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.