Southern Height Food Forest: The Outdoor Classroom Team Members:
Grace O’Keeffe – Georgia Lewin – Sitora Alieva Environmental Studies Program Client: Molly Phemister, director SHFF
Project Outcomes:
Project Overview:
Accomplishments:
Organization’s Mission
The Southern Heights Food Forest (SHFF), a community garden based on permaculture: “Build both a community and ecology
The team compiled 16 different ideas and inspirations for SHFF. Ideas were then presented by Molly Phemister and shared at the annual volunteer retreat. As SHFF looks towards the upcoming Spring, the organization can draw on the research that the team put together for programming site activities.
through food, play, and education.” Problem/ Challenge/ Issue
Curriculum of activities for the Outdoor Classroom with response to the changing study environment.
Summary
Project Ideas Examples (3 out of 16)
Social Importance
I.
Greek Myths (Icarus and Daedalus)
With the growing number of homeschoolers due to pandemic, the need for “an alternative educational space” takes on new importance. The outdoor learning environment SHFF creates will bolster children’s self-efficacy, further their education, and foster a love for the environment.
i.
Make wings out of leaves and sticks;
ii.
Create a labyrinth or map;
Stakeholders
v.
iii. Science experiment with sun melting; iv. Analyze how birds fly;
Elementary (k-6) remote learners, homeschoolers, and their parents.
II.
I.
Tasks, Methods and/or Approaches: Develop 3 or more activities for the Food Forest to implement in the Outdoor Classroom. i.
Research educational resources from similar projects; ii. Gather data and observe how families utilize the Food Forest and the Outdoor Classroom; iii. Propose activities to the client. II.
Promote the new activities to the community. i.
Utilize the current social media platforms or create a new plan to communicate the new activities;
ii.
Showcase the new ideas and activities.
“What would you see while flying like Icarus above SHFF?”
vi. Stage an interview with Icarus or Daedalus.
Goals & Objectives:
I.
Because of the nature of this project, no major outcome can be determined at this point of the process yet. Activities are to be implemented the upcoming year. The following 5 criteria had to be met.
Hibernation Box i.
Learn how animals hibernate or go into a state of “torpor” during the winter;
i.
Provide information about different animals that hibernate in Nebraska (skunks, racoons, and opossums);
i.
Let children build their own hibernation den in the Building area or Messy Materials area;
i.
Fill it with things that would keep an animal warm during the winter.
Montessori Practices i.
Introduce kids to the notion of scale and shape(s);
i.
Have scaled up shapes, wooden and hollow;
i.
Let kids build ‘inhabitable spaces’, stairs, and other forms they can interact with on a bodily scale;
ii.
Extension to the existing Building area.
Reflections and Recommendations:
The team recommends that SHFF uses the ideas they find most valuable, expands on them, and finds inspiration in them.
References and Sources: I. II.
Welcome! (n.d.). Retrieved November 05, 2020, from https://southernheightsff.org/. Southern Heights Food Forest_ Pitch Video. (2020, October 05). Retrieved November 05, 2020, from https://use.vg/MZYc8u. III. Pre-session_ Ideas_ for October 20th. (2020, October 20). Retrieved November 05, 2020, from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JI91o3c8REWu9xmezqOME6x44MJgAEUe2Rc0 dR2rcLw/edit?usp=sharing. IV. What makes a toy a Montessori toy? (2020, August 13). Retrieved November 16, 2020, from https://montikids.com/montessori/what-makes-toy-montessori/ V. Project WILD: K-12 curriculum & activity guide. (2014). Houston, TX: Project WILD.
Acknowledgements: For more information about the project follow the link below
Southern Heights Food Forest, 5750 S 40th St, Lincoln, NE Thanks to Molly Phemister, director SHFF.
Link to the Pitch Video Photos taken on site, October 5th, 2020, SHFF
College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
College of Arts and Sciences