Studying for my APBI 200 Distance Ed final right now… Soil is so cool! But this final is so daunting. So much information. Just wanted to share some study guide pictures I’ve been using.
The Nitrogen Cycle! (my favorite)
Different kinds of parent material
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This summer (before I worked at FarmWonders), I took a course at Simon Fraser called the Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue. The Dialogue program is meant to engage students in an alternative form of education that’s based on learning through discussions and thinking about important public issues in a critical way. The class is partially about content and partially about process, which is a very holistic way to approach education.
The topic of the course I took was Sustainable Food Systems (of course). We got to meet and discuss food systems issues with many important people working with food in the Metro Van Region, such as Peter Ladner, James O’Neil, Brent Mansfield, Art Bomke, Sean Dorry, Helen Spiegelman, Arzeena Hamir, the list goes on and on. We even got to stay on Michael Ableman’s farm on Salt Spring Island (he is one of the guys heading SOLEfood Farm). We would host “dialogues” with these people or go visit their places and have in depth talks with them about the food system and their role in it. It was such a great opportunity to actually be able to speak with these people instead of just listening to them lecture, which is what it would be like in a normal class.
The content of the course was amazing, I learned so much about food systems and what’s happening in Vancouver around food. But learning about the process of dialogue was amazing as well. We learned about what it is like to work in a group, how leadership can be manifested in many different ways, how to host a balanced discussion, a bit about being in the professional world, and so much more. Being in that class changed the way I interact with people and how I see my education. It taught me that the work we do is important, but they way we do that work can be just as important as what we do.
Here are some pictures from our course. I will write another post that is more about the coursework we did soon.
Me, working with Michael Abelman at his farm (Foxglove Farm) stand on Salt Spring
We made amazing potlucks and ate together almost everyday during class
The poster for the event we held at the end of our class
Michael Abelman and Sean Dorry at SOLEfood
Everyone after the event
Foxglove Farm
We always sat in circles for our discussions. Always.
For part of the summer 2012, I had the great honor of working at the UBC Farm. I worked at FarmWonders, the summer camp that runs out of the Children’s Garden. It was quite the experience! Being at the Farm all day everyday was a treat, what a beautiful place to spend the months of good weather.
We did a lot of cool activities with the campers that were meant to engage them with the food system at the Farm. We visited the chickens, prepared a harvest lunch, made jam, built forts in the forest, picked raspberries, the list goes on and on.
Campers getting a tour of the Farm
Campers petting the chickens
Campers and a volunteer washing potatoes for Friday lunch
Photo credit: UBC Farm facebook page
I’m in ENDS 221 this term, or Sustainability by Design. It’s about urban planning and design and how we can create sustainable communities by changing our built urban environments. We had a lecture last week about a planning project that is happening in Edmonton. They are trying to convert an old airport site to a new neighborhood. It’s one of the most ambitious sustainable community projects ever! It was really neat to learn about. The best part was that they’re going to design a neighborhood around people growing their own food! The neighborhood is called the “Agrihood.” It’s a pretty cool idea. I would love to help them design a community around food and gardens.
The group that is doing the plan is called Perkins+Will. Check our their Edmonton project, or just peruse their site. They’ve done a lot of projects that we would all recognize.
http://www.perkinswill.ca/work/edmonton-city-centre-airport-lands.html
Here are some pictures of the Agrihood.
Tagged ENDS, planning, school, sustainability, UBC
I had to make two blogs for two different classes this term and I wanted to share them on my GRS Blog.
The first one was for APBI 260. My group and I looked into the feasibility of aquaponics at the UBC Farm. It was a very general and broad topic, we basically just learned about how aquaponics works and tried to see if it would be a good fit at the Farm. We think they should build a system, even though it would cost a bit of money to start up, because they could supplement their field production of greens with greens from the aquaponics system and because it would be a great interdisciplinary educational tool. Here is the link to our blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/hookedonponics/
The other blog was for LFS 252. For our e-portfolio project, we researched how many people go to Sprouts throughout the week. Werecorded how many people bought lunch there on Mondays and Wednesdays between 12 and 1 versus how many people attend Community Eats during that same hour. Many more people go on Community Eats days. From this, we drew conclusions about how innovative events like Community Eats could have largeimpacts on social/health issues like student diets and nutrition and environmental issues like food waste. Here is the link to that blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/freefoodrocks/
They were both great projects. We got to look into some very interesting subjects. And now I feel like I’m that much more acquainted with WordPress.
Jess Landing, another GRSer, and I did a presentation on alternative agriculture for our Food Politics seminar. We researched a few different methods and spaces for growing food and presented a very brief overview of them. We looked into permaculture, rooftop gardens, mobile gardens, vertical growing, hydroponics, and aquaponics.
One thing we found, especially with the alternative spaces, was that these methods of growing food are focused on creativity, playfulness, and education. Another common theme was bringing food back to the city, or teaching people living in urban areas that it’s possible/easy/fun to grow their own food.
You can see our presentation on GoogleDocs here.
Below are a few pictures of things we talked about in our presentation.
Seattle Food Forest Permaculture Design
Window Farms: vertical growing+hydroponics+urban+DIY
Compass Green: a Mobile Greenhouse Project
neat blog i just became aware of. here are two really cool images from it.
http://permapoesis.blogspot.com/
neat project called the Lexicon of Sustainability. check it out.
Video: Lexicon of Sustainability
Link to site: http://www.lexiconofsustainability.com/
some of my favorite environmental signs at #OccupyVancouver. can you spot the GRSers?
