Garden Classes for Avanti High School Kids

by L.S.

Tomatillos in the garden bed 'Uranus'

While there are many great aspects of the Sagan Satellite garden, my personal favorite would have to be the classes given at the garden, taught by Quasar Surprise. Avanti High School students can get either science, CTE, or elective credit for completing a 3 - 6 week course. Within the short weeks of the class, the students discuss many different topics, usually relating to sustainable agriculture. In the three classes I have taken, there has been an ongoing theme in each of them. Themes I have experienced have included but are not limited to: cover crops, companion planting, and the origins of agriculture. I shall explain how a class works day to day, as well as overall. For the sake of example, I will use the most recent session.

Avanti students leading activities for
Madison Elementary students

On a typical day in the garden, the schedule would somewhat resemble this. Within the first five minutes of class, we take time to answer a question provided by the teacher to the best of our abilities as a prompt to ready our minds for the rest of class. The questions usually relate to agriculture in some way or another, and are fairly thought provoking. Next, and for the first portion of class, we do active class work. i.e class discussion or debate, actively reading articles, or working on learning plan projects. For the last portion of class, time is usually spent in the Sagan Satellite garden, weeding, harvesting, planting, and trimming. As an overall class, many skills were learned and practiced such as time management, discussion, active reading skills, keeping schedules, and speaking skills.

So although most people see the Avanti kids just frolicking around in the garden, there is much more to it than that. While the actual growth of the plants in the garden is important, the education of young students is also needed in many different ways .I do not benefit from the food that comes out of the garden, however, I benefit from a learning experience that is helpful, kinesthetic, and sparks my interest.

Introducing....The Sagan Satellite!

by Quasar Surprise

Spring. 2013.  Avanti High School is lucky enough to be chosen as 1 of 2 proposed community garden sites that will receive 8 brand new raised beds with the help of the

Kitchen Garden Project (KGP); a faction of Olympia's GRuB.  Community members from the Rotary, local churches, Olympia High School, and Avanti students came together to bang out the new garden in just under 3 hours of focused labor.  When finished, earthy-smelling topsoil mixed with mushroom compost was piled high in each of the 8 raised garden beds.

Since that spring, the garden has exploded with life.  Students of the past school year chose what to plant in each raised bed based on studies in companion planting and organic gardening techniques.

Students of the current school year have helped to tend the garden, harvest produce (to be donated to Thurston County Food Bank), and plant cover crops in preparation for the winter.  Classes will be held in the garden all year round, and we hope to host some community workshops throughout the school year as well.  Come summer time, we will be looking for volunteers to help out with weeding, watering, and harvesting. 

Stop by and have a peek at the new addition to our school!

Students dump soil into newly built beds

Volunteers help level the fresh soil

Refreshments are enjoyed after hard work

The newly planted garden thrives during summer weather, thanks to volunteers from the FoodBank