5th grade students take a trip to the Farm School

Farm School students have been studying the water quality of the pond and local rivers in the Watershed Occupation Project.  This week, they taught Mountain Laurel Montessori 5th year students how to test for dissolved oxygen, nitrates, and pH.

Farm School pond water testing

testing for nitrates

canoes for deep water sampling

testing for dissolved oxygen

a curious little turtle

Students Study Simple Machines

The Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students pictured here are getting deep into applied mathematics through their study of Simple Machines. 

The students have been studying various levers, the wheel and axel, the Archimedes screw, and inclined planes. They have been designing and building machines to make life easier around the Farm, and at the same time working out the mathematical equations that explain how the machines work.

The students recently took a field trip to an operating mill to see how a simple machine enables humans to life thousands of pounds to turn a grind stone.

This study of simple machines is an example of an Occupation Project.  Occupations are project-based science classes.  The term Occupations comes from the idea that young adolescents are exploring their identities, testing out what it means to function in the social and economic world of adults - what might I be when I enter this society?  How might I contribute?  What might my occupation be? The projects are based on the real needs of the Farm School Community and on real occupations (beekeper, engineer, botanist, etc.) and change each term.

How's the Water?

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School 9th year Biology students investigate the water quality of the school's pond.  

The students used a kick-net to collect samples of aquatic macroinvertebrates.  We found damselfly and dragonfly nymphs and even a mayfly nymph!  Mayfly nymphs will only live in very high quality water with lots of dissolved oxygen.

This aquatic study is part of a species inventory the students are undertaking of the entire property to determine the level of biological diversity of the farm.

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.

Spring Lambs Born

Spring lambing time is here!  The students were able to witness the birth of twin lambs at school last week.  They watched in wrapt silence for over an hour while one of the ewes delivered. 

It was an amazing experience to watch both the process of the birth, and the reactions of the students. The moment elicited great compassion from the students for the ewes they have cared for so diligently, and for the new lambs.

The students had prepared for lambing through their studies in the Sheep Occupation Project.  They studied the anatomy of the sheep, the nutritional needs of sheep and lambs, and prepared for the lambs by building housing and providing food and water. 

So many science and history lessons have grown spontaneously from caring for the pregnant sheep and new lambs. For example, we had an impromptu genetics lesson in the barn as we tried to determine the genotype of the black ewe and ram who produced two black lambs and one white one.

Not to miss out on the attention, here one of the pregnant ewes takes time for a conversation with a student.

Students Give Presentations

Students deliver final presentations at the end of each Occupation and Humanities Project.

It is, in Montessori terms, the 3rd period of a 3-period lesson.

It is a time when the students share their newly developed expertise with the rest of the Farm School Community, and are recognized as true experts in that particular area.

Montessori students have many opportunities such as these to develop their public speaking skills.

Here, students from the Sheep Occupation talk about pregnancy and lambing, including DNA (the Sheep Occupation).

The Wind Energy Occupation is demonstrating their first successful anemometer

Spontaneous Wind Exploration

Today the Farm School students explored the properties of wind using a parachute. The Wind Occupation group is developing a windmill prototype using the cloth from an old parachute. First, they had a great time testing their strength against the wind. The lessons that will grow from this fun include drag, lift, forces, and more.

"So, it is good when a sheep burps?"

One of the Occupation groups (see below for explanation) this Fall is studying sheep. The students noticed that the sheep frequently burp. The question, "why do sheep burp?" led to a lesson on ruminant digestion and a fermentation experiment.

To simulate the fermentation that happens in one of the sheep's four stomachs, the students combined yeast, water, and sugar in flasks and attached balloons to the top of the jar. Learning about variables, some changed the amount of sugar or yeast, or varied the temperature. The amount of gas released was measured by placing the balloons in water and measuring the displacement.

Many Montessori Adolescent Programs use the terminology Occupation and Humanities Projects for the long term interdisciplinary studies in the curriculum. Occupation projects are science based, and revolve around the real needs of the farm (for instance, Sheep because this will be the first time we breed the sheep, or Wind Energy because we need to install a windmill to aerate the pond). The science standards of learning are covered through this project-based approach. They are called Occupations because they reflect the developmental needs of young adolescents as they look to the adult world and wonder "how will I contribute to society?" "What will I do?" They are trying on the occupation of farmer, naturalist, biologist, engineer, or veterinarian to see how it fits.

Microbial fun with All Star Septic

Chris Boucher, owner of All Star Septic, and father of a Farm School student, showed students how the septic system worked while he pumped it out.

It tied in perfectly with our recent lessons and experiments on microbial digestion in the Sheep Occupation Project. Students have been conducting experiments to measure the amount of gas released from yeast fermentation under varying conditions.

Work Made Noble Through Integrity and Passion

Ninth grade students have the opportunity to apply to be managers of one area of the farm. Here is a manager report from Rory Grambo, Animals Manager, Fall 2008

In the animal chore group we take care of the pigs and the chickens. They all seem to be doing well, and we are saving a lot of money on feed by feeding the pigs the food scraps from school. We are studying both the pigs and chickens in Occupations projects, and have various plans for them. We hope to breed the pigs this fall. However, if that doesn't work out, each of the pigs easily weighs 300 pounds and they will provide meat for the community. We have 16 chickens, of which 6 are new hens. However, not all of our hens are laying eggs at this point; we are trying to figure out which ones are laying and which are not. We also got new nesting boxes for the chickens. They started to use them immediately and this makes it much easier for us to collect eggs. Overall, the animals are doing very well and we hope to add more to our menagerie in the future.