on food systems. Looking at an individual community’s food system can reveal much about the vitality and sustainability of that community. Food security has become heavily dependant on the global economy markets. As noted in Berry’s The Unsettling of America, the uncritical welcoming of agribusiness and mechanization in our food and agricultural systems has lead us further from culture and community (as cited in Feenstra, 1997, p.28). However, negative impacts from this process have led to a focus in many areas the United States for re- developing a more localized food economy as a step towards building healthier communities (Feenstra, 1997).

The Oversized Issues

One way that communities have approached a more local and healthier food system is to incorporate food and agricultural education into the schools’ curriculum. Among the food and diet related issues in recent years has been the increasing obesity of children. Over the last few years in America there has been an increase in overweight youth aged 12-19. The percentage has tripled from 5% in 1980 to 16% in 2002 (Kann et al., 2005). Overweight youth are at risk of cardiovascular problems as well as other physical limitations and health problems (Kann et al., 2005). There have been various programs developed that combine nutrition education, farm visits, school gardens, and education in the classroom so that children can develop healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime, in turn decreasing the risk of food related diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease (Community Food Security Coalition, 2006). A 2004 study on the effect that junk food at school lunches had on students behavior was done in response increase in overweight children across the nation. Most youths are enrolled in school where they will eat at least one meal a day. The research showed that in 2004 of the majority of the secondary schools in 27 different States, 11 of the schools studied in large urban areas allowed students to purchase competitive foods during lunch times resulting in very little availability or consumption of fruits or vegetables.

The meals and foods provided by the school create an over all “nutritional environment” this environment is a fundamental to any approach to improve and encourage better nutrition in schools (Kann et al., 2005).

Agriculture Education

One study with elementary school students found that when students were exposed to garden work including the planting and harvesting of vegetables in combination with nutrition lessons, they had a greater preference for trying and eating vegetables than those students who just received lessons in nutrition (Morris and Zidenberg-Cherr, 2002). This study offers great evidence that school gardens and nutrition education with cooperation of parents and teacher to reinforce lessons taught in the classroom is a clear way to enhance the willingness and improvement in a student’s eating habits at a young age (Morris and Zidenberg-Cherr, 2002).

With agriculture education in the classroom, teachers are able to incorporate many different subject areas that need to be addressed. For example, the Pumpkin project in Freedom, Maine has been a success and has become part of a year round curriculum for the class. Their teacher and head of the project Mrs. Chase is quoted saying,

“The problems we experience are authentic; the goals real; the learning occurs naturally. And there are learning opportunities across the academic and social spectrum. The children have gained skills in reading, writing, math, social studies, and science. They have done research, made decisions, solved problems, experimented, and evaluated results.” (Chase 1995).

My Sponsor

A non-profit educational organization specializing in environmental and agricultural education, Shelburne Farms is a 1,400 acre working farm that has become a hub of inspiration and discovery of exploration for educators. This National Historic Landmark uses its wide range of resources from farmyard to forest as outdoor classrooms. Shelburne Farms’s mission is “to cultivate a conservation ethic in students, educators, and the general public by teaching and demonstrating the stewardship of natural and agricultural resources” (Shelburne Farms’s Newsletter).

Shelburne Farms is involved with many outreach programs, one of them being VT FEED. They have a strong agricultural education program and staff that developed many programs and curricula for all ages. They have started to reach out to more rural communities with the help of grant money form the Henderson Foundation, Shelburne has been able to help assist with the implementation of agricultural and placed-based educational programs in the South Hero, Burlington, and Craftsbury Schools. They will use my research information on the project here in Craftsbury to assess the viability of the project in future years. They will also be able to use Craftsbury as a model for other rural areas where there is interest in starting agriculture education programs.

Proposal

My proposal is to research and explore methods of agriculture education in the classroom. My focus will be developing curriculum to meet the needs of the Craftsbury elementary school’s kindergarten through fourth grade teachers. By creating questionnaires and setting a time to interview the faculty, I will assess needs and see where agricultural education can appropriately fit into the educational objectives over the seasons at different grade levels. My time and research will be spent trying to create a schedule for this project that does not interfere with any of the classes’ standard learning practices. This program is meant to be blended into the lessons that students are already leaning and not an “add on” to the teacher’s busy schedule. A particular challenge will be to coordinate these agricultural lessons with existing areas of these classroom routines.

The goals below are those I hope to address and to fulfill in my research and time in the classroom:

1. To work with a well established agriculture educational program model (the Shelburne Farms “Project Seasons Curriculum”) to create a pilot agricultural education program for community of Craftsbury VT.

2. To raise awareness in youth about the importance of local economy and local resources through examples of local agriculture.

3. To be able to work within the school system and create a program which teachers are easily able to apply to the curriculum that they are already teaching to students.

4. To increase of community involvement through methods of outreach and networking within the community especially those that encourage parent involvement.

5. To create a connection between the elementary school and local farmers.

6. To participate in the activities that get children thinking about the food they eat and how they can improve their diets and community by eating, buying, or growing local foods.

7. To collect information and resources for the program to use in the future.

8. To build a stronger connection between Sterling College, the elementary students, teachers, their parents and local farmers.

9. To become familiar with teaching lessons to elementary school students in a classroom setting.

10. To gain knowledge and discover resources that I will be able to apply to future communities and schools if I choose to continue my involvement in agriculture education.

Methods

How to determine interest from the teachers?

I will meet with elementary school teachers at a faculty meeting to introduce the program. The second grade teacher has expressed interest when hearing of the possibilities of the program. At the meeting I will inform them of how the program can assist with the seed saving and plant growing that was already being done at the elementary school by incorporating parent volunteers and activities for the students. Awarded in January of 2007, the funding from the Henderson Foundation provides assistance to the program through Shelburne Farms to encourage parent and community involvement. The program also plans to incorporate a field trip to a local farm to educate, and expose students about a local working farm. To move ahead I need to find the answer to two questions.

What do the teachers need help with?

I will create a questionnaire for the teachers to determine what topics the students will be studying in the spring since it would be helpful for the project to try to incorporate material that the students are already learning about. The teachers also need assistance planting seeds to grow in their in classroom growlabs (indoor self-contained, light assisted plant growing facilities in each classroom). I will also arrange for each class to have a set of parent and community volunteers for the days they plant the seeds.

What local farm should we visit?

One of the highlights of this project is to get students onto a working farm in their hometown to show farmers and teachers working together and creating solutions. Nutrition professionals, health and agriculture advocates, educators, and policy makers within our communities are linking schools with their local farms in an innovative and timely effort to improve the school nutrition environment while creating new opportunities for local farmers (Hamm, et al., 2006). The teachers and the “Project Seasons Team” (Allison VanAkkeren, Erica Curry of Shelburne Farms, and myself) decided that Pete’s Greens was the local farm with which to connect. It is conveniently located within walking distance from the elementary school. The students will have been learning about the growth of plants in their classrooms with the growlabs, so seeing the working farm with its large greenhouses full of plants seems to be the right fit for this program.

I will assist in being the liaison between the Pete’s farm and the school to arrange dates and provide a safe and educational fieldtrip for the students.

Since the field trip will be lead by a group of parent volunteers, I will help organize a parent volunteer workshop to give them a sense of the how the fieldtrip will flow and what activities will be used form the Project Seasons curriculum.

Parents and other community members will organize to actively participate and help educate while in the classroom. They will also work with the students to assist with the planting of flowers and vegetables for the school garden and the annual Memorial Day plant sale that the elementary school has been participating in for the past 10 years.

Project Seasons in full effect.

After the field trip to Pete’s Greens it will be time for students to start working in their own garden behind the school. In past years the teachers have prepared and planted the garden with the whole class. They have had little success with organization in order to plant the garden before school ends. This is the perfect opportunity for the parent volunteers and the Craftsbury Project Seasons program to step in and lend a lesson and a hand. Each class will have a time to plant and participate in a lesson from the “Project Seasons” curriculum led by the parents. Implementing their own garden will give students a sense of achievement and connection of the amount of work that it takes to grow food.

I will be responsible for supplying and creating all the materials for four of the Project Seasons activities outlined in the Projects Seasons text including:

·  Eye Spy, grade level:2-5, p. 183

·  Tomato Planet, grade level: 2-4, p. 27

·  The Soil Chef, grade level: 3-6, p.67

·  Be and Insect, modified to Dress up a Plant, grade level: K-3, p. 237