Presenter: Elisheva Kaufman
Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information;
Ph: +972 2 6274 382
Fax: +972 2 6274383
Email:
law@netvision.net.il
Global Garden is a K-12 hands-on science program that transforms a school
into a center for ecological living and learning. Young people design and
construct regenerative systems that solve critical solid waste, water and
soil degradation, and ecosystem stress. Hands-on sequential composting, organic
gardening, water conservation, and regenerative technology projects
invite young people work together to become creative problem-solvers for
a sustainable future.
Elisheva Kaufman, an organic farmer and ecological science educator from
Vermont, is a pioneer in holistic science education for sustainability and
stewardship She has taught ecological science education at City University
of New York and Antioch New England, and was the curriculum developer and
trainer for the Common RootsÒ
school gardening program in New England. She is the author of Journey Through
Our Seasons, an elementary curriculum that
integrates Talmud and hands-on science, and Earth Explorers, a middle
school
program for environmental monitoring and earth stewardship.
GLOBAL GARDEN: HANDS-ON SCIENCE FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Global Garden invites young people to investigate and steward the ecosystems
that sustain them - through growing food, harvesting, eating, composting,
recycling all wasteÒand
working with nature to regenerate the life-support systems that nourish the
total human-natural ecosystem.
Sequential K-12 projects integrate composting, organic gardening, water conservation and ecological restoration; with international school-to-school partnerships that foster global-local solutions.
Global Garden Projects
Composting is the natural process of microbial decomposition that regenerates food and farm waste into nutrient rich humus; the heart of the soil ecosystem. Composting can decrease our garbage by half and produce a high quality natural soil amendment.
Workshop provide step-by-step instruction to establish schoolwide composting as a science laboratory,construction of on-site compost system, and sequential ýprimary, middle and high school investigations in microbial decomposition, soil ecology, and restoration of degraded soil.
Organic Gardening and Seed Saving
Food is life. Young people reap a harvest of learning with year-round dryland organic gardening activities. Global Garden trainers will work with student to redesign their schoolyard for water harvesting, organic gardens and habitat enhancement.
Kinder-Gardens
Primary children discover the natural garden cycles of plants, seeds and seasons that come alive with integrated arts and storytelling.
Community Gardens
Middle years young people research their community agricultural traditions and cultivate community gardens, while collecting and propagating native seeds to conserve biodiversity.
Gardens of the Future
Upper age youth cultivate gardens for the futureÒ using creative problem-solving with sophisticated ecological technologies and bio-intensive farming methods that yield abundant organic crops in small spaces.
Water Garden Laboratory
Young people discover the power of nature to renew itself and harness microbial activity and natural ecosystem functions to filter, cleanse and regenerate polluted waters.
Workshop provide the practical steps to design and construct a school waterpond nature laboratory for ecological treatment of greywater for reuse
Earth Ezplorers - Ecology Action and Restoration
Sustainability will be introduced at its source; through monitoring and
restoration of degraded ecosystems and regenerative ecosystem
functions.
Students adoptÒ a ýhabitat, and explore the cycles that
sustain water-soil-plant relationships, and human impact on these delicate
systems.
As local habitats are restored, students awaken to their participation
in
the community of life.
EARTH EXPLORERS Curriculum:
An 80 page ecological monitoring and restoration activity guidebook, Earth ExplorersÒ, provides coordinated investigations and computer linkage-guidelines for participating schools. Grades 5-9