The Farm School Live On The Air!

Congratulations

to students Ursula Bell and Zoe Pettler

who did an outstanding job in an interview on the local radio show The Valley Today!

You can listen to the podcast online here:

http://www.theriver953online.com/page.php?page_id=41558

Scroll down and click on
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010: Mountain Laurel Montessori School Staff

The students, along with Farm School Director Susan Holmes, were interviewed about upcoming events and recent happenings at Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School.

Thanks to Mario Retrosi for inviting us to be on the show.

Harnessing the Sun's Energy

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students made solar ovens from simple materials: cardboard, aluminum foil, plastic, and black paper.  They applied their knowledge of the properties of heat and light in their designs.  We hope to really get cooking by June!

The solar ovens were part of the Solar Energy Occupation Project (project-based science class focused on the physics of energy).  This project helped us to prepare for the installation and use of the new greenhouse.

First Fruits of Spring

The strawberries are back!  They remained dormant under all that snow this winter and are now finding their way up through the mulch. 

We are taking on the finicky process of putting down landscape cloth - cutting holes for each emerging plant - to keep the weeds down.



Two 9th year students wanted to find out how many of the plants survived the winter.  They took a random sampling of 2 foot square plots, counted the number of strawberries in each plot, then measured the area of the total bed and used a ratio to estimate the number of strawberry plants.  Good news!  The strawberries not only survived, they have multiplied. 

Strawberry jam and sticky red fingers are just around the corner.