Farming at home

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During this academic year, 5th graders developed an inquiry process based on this central idea:

"People should be responsible for identifying, organizing and helping satisfy the needs of their community to make it a better place to live in".

Every student was inspired to find different issues around Austin: There were ideas like: School dropout, homelessness, hunger, bullying, traffic, car accidents, animal abuse, medical services for musicians and farming at home.

Each student researched about his/her topic in books, websites, interviewing experts, newspapers, etc and found out interesting information. All this information was posted in a written paper and they intended to propose an action plan to help relieve a little every issue.

Here is one example: Farming at home

This project promoted within the school community the necessity to grow and produce your own food, the student’s main concern was to know where the food we eat comes from. Sometimes, we just go to a supermarket and buy things we need but we rarely ask ourselves how these fruits or vegetables were produce.

She built a chicken house with recycled wood from old fences, inside the house there is a nesting box so that hens can lay eggs.

She also proposed to cultivate vegetables using different strategies, such as: raised bed, metallic containers, regular pot, etc 

Matilda had a short session with kindergarten to inspire them about growing their own food using their house garden.

A very inspiring and persuasive experience, some students are already growing basil, green peas and cilantro in their houses.