First MRW Day at the Farm!

This semester I am happily back at Michael R. White for my Capstone. My Capstone originally started with hosting focus groups with children, parents, and faculty at Michael R. White (MRW) but it quickly grew into a larger project that involved more of the school community. MRW is a very special Cleveland Public School as it is designated as a STEM School and sports a greenhouse and community garden on its very own property. My group and I fell in love with this space as we imagined it as an outdoor classroom to enhance the students' learning.

As our group started brainstorming about how to effectively utilize this room and incorporate the data collected from the focus groups, we came up with an idea to help improve the science and health class curriculum. Since MRW lost their school nurse and have limited funding, much like the sad reality that most Cleveland Public Schools face, we had to be creative and devise a way to achieve our goal. Pulling from our resources at Case, my group members and I formed a partnership between Case's University Farm and MRW. Five field trips were arranged and each trip had an agenda for the day: a mixture of science and nutrition to educate the children about their own health while exploring the field of science.

This arrangement made me very happy because not only were we addressing the needs of the principal but we were working within the aim of Dr. Lotas' grant. Obesity and hypertension are prevalent in MRW and by making nutrition lessons fun hopefully the kids will absorb the material. I was the first to present on Friday, October 21st and I had to tackle ecosystems and nutrition. I had no idea how they were related but then I began to think outside of the box and it clicked.

Since MRW has a plot of land that they can use for gardening, I took the approach that gardens were an ecosystem within themselves and we humans are involved in that mini ecosystem. After all humans play a pivotal role in various ecosystems. I created an interactive power point that was full of colorful pictures and age appropriate material. After our mile hike through a forest ecosystem, we discussed the vitamins and minerals found in certain vegetables. The kids were so impressed by seeing a carrot being pulled out of the ground!

Although the day was exhausting and it rained the entire time, the students from MRW appeared to have a blast. By the time we put them back on the bus, we all got hugs from enthusiastic faces. I think they are eager to return to their next farm field trip.