Greens Harvest in the Pre-K

Earlier this fall, at the peak of growing season, lower school science teacher Lisa
Martin, along with the pre-K students and teachers harvested spinach they planted in the Sally Wolf Memorial Garden adjacent to their classrooms. After picking and cleaning the spinach, they sat down to a feast of raw leaves and ranch dressing! The garden projects in the lower school are integrated programs that include science and thematic classroom studies.

Upper School Outdoor Club Visits Weiser State Forest

In mid October the US Outdoor CLub camped and hiked in in Weiser State Forest visiting Swatara State Park and Boxcar Rocks. Senior club leader Jack Beltz reports, "the biggest highlights of the camping trip were exploring ruins of an old river lock and climbing on and eating lunch at these amazing rock formations called box car rocks on Saturday." The group consisting of GA faculty and students also found time to star gaze, observing several shooting stars and a meteor and enjoy a good old fashioned camp fire complete with S'mores, ghost story's and campfire music galore. 

Middle School Day of Service in the Preserve

In mid October, middle school students and faculty headed to The Preserve to help with the cattail management and restoration project as part of the Middle School day of Service. The Swale Project has been ongoing since early September in an effort to slow down water movement through The Preserve engineering a habitat that increases infiltration of rainwater and bio-diversity of the Preserve. 

New Hives for GA's Bee Keepers!

Science teachers Becky Pizzino and Maura Saurman work with middle and upper school students to maintain the Apiary at GA. Currently, there are two colonies of bees on the roof. "One was installed in the spring of 2012 in a Langstroth hive which is 3-5 stacked boxes of comb which hang in frames.  The other colony was installed in the spring of 2013.  It is in a Thomasville hybrid hive which is like a boat on legs with bars of comb which hang down from the top," Reports Saurman.   "That hive also has a viewing panel in the back.  We check them at least twice a month when it is warm to make sure there is plenty of brood and food as well as no infestations of parasites.  We use no chemicals on the hives and try to use as little smoke as possible when we open them to inspect.  The colonies are still young which means we can’t take much honey from them yet." The Apiary resides on the Green Roof and has been visited by many students across the school.   

The Swale Project in The Preserve

In early September, Nature Works, a firm specializing in environmental restoration projects began their project in The Preserve at Germantown Academy. Maura Saurman, middle school science teacher describes the project in this way:  "The purpose of the new wetland swale is to engineer a habitat that increases infiltration of rainwater and biodiversity of the preserve. When flood waters run quickly across the landscape there is damage done to the habitat.  You may remember the bridge that was swept away by fast moving flood water. Imagine the amount of soil that is also washed away and into the creek.  We want the water to slow down and go into the soil, not rush over it.The more plants we have in this area, the slower the water moves over the land.  Plants draw the water into the ground using their root systems.  In order to increase the diversity of plants growing in this area, the land had to be graded in a way that would encourage the growth of the plants chosen and discourage the growth of the cattails. The more varieties of plants growing in the preserve, the healthier the entire ecosystem becomes." Sarah Smith, Preserve Manager and upper school science teacher has been working with student volunteers and faculty across the school to help maintain the Preserve. The Swale was completed last week. Smith and Saurman, along with students will begin the work of replanting. 

Beet and carrot picking? Just another day in the lower school!

You won't find any lower school students complaining about the mild early fall weather. They have been enjoying sunny afternoons in the garden tending to their beds and picking the seasons' choice vegetables.  Then they head inside to wash up their bounty and prepare a feast of what else? Candied carrots! And beets!

Harvesting Seeds in the Lower School

Kindergarten students spent a sunny afternoon harvesting the sunflower seeds they had planted last spring in the Lower School Gardens.  After removing all of the seeds from the flower heads they walked about campus filling all the bird feeders they could find (and reach).  Teachers helped students to understand the life cycle of plants by helping them to package seeds for this year's Pre-K class to plant in the spring.