Declaration of Unity

Mountain Laurel Montessori Jr. High students are studying US Government this term.  In this Spring's Humanities Project they are forming a new nation.  They are in the process of developing their system of government.  Today they delivered their opening speeches and formally declared their intention to form a union.  Here are some photos of the official signing.

The Declaration



a little pomp and circumstance for the signing

A delegate signs

Hoophouse before the windstorm February 2012

We were just ready to harvest early spinach, lettuce, and radishes when we had a big windstorm that destroyed the plastic on the hoophouse.

Students water the plants daily

Chard

Lettuce

Plant's eye view

Radishes! We ate some for dinner on an overnight recently - yum!

The good news is that within 1 week we had ordered new plastic, repaired the damage, and added new anti-billowing straps to keep the wind from damaging the new plastic. 1 week after that, we had 60 mile per hour winds and the hoophouse came through it just fine! We're replanting now.

The bad news is that all of that fresh produce we grew for the Food Pantry was frozen when the plastic was damaged.

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

Spring Lambs Arrive!

We have 3 new lambs at the Farm School!

We were all able to observe this ram lamb being born

This lambing season was challenging, but provided many opportunities for biology lessons and real life decision making. Many thanks to Brandon, our Farm Manager, for his attention to the sheep; he is going to be happy to get a good night's sleep now!

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.

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.

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.

Abundance of Eggs in Winter!

While we are bundling up against the cold, our chickens don't seem to know it is winter. They haven't slowed egg production one bit.

We are enjoying the wide range of egg sizes and colors, as you'll see here in these photos. Many of our brown eggs are so large we can't close the cartons!

Students hold a silkie (our smallest breed) and a Jersey Giant (our largest breed)

Students sell the eggs at local Farmer's Markets as part of the Microconomy curriculum. They learn to track revenue and expenses, and make decisions about running the farm based on these numbers.

The students learn about economics through hands-on, experiential learning every day at the Farm School.

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.

"a limitless field for scientific and historic studies"

“Work on the land is an introduction both to nature and to civilization and gives a limitless field for scientific and historic studies.” -Dr. Maria Montessori , Italian Physician and Educator (first published in 1948)

Dr. Montessori believed that we could achieve a better and more peaceful society by improving the education of young people.

The farm provides the basis for the curriculum at the Farm School, lending itself to project-based, experiential, learning.

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.