Today we were visited by Mrs. Elder’s Natural Science class that she teaches out of UNM-Taos. The group came out to Sol Feliz last week to see what we do with acequias and seeds and today they continued in their interest to learn about the Grow Dome and Parr Field. Our three plots are representative of a broad range of management styles in agriculture: Sol Feliz is subject to the background climate and water availability in the acequias, the Grow Dome is a totally controlled environment in terms of soil, water, and climate controls while Parr Field is subject to climatic factors but has water availability through a drip irrigation system.
This class was engaging in that most of them are studying to become educators. We talked about how thematic units can be created around agricultural curriculum to where all subjects can be approached through a focal lens of agriculture, food, and stewardship. For example, acequias can be taught from the perspective of history, political science, natural science, and hydrology. Working with seed opens up topics in biology, botany, and even math with percent germination, yield and harvest dynamics, and marketing. Hopefully I will see some of these students as teachers in the future, I let them know that we are ready to deliver curriculum in their classroom and/or host tours and workshops at our agricultural plots!
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