Activities
Biology/Life Sciences: Initiate a class discussion about what makes up a community. Suggest that the different plants in their containers represent a community, in much the same way that the class is a community. Each individual plant needs different amounts of water, organic nutrients, sun, and time to develop. To have a healthy community in a container garden you need a diversity of plants that are fed with proper nutrients, water and sun. (The more bio-diverse an ecosystem is, the healthier it tends to be). The same concept holds true within your classroom. Ask them to consider the growing conditions in their
bucket containers or local food gardens or farms. If the food grown in these local settings does not have the proper amount of nutrients, water, or sun or it is pumped full of chemicals, will they produce food? If not, where will your food come from? (Food will have to be trucked in from out- side the community.) What are the consequences? (Reduced productivity of the farmland causes social, psychological, and economic hardship for farmers, and the increased cost of food causes economic hardship for the community, whose money is no longer staying within and supporting that com- munity.) Now zoom out to view the bigger picture. What can we do as a world population to make our food resources more sustainable? How can we keep our resources diverse and productive over time? What are the benefits of sustain-
able gardening and sustainable agriculture? What are the social, economic, and environmental consequences on a world level if we don’t move to sustainable agriculture?
Sciences
A: The goal of the permaculture revolution was to create stable agricultural systems. (The term permaculture came from “permanent agriculture”, but has since been expanded to mean “permanent culture.”) Among its key principles are the following: observe and interact with your surround- ings; all energy can be captured; feedback is important (listen to your system); use your resources wisely; there is
Science Experiments Challenge
Self-watering containers can be used to demonstrate the consequences of growing food in unsustainable way. In this experiment, groups of students will grow the same food plant, but in different conditions. One group will grow their plant in the best conditions of healthy soil and good water quality. A second group will test the effects of soil salinization. A third will test the effects of depleted soil nutrients. A fourth will test effects of global warming. A final group will test a worst-case scenario that combines all these conditions. All other variables (i.e. the amount of sun and water, etc.) should remain the same. Once you have completed the experiment and noted the differences, have your class come up with
ideas for making their self-watering container system more sustainable. For example, unused plant material can be composted for re-use. A rain barrel or water catchment system could be devised using the school’s gutters to provide a source of water for plants.
MODEL CONDITION Ideal Salinization Decreased Nutrients Global Warming PROCEDURE
Follow the basic instructions for self-watering container and water regularly
Add 0.5 to 1 teaspoon of salt to each cup of water that you add to the water reservoir
Use a potting soil without any nutrients added and do not use fertilizer when planting
Put three dowels or sticks into the soil and cover the top of the container with plastic wrap (sticks should “tent” the plastic wrap over the top)
Worst-Case Scenario
Combination of the three conditions: saliniza- tion, decreased nutrients, and global warming
GREEN TEACHER 89 RESULTS
Every plant has a different growth cycle, but during their growing period, compare the results from each plant. Variables to measure include: plant height, physical appearance, presence of pests, fungus or other diseases, number of shoots or branches, number of vegetables produced per plant, and/or mean vegetable size (weigh all of the vegetables produced by one plant and divide by total number produced). Choose a result that is appropriate for your vegetable or plant. For example, if you are growing tomatoes, you could compare the number of days until harvest, the total number of tomatoes produced per plant, and the average weight of tomatoes grown from each plant. All of these factors will be influenced by the differences in the growing environments. Discuss why the results differ between each plant. What are the consequences?
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