Sustainable Agriculture

In recent years the Seattle area has seen an increase in urban farmers. Traditionally though, urban farming has not been included in schools for urban youth and their families to experience as well as earn credit.  Sustainable Agriculture is a unique field of study in that it can be offered in conjunction with Chemistry or Biology or Environmental Science for college credit.  Learning is multi-disciplinary (biology, chemistry, history, culinary, engineering, and career and technology studies). Besides offering labs on agricultural plants, soils, and chemistry, students can also research the historic and current local medicinal and crop plants, and design, draft and implement a sustainable agricultural project. There will be opportunities to volunteer at local farms, broadening the depth and scope of individual interests. As students construct ways to sustain agriculture into their own environments, finances, and social networks, they will be inspired by the local farms, farmers, and the amazing Pacific Northwest.  Urban farming is a metaphor for our community, please join us as we grow a green future together.

An Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture, Semester 1

  1. What makes Agriculture sustainable? (Standard C-1)
  2. Activity: Walk the Farm (Standard C-1)
  3. Reading Activity: The One Straw Revolution (Standard C-1)
  4. Activity: Interview people to look at change in food systems over time
  5. Activity and Lab: What is the diversity of an acre at 21 Acres? (Standard C-6)
  6. Reading Activity: Around the World (Standard C-6)
  7. Activity and Lab: Do sustainably grown products taste better? (Standard C-6)
  8. Activity: Menus and maps – Where does my food come from? (Standards C10 & C-12)
  9. Interview: Nutritionist
  10. Activity: Choices, choices
  11. Activity: Frontloading food
  12. Activity: Food for thought
  13. Activity: In the Meatrix
  14. Activity: The daily diet plan
  15. Activity: How low can you go? Environmental awareness and sustainability (Standards C-5 & C-12)
  16. Activity: Walk a Different Farm (Standard C-6)
  17. Interview:  Farmers (Standard C-6)
  18. Survey Activity (Standard C-6)
  19. Activity: Thinking Positively, thinking critically (Standard C-2)
  20. Reading Activity: In Defense of Food (Standard C-2)
  21. Systems of food, agriculture and nature
  22. Reading Activity: Atrazine and Frogs (Standard C-2)
  23. Reading Activity: “Federal Officials Outline Great Lake Plan” (Standard C-2)
  24. Activity and Lab: Eutrophication Experiment (Standard C-2)
  25. Reading Activity: “Study: Half of Wildlife Lost in 40 years” (Standard C-2)
  26. Interview: Whale Scout Helping Out (Standard C-2)
  27. Activity and Lab: Nature Vision – water quality testing, Puget sound ecology, stream ecology, and stream field (Standard C-2)
  28. Reading Activity: “Life’s Deep Kinship” (Standard C-2)
  29. Activity: Map of your yard’s trees (Standard C-6)
  30. Activity: Permaculture systems in my Backyard (Standard C-6)
  31. Group Project: Compost socks to the Community (Standards C-10 & C-12)
  32. Volunteering at local farms, job shadowing, real world application of knowledge

 

Plants, Soils, and Animals, Semester 2

  1. Activity and Lab: Take photos and identify and catalog crops, plants, and orchards
  2. Lab: Why do farmers choose to fertilize or remove “pests”? (Standards C-5 & C-7)
  3. Reading Activity: Organic pest management for vegetable gardens
  4. Lab: Compost and plant growth experiments
  5. Lab: Taking a soil sample and sediment test, Your Farm in the City
  6. Lab: Monitoring the composting process
  7. Reading Activity: Compost biology
  8. Lab: pH changes in small ecosystems
  9. Activity: Field trip to Cedar Grove
  10. Reading Activity: Hair in My Dirt
  11. Lab: Soda bottle bioreactors
  12. Interview: Chicken owners, a chicken in every yard (Standard C-6)
  13. Activity: Add a sustainably designed chicken coop to your backyard landscape project design
  14. Activity and Lab: The value of a tree (Standard C-4)
  15. Lab and Reading Activity: Weeds and what they say about your soil, Your Farm in the City
  16. Activity and Project: Greenhouse design (Standard C-4 & C-8)
  17. Lab: Fruits Lab (Standard C-6)
  18. Labs: Plant and Veggie Morphology; Edible plants and their parts; Plant families that we eat (Standard C-6)
  19. Lab: Plant structures and functions
  20. Labs: Fast plants (germination, growth & development, flowering, pollination, fertilization and seed development) (Standard C-7)
  21. Interview: Bee Keeper
  22. Lab: Reproduction of flowering plants: from flowers to fruits