SPREADING SEEDFOLKS

Two university sweethearts outside of UCA

One of the three prongs of my program is university coursework (the other two are school observations and a Capstone Project).  In April I eagerly enrolled in an environmental education class for professionals offered at my host university, Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA).  Many of the participants were classroom teachers, while some were informal environmental educators who work with municipal programs or NGOs, and others work in engineering, law and policy.

Last Tuesday night we convened for the last time to present our trabajos prácticos. All of the final projects were unit or lesson plans aimed at uncovering some environmental principle, problem or reality.  I was impressed by my classmates’ presentations which covered a range of topics and strategies such as interdisciplinary approaches for high schoolers on the consequences of mining, introducing water as a precious natural resource to small children, SmartBoard habitat games designed by sixth graders for first graders, a Reduce-Reuse-Recycle campaign, and a plan of study on flooding abatement in the city of Buenos Aires. 

I presented a lesson sequence on sustainable food systems and agriculture.  The final project for students in my plan is an investigation of our school meal service and the design of proposals to make it healthier and more sustainable. I would love to find a way to actually implement this curriculum at Paul Cuffee School as an extension of our study of urban community gardens and the novel Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman.  The professor had asked me to share out a bit on community gardens and urban farming in Providence, and it was great fun to describe Southside Community Land Trust southsideclt.org and our collaboration with the organization. Afterwards, a number of teachers asked me how they could find a copy of the translated version of the book, which does exist as Semillas (Paul Fleischman is so awesome). Special thanks to former PCS colleague Emily Hoyler, now of Shelburne Farms Sustainable Schools Project sustainableschoolsproject.org; Daniel Gilden, DAT Fulbright alum; and Alejandro Gagliardi (my copy editor) who all helped me with the assignment.  

Later, I took myself out to Chinese food next to UCA in the upscale Puerto Madero district, along the Río de la Plata, a mere 20-minute walk from my apartment. Not sure if the meal would be considered sustainable, but it was spicy – a rare treat in this country of delicious but mildly seasoned cuisine. 

Action shot of me presenting...not in Enviro Ed class but at an April presentation I gave at UCA with Lili on social studies instruction in the U.S. Not the most flattering shot of me either, but I love that you can see some of my former students and my classroom at PCS in the slide behind me.  

Puente de la Mujer
a new artistic bridge in honor of Argentine women, located in Puerto Madero